James 4:2 “You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
In the film Wall Street, a powerful financial tycoon named Gordon Gekko personifies the spirit of the age which has captured our world and is likewise negatively influencing the church. At one point, while trying to inspire his minions, Gekko says: “Greed is good. Greed is right. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed – mark my words – will save the USA.”
Well it clearly hasn’t, and won’t! Rather it destroys relationships, friendships, and marriages. David Watson wrote: “Once we accept the biblical view of man, we should cease to be surprised by the covetousness which dominates our society today and the constant pursuit of money and possessions, even when this denies human values and destroys personal relationships. Politicians promise monotonously to ‘raise the standard of living’, but the implicit assumption is that ‘living’ is synonymous with ‘earning’. It is what I get out of it, in terms of hard cash that determines the value of many a job. Money is seen to be the ultimate in self-fulfillment. Any analysis of today’s moods which does not focus on the basic selfishness and covetousness of man misses the heart of it all.”
One of our weaknesses is our inability to distinguish needs from greeds. Covetousness involves getting what you want, whilst contentment results in wanting what you get. And the more you have to live for, the less you need to live on. Those who make possessions their ultimate goal never have enough. Let’s rather seek to learn with Paul the secret of being content whatever the circumstances (Philippians 4:11,12), remembering that ‘godliness with contentment is great gain’ (1 Timothy 6:6)
Lord, I choose today to be governed by your Word, not by the lies of our culture. Amen!
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