Then
he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” Luke 12:15 (NLT)
If you’re at least 60 you probably remember when TV first began to
grace American homes. One of the first
stand-up comedians was Jack Benny; you might
recall he delivered most of his
lines with a deadpan dry humor. He also
built a reputation as a seriously stingy miser.
He told the story on himself once that a robber held him at gunpoint in
an alley and as the bad guy cocked the hammer on his revolver, he
threatened: “Your money or your life,
mister.” Benny just stared at the man,
arms folded. The man impatiently warned,
“Hey, don’t you hear well, Bozo? I said,
your
money
or your
life.” Benny
replied, “Don’t rush me, I’m thinking.”
Now, I’ve never thought of Jack
Benny as a great intellectual philosophizer…but in this case he demonstrated
the most accurate picture of human nature stuck in the quicksand that is
greed. It is the choice between having
and living; perhaps better stated would be having at the
cost of living!
Jesus’ story was about a man grappling
with too
much having. He said he knew what
to do…hoard everything…build bigger storage bins! Jesus called the man a fool. Let’s face it, when you hoard stuff, for the
sake of having stuff, when you are going to die and leave all your stuff behind
anyway, you’re a fool!
The Bible does not say that it is wrong to have material
possessions, or even to be rich. Many
saints who served God are portrayed in Scripture as being wealthy, Abraham,
Joseph of Arimathea, King David and Philemon, just to name a few. King Solomon was not only incredibly wise, he
was “over the top” rich”!
What the Scripture does
say is that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Essentially that means the heart that is
preoccupied with wealth is guilty of greed.
That takes many forms (financial, material, power and prestige – you can
be greedy in many ways); note the number of personal pronouns in our story of
the rich fool:
‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns
and build larger ones, and there I will store
all my grain and my goods. And I will
say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid
up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry
It’s those last 5 words that tell the difference…the man was going
to stuff about a hundred Swiss account-401K retirement plans; then he was going
to just chill! He was going to kick-back
and take it easy; he was going to be Jabba the Hut.
Jesus teaching here is pretty clear; what makes a man greedy is
what you plan to do with what
God allows you to have. It isn’t the
size of your bank account, but the condition of your heart; it’s seldom money –
it’s all about motive.
So who is Jesus talking to about
this basic human tendency to want, to get and to keep stuff? He could be addressing the rich or the
envious poor; probably both!
Well, now that we know that Jesus
is talking to all of us, it would be good to ask the question –
why? Why is greed so bad? Why must we be on guard against greed in our
personal lives?
James, Jesus’ half-brother, and
one of the leaders of the first century church, gives us (at least) three
reasons – results of materialism that every Christian ought to have tattooed on
his eyelids in order to remember – James 5:1-6 gives us the answers to our
question, why should we be on guard against greed:
Greed Brings Reproach
Look here, you rich people:
Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. Your wealth is rotting away,
and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags. Your gold and silver have become
worthless. The very wealth you were
counting on will eat away your flesh like fire.
This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on
the day of judgment. James 5:1 - 3 (NLT)
Hoarding is the opposite of
sharing. In Bible times the means of
transacting business was different from ours; it was much more of a bartering
society. There were three main kinds of currency…food,
clothing and precious metals. James
makes the point that food will rot when hoarded. It was that way for the Children of Israel
wandering in the wilderness. Whenever
they tried to store-up some manna it rotted overnight. Clothing can be attacked by moths, and gold
and silver are at the mercy of oxidation.
Hoarding includes judgment. Dives found that out. Jesus told another parable
about the rich man (Dives) and Lazarus the poor man who sat by the rich man’s
gate. Their lives were different; their
deaths were polar opposites.
Lazarus went to heaven; the rich
man wound up in hell. It wasn’t the rich
man’s money, but his treatment of the poor man at his doorstep that was the
cause of his fate. Jesus made it clear
that the rich man had some responsibility for the poor man.
There are plenty of stories of
people who were incredibly rich, famous and powerful – people who died as
lonely and unhappy as anyone in history.
Howard Hughes died alone, naked and afraid. The billionaire oilman J. Paul Getty said
that he’d give it all for one good marriage.
How different are these than the
testimony of people who have been rich towards God. The widow dropped in the offering plate
everything she had, and earned the praise of the Son of God.
I’m not a big Bill Gates fan
(especially considering how much a new computer costs!)…but lately he’s been
making my “top ten” list. Together with
his wife, Melinda, Gates has formed a foundation that is giving away billions
to help people. The foundation has given
over 7 billion dollars to charity.
Somewhere along the line Mr. Microsoft took seriously Jesus’ statement
that to whom much is entrusted, much will be required!
2. Greed Makes You God’s Enemy
For listen! Hear the
cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of those who harvest your fields
have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. James 5:4 (NLT)
This is certainly addressed to
those who are employers. However, the
principle stands for anyone who holds back the basics of life (food, water,
shelter) from a fellow human being.
Deuteronomy 24:14 (NLT) Never take advantage of
poor and destitute laborers, whether they are fellow Israelites or foreigners
living in your towns.
Malachi 3:5b (NLT) I will speak against
those who cheat employees of their wages, who oppress widows and orphans, or
who deprive the foreigners living among you of justice, for these people do not
fear me,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
The God of love is also a God of
judgment; we ought never to forget that materialism, or greed is a form of
stealing. God judges, otherwise He would
not be a just and righteous God. There
is mercy for anyone who repents of sin…that means to turn around
180o and mend his or her ways.
Sin forsaken is the sin that is forgiven!
God was willing to forgive Cain
for killing his brother; God would have forgiven even that sin. But Cain remained proud and God judged
him. It is not an envious position to be
in – being an enemy of God!
Greed kills tendencies toward
Rightesouness
You have spent your years
on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of
slaughter. You have condemned and killed
innocent people, who do not resist you. James
5:5 - 6 (NLT)
Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker back in
the 1970’s were the prototype of “excessive lifestyle”. They preached that having money – and lots of
it – was a sign that God loved you.
Tammy Faye never gave up that theology; she died in 1997 with her life
metaphorically wrapped around things (and thirteen pounds of makeup on her face. Jim gave up the prosperity gospel in
jail. When he got out his new book was
entitled, “I Was Wrong”!
About the time of my parole hearing (1993), I completed my study
of all the words
of Jesus in the New Testament. To my surprise, after months of
studying Jesus, I
concluded that He did not have one good thing to say about money.
Most of Jesus'
statements about riches, wealth, and material gain were in a
negative context.
Even "The Prodigal Son," one of my favorite stories told
by Jesus, took on new
meaning as I read it again for the first time with an overview of
Scripture in mind. I
quickly noticed that the story began with the younger brother
saying to the father,
"Give me! Give me my part of the inheritance" (Luke
15:12). He didn't even say,
"Please give me." He simply demanded. Before long, that
young man landed in the
pigpen. I began to see that the fastest way to the pigpen begins
with "Give me" ...
and the fastest route to the "big pen," the federal
penitentiary, often begins with
the same phrase, "Give
me!"
Materialism is
habit-forming. When you begin down that
slippery slope of materialism it is always away from righteousness, away from
goodness, and towards selfishness. It
tends to deaden any spirit of generosity, until finally you are totally
self-absorbed and a poster child for the 10 most backslidden believers of the
postmodern society.
Jim Bakker is back on television
these days. He doesn’t preach the
“prosperity gospel” any more, but he’s still “selling” religion. He’s got a new
angle…frightening people with end-time prophecies. His book about being wrong
was a prelude to proving you can still make a buck off greedy and gullible
people.
Guard against greed; remember
this – you ARE going to die! And he who
dies with the most toys….still dies! And
he who dies still comes face to face with the living God!
Take a Financial Checkup
Here are just a few important
reminders that you can use over and over again.
I have found that it is best to use them each month as I pay my bills…my
checkbook is out and I am face to face with what I think about money (and what
I do with it).
1.
Remember
God’s claim – this earth is His!
If it all belongs to God, I must learn to think about what I do
with everything God has entrusted to me as a steward, a trustee of God’s resources.
2.
Review my
lifestyle – how do I get money, view money and use money. You can do that with an open checkbook (even
though it can be painful if you’ve got some growing to do.) Am I envious of what others have?
3.
Re-Commit to
God’s way – am I being “rich toward God”?
Ask yourself,
·
Do I have an
inclination to hoard, to build bigger barns?
·
Do I often
think about “relaxing – taking my ease”?
Have I got a truckload of confidence in my money and my financial
planning…or am I trusting in the providence of God to supply all my needs?
·
Am I busy in
the kingdom of God…or do I work so exclusively for myself that I have no time
for Him?
4.
Do something
Practical – when is the last time you didn’t wait for a “special offering” to
be announced; you just sought out somewhere to be a blessing to someone in
need.
This is one of the best ways I know to guard against greed. Give….or better, be a sacrificial offering to
someone today.
Give radically. Make it
count. That’s how to be rich towards
God!
