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What is it about money that makes us go a little or a lot crazy? Greed is an ancient problem. Jesus remarked that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven. (Mark 10:25) When does money become a problem for us and how can we avoid greed?
The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. (1 Timothy 6:10) Money itself isn’t evil; it’s merely a unit of exchange. It’s our attitude toward money that is the problem. The simple fact that we can exchange money for just about anything is where the problem arises. Sin and temptation are the things that make money a problem.
Money is a symbol for things that we can acquire. The more money we have the more things we can acquire. This is something everyone understands; the concept of money in one form or another is universal. So our money has few physical bounds; it can be exchanged anywhere for anything physical. It can also be exchanged for things that satisfy our emotions and intellect. It can’t be exchanged for love, happiness, joy or spiritual security, though.
Because there are few limits on the power of money to satisfy us, there is enormous potential for money to have power over us. This power it holds is greed. It is the desire to be able to obtain anything. Understanding this narrows down the problem. The problem isn’t in the ability to acquire but in the desire to acquire. When we want to acquire more than is due us or healthy for us, we’ve stepped into greed.
We are merely custodians of the goods of the world. “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Haggai 2:8) All things belong to God and out of His grace we are given the use of them. We are also given the freewill to decide our own limits. We are to learn to be good managers of what He provides. Good managers of a little will be good managers of a lot. (Luke 16:10) God expects:
· Us to work for a living
· Manage our money wisely to provide for ourselves
· Tithe
· Use our money to help others
God is not against us having nice things and doing fun things. If we are good managers of our money, we will be able to do these things. It is when the desire for money and the things it can buy becomes so great that it is high priority that money becomes a problem. At this point, we become slaves to money, doing all that we can to acquire more. And when we are slaves to money, we cannot be servants to God. “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (money).” (Luke 16:13)
We believe that money gives us power. Often greed is driven not by a desire to acquire things but by a desire to have power. Most of us have a desire to control elements of our lives. Some people become so enamored with control that they will do just about anything to gain it.
The problem is that for the most part, power is just an illusion. We get caught up in a trap and a vicious cycle when we fall under the spell of greed. We overwork, cheat, steal and lie to acquire money with the hope of having some sort of control over our circumstances. To some degree, we do gain control when we have lots of money. We can control the behavior of some people; we can control our comfort level and provide ourselves with things that are pleasing. Yet, no amount of money will control things that really matter. No amount of money will turn back time, cure the incurable, mend a broken heart or restore our relationship with God.
People who are caught up in greed share certain characteristics. They may not be overt or even apparent to outsiders, but if we look into our own souls and uncover greed we will also find selfishness, covetousness and divided loyalty. Each of these things on their own can hinder our spiritual maturity and relationship with God, but taken together they can completely corrupt us.
Greed is a root problem. When we speak of getting to the root of a problem we’re talking about those base things that other problems are built on. Greed serves as a foundation for many problems, like selfishness, abuse of power and people, infidelity, and a myriad of other problems. We can topple a huge tree of sin and sorrow by taking the axe to the root, greed. Greed is a fundamental flaw of character that arises from a variety of occurrences. People who have lived through terrible poverty can be afflicted with greed. People who have had no control over their lives or circumstances can turn to greed. Whatever the cause, the result can be deadly to the soul.
Those who suffer from greed never are satisfied with what they have acquired. “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 5:10) It becomes a driving obsession to acquire still more. Once the acquiring has happened, then comes the need to protect what has been acquired. This is selfishness and it is sin. (Ecclesiastes 4:8)
Once the greed-driven have acquired and protected, they begin to covet. They are not satisfied with all they have; their eye is on all that they don’t have. (Luke 12:15) This coveting begets more greed, the greed begets more selfishness, and the selfishness begets more coveting and so on to madness. “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.” (Ecclesiastes 5:12) By this point, there is no room left in for God. Money is now the master of the house. (Matthew 6:24)
All of us have some propensity to greed. We may not be greedy for money, but each of us has something that we want to acquire more than we want the Kingdom of God. To mature as Christians, we need to ask God to reveal these things to us and ask His help in taking the axe to the roots of the problem. Once we gain victory over that area of our lives, we deepen our relationship with God. We’ve made more room in our spiritual orchard for trees that bear Godly fruits.
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