“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”
Read that list again. Isn’t it odd how we treat sin that is inside our “accepted circle”, compared to sin that is not? Some churches have ranked sins and deemed some more excusable than others, and “greed” sometimes falls into the “excusable” category especially if you provide funds for the church.
But God’s list is pretty clear – It starts with sexual immorality – impurity – lust – evil desires…all of which most would say are not OK… These sins fall outside of the accepted circle and are usually worthy of negative attention.
But then at the end of this list “greed” is dropped in - which to be honest is not really outside my circle … I mean, if you asked, I would say it is wrong - but it doesn’t cause me to recoil or be concerned about you.
So now you know my opinion - but read on, and you will get God’s.…
God not only doesn’t minimize greed… He equates greed with worshipping another god. He sets greed apart from the other sins, but in the opposite way …It appears, if anything, He makes it worse than the preceding list by deeming it idolatry.
In our culture we struggle with that. We measure so much of ourselves by what we have, compared to others. At the microphone many thank God for their success, but few seem content or satisfied.
We teach things that easily morph into greed…Things like drive, ambition, determination…all good things - until they lead to discontentment. Until they become how we define ourselves…Until they become our gods.
Greediness is Idolatry. It is as destructive as any depravity. We must see ALL sin for what it is …deadly disease that put Christ on the cross. There is no “accepted circle” of sin. I need to treat anything that is not of God, like a snake and get away from it.
If you’re not killing sin, then it is killing you. God doesn’t place degrees on death….there is light and there is darkness….Greed is darkness – it is a noose that slowly tightens around your neck…do not tolerate it, or it will own you.
“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”
― Socrates
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