Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. (Colossians 3:1-11, NLT)
Then someone called from the crowd, “Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.”
Jesus replied, “Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?” Then he said,“Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”
Then he told them a story: “A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have room for all my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’
“Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.” (Luke 12:13-21)
When we read this, we tend to think of a modern understanding of greed. Webster’s includes phrases like: selfish desire; avarice; grasping; excessive appetite; gluttonous; insatiable; etc. We have come to think of it as a victimless crime.
The Greek word here that the NLT is translating as greed is “pleonexia” - to have more. In a Greek-English lexicon by Louw and Nidas, pleonexia is described as: “a strong desire to acquire more and more material possessions or to possess more things than other people have, all irrespective of need”; and “taking advantage of someone, usually as the result of a motivation of greed.” Vine’s dictionary calls it covetousness. Rather than a personal issue, this understanding of greed has a social justice aspect to it.
Are the readings this week warning us against wanting things, or wanting other people’s things? In his letter to the Colossians, Paul warns that greed is idolatry because it is the worship of things over God. To the man asking for his “fair share”, Jesus warns that greed leads to false priorities that lead us away from God.
The primacy of scripture inclines me to believe that the danger of the greed described in these verses is that we place other “gods” before our God. The drive for stuff is an addiction that displaces God from our hearts, minds and souls; the Spirit is squeezed out. Greed then is a sin against God, not against man. The consequence of this sin however, is social injustice due to the absence of the Spirit working through us; in a world of finite resources, others pay the price for our avarice.
Wesley did not warn people away from financial success, he encouraged people to make all the money they could, save all the money they could, and give away all the money they could. By sacrificing the fruit of our labor, we show that we control money instead of being controlled by it. We reveal to ourselves, to the world and to God, that we see money as just a tool we use to be God’s hands. We sacrifice our old idols on the altar of faith.
What makes me rich? Do I use money as a measure of my success; as a way of keeping score? Does money mean comfort and security to me? Do I trust my investments more than my God? When I give money, do I try to use it to control others? An increasingly common question to ask today is whether I live in a spirit of abundance or a spirit of scarcity? This is a good question for churches, but when we ask it of ourselves it could be interpreted as meaning: do I have enough for myself that I can afford to share? Where is the sacrifice in such thinking? I think a better approach may be giving from a spirit of scarcity. The power of the widow’s mite is not that she deluded herself that she was rich, but that she loved God more than self and sacrificed what little she had.
Is God worth my all or my remainder?
