THE SIN OF GREED

(Message delivered by Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo at the True Life Church 10.30 am Service, Aug 12, 07)

We are living in a world full of sin and greed. The economics of greed is “Buy on credit and owe as much as you can;” “Borrow from others and delay payment as long as you can.” In other words, “Buy and don’t pay;” “Borrow and don’t pay back.” Greed breeds ingratitude and treachery: “Bite the hand that feeds you.” The motto of the wicked and the greedy is: “What is mine is mine, and what is yours is mine.” “I see, I want, I take; by hook or by crook, I must have it.” Do we have such a worldly philosophy of life or such lustful feelings in our heart? Beware of greed! When we are greedy and covetous, we not only destroy our own lives, we also destroy the lives of others.

The sin of greed is a most grievous and destructive sin. As the Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:9-10, “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” Greed is a sin and an evil that will lead us to break all the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:3-17). Let us look at how the sin of greed will lead to the breaking of each one of the Ten Commandments:

( I )

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The sin of greed breaks the first commandment for we make money our god. The religion of greed is materialism or moneytheism, and the dollar sign becomes the symbol of our worship and adoration. We displace God from our lives and replace Him with our own selfish ambitions and plans. The Apostle James describes such a man, “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings [boasting of our intellectual or business prowess, and our abilities to make plans without the need of God]: all such rejoicing is evil” (Jas 4:13-16). Jesus said, “No man 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” (Matt 6:24).

( II )

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.” When greed takes control of our hearts, the goods and things of this world become our idols. The rich, the wealthy, the successful and the powerful become our idols. Whatever gods in this world that can make me to become prosperous, I worship. The worship of possessions and material wealth is held in social functions and parties, where expensive clothes, and jewellery are flaunted and praised. The flashy and powerful ones are fawned upon, served hand and foot by lesser beings who hope to receive some crumbs of favour that might somehow improve their chances towards material glory.

( III )

“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Greed can cause people to make use of the name of Christ to line their own pockets. They call themselves Christians and attend church but they do not see the church as a place of worship, but a marketplace to solicit clients and customers. They come to church not carrying their Bibles but their name cards, freely distributing their company tracts to advertise themselves and their products.

There are also these false preachers who use the name of Christ to get rich. 2 Peter 2:1-3 warns, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise (Greek: emporeuomai) of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”

( IV)

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.” Greed causes us to forget God. It causes us to be near the world and far from God. Since the weekends are the best time to do business, we give up the worship of God and the fellowship of the saints on the Lord’s Day. There are of course occupations of humanity and necessity that require work on Sundays, like those done by doctors and nurses, policemen and firemen, and works that entail national security, but otherwise God’s people should cease from working on the Lord’s Day for their own spiritual good.

( V )

“Honour thy father and thy mother.” Greed makes people to see the elderly as liabilities. Greedy people blame the aged for draining away their resources, making them poor when their goal is to be rich. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for such practices, “And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition [or greed]. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition [or greed], which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye” (Mark 7:9-13).

( VI )

“Thou shalt not kill.” Greed brings about envy and strife. We become jealous of other people’s success and promotion, and hate them for it. Then we think of ways to undermine and sabotage their work so that we might get the upperhand. The Apostle James describes the atrocities and the vanities of the greedy and lustful heart well, “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (Jas 4:1-3). Beware: worldliness and lustfulness is great loss! Greed can lead to murder. How many have killed for the sake of money? One example in the Bible is the wicked king, Ahab, and his most wicked queen, Jezebel, who killed Naboth in order to take his vineyard (1 Kgs 21).

( VII )

“Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Greed brings about ungodliness and discontentment. We want more and more, not only more money, but more women. Often a time, for the sake of money, for the sake of clinching a lucrative business deal, we compromise our morals and tempt our clients with wine, women and song, and we join in the fun in the name of business or survival. With so much traveling today and lengthy business trips overseas in pursuit of wealth, how many an already married man have married foreign women or are keeping mistresses in other parts of the world? The temptation is real and such adulterous affairs are not uncommon today.

( VIII )

“Thou shalt not steal.” Greed is the mother of theft. It has led many to steal and to rob. Many a lover of money have been corrupted by greed, and have committed CBT (Criminal Breach of Trust). The man who loves money will not be able to resist the temptation of stealing what does not belong to him. In land-scarce Singapore, with property prices sky high, the temptation to acquire or enlarge our physical properties at the expense of others is great. Greed makes us to steal not only other people’s money, but also their homes. God is mindful to warn His people against the stealing of land and property. Many verses in the Bible warn against this. Deuteronomy 19:14 commands, “Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour’s landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.” Proverbs 22:28 says, “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.” Proverbs 23:10-11 reiterates, “Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.” Deuteronomy 27:17 warns, “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark.” Ahab and Jezebel met with a cursed end for masterminding the murder of Naboth in order to steal his vineyard—the vineyard he would not sell to Ahab because it was the Lord’s inheritance (1 Kgs 21:3, 17-25).

( IX )

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.” Is it not true that we often resort to lying and cheating in order to get gain? Jezebel for instance desiring to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard, hired two scoundrels (“sons of Belial”) to accuse Naboth falsely of blaspheming God and the king so that he might be stoned to death (1 Kgs 21:10-16). The sin of bearing false witness for selfish gain was also the sin of Ananias and Sapphira who falsely declared their offering to the Lord, and were struck dead, having lied to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-11). False declarations of income, doctoring of  accounts, manipulation of figures for selfish gain are all transgressions of the 9th commandment.

( X )

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” Covetousness is the greedy desire to have what belongs to another. It is closely tied to the 8th commandment. One begets the other. Covetousness is the sin of intention, and stealing is the sin of action. The  antidote for the sin of covetousness is godly contentment, “But godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim 6:6).

The sin of greed is terribly destructive. Let us uproot it from our hearts and replace it with a charitable heart of giving. John Wesley says, “Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” By so doing, we shall overcome the sin of greed.