Fire Can Never be Satisfied so as Greed
“Then
the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the
cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and
wickedness!” (Luke 11:39 NLT, emphasis mine).
Miriam Webster Dictionary defines greed
“a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (such as money) than is
needed.” From a Christian
perspective, the core definition of greed is the obsession with accumulating
material goods.[1] This means a greedy person
values material things more than God or people. Their heart is deeply consumed
with a want for more. The motivation of greed is to acquire more things regardless
of cost.
Greed is like a wildfire that burns forest. One characteristic
of fire is it burns whatever touches it. The more the fire is fed the more it consumes
Fire can never be satisfied so as greed. A greedy person will
do all kinds of pretense deception to get more and accumulate more regardless of its damaging
outcomes to other people.
Biblical commentator John Ritenbaugh describes it as a “ruthless
self-seeking, and an arrogant assumption that others and things exist for one’s
own benefit.” This word is also found in the writing of both Plato and
Aristotle, and is strictly defined as “the insatiable desire to have what
rightfully belongs to others.”[2]
New Testament Greek
scholar William Barclay describes pleonexia as an “accursed love of having,”
which “will pursue its own interests with complete disregard for the rights of
others, and even for the considerations of common humanity.” He labels it an
aggressive vice that operates in three spheres of life:[3]
· In
the material sphere it involves “grasping at money and goods, regardless of
honor and honesty.”
· In
the ethical sphere it is “the ambition which tramples on others to gain
something which is not properly meant for it.”
· In
the moral sphere, it is “the unbridled lust which takes its pleasure where it
has no right to take.”
Hugh Whelchel, Executive Director of the
Institute for Faith, Work & Economics and author of How Then
Should We Work?: Rediscovering the Biblical Doctrine of Work argues that,
“There is an important thread that runs through these biblical definitions that
is strongly missing from the
typical definitions of greed. It is the idea that greed fosters the
taking of something that is not rightfully ours.”
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[1]
Access Jesus. “A Christian Definition of greed,” 2016.
http://access-jesus.com/definition-of-greed-html/. Sept. 23, 2017.
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