This week we covered one of the more difficult subject in "SINS WE TOLERATE" thus far, the topic of Greed. Greed is defined as "a strong desire to acquire more and more material possessions or to possess more things than other people have, all irrespective of need." Whenever you deal with getting more and more and not taking into account whether you need it or not, that hits home for all of us.
When we look to the Bible, we find a TON of verses (of which we won't mention them all) where God deals with greed, desire for possessions and riches. It is amazing what we see when we look to the Bible. One verse in particular sheds a great deal of light. Take a look:
1 Timothy 6:6-10 (NKJV)
6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Contentment is the opposite of greed. You cannot be content one day and then be desiring more and more regardless of need the next. Godliness with contentment is great gain. If you find yourself in Christ and are content with what He has, then that is a great gain to you.
When you look at verses like this and then think of how we are in constant pursuit of the newest, biggest, fastest and newest, how do those line up? How do they relate? It seems that what God wants from us is not to be set on getting something new, but to be completly satisfied with where are and what we have. On Sunday we watched NOOMA 013 Rich. Here is a short preview:
This is a hard message for us to receive. Most likely you haven't thought like this before. Or maybe you have and haven't paid much attention to it again. For this reason, Søren Kierkegaard gives His defense of the Bible by saying:
“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies that real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.” Søren Kierkegaard
Greed and what we pursue and want in America become hard things to match up with what the Bible says. There are a whole bunch of verses available, so If you would like to do some more study on greed or to review this weeks material, you can do so by clicking here. Have a great week.
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