"GREED"

Welcome back and I pray you are continuing to be faithful in service to our Great God. Today we continue with a new study, this one is on "GREED". From a dictionary, a world view, the word has at least the following meaning;
"excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves" and "reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins) [syn: avarice].

What it is: Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual things of God. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness. Why do people do it? Quite possibly because we live in the most pampered, consumerist society since the Roman Empire. As a people, we are spoiled and we are teaching our children that it is O.K. to want more 'stuff' and all the while ignore the teachings of God in His Word.

In Luke 12:15 Jesus Himself speaks and said to them, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions." Jesus uses a word in the Greek that is often translated as covetous. The two words are often interchangeable. Greed takes place when a person takes their spiritual eye off of the things of God and service to Him, and begin to look with the physical eye at what the world has to offer. Forgetting what price God and Christ paid to give us the salvation available, we begin to accept things of much less value. Greed is one of the original ten commandments and is still one of those areas Christ tells us to beware of in life on this side of the cross.
In Luke 12:22-23 Jesus says, (22) "And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. (23) For the life is more than the food, and the body than the raiment." (ASV)


The physical part of each of us is temporary, yet we put so much into preserving it with things the world has to offer. The spiritual part of us is forever and too often we fail to give it the attention it needs and deserves from God's design. Greed is looking at that physical part and avoiding the spiritual. When we stand before God's Throne to be judged, HE will not ask how much stuff we have accumulated, but rather how faithful we were to His Word and His Son.

God Bless until next time....