Get Greed Out of the House of God

"The Seven Deadly Sins" in this cartoon are depicted as funny beings we can laugh at and enjoy. In fact, Satan wants us to believe that gratifying our passions is the greatest good, the main purpose of life.

But God tells us - "Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry; for their sake the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience" (Col. 3:5-6). Greed is idolatry. That means greed is a false god. It should have no place in the Church, the house of the living God.

How many criticisms are leveled against the Church because of greed by the clergy and ordinary members? These critics reject Christianity because it isn't living up to its own standards. But in criticizing the Church, these critics are implicitly agreeing that such standards are correct. The issue isn't because our standards are wrong, but rather because of our failure to live up to them. Human beings, including the critics of the Church, are imperfect and sinful, which means we all fail at times to live up to the standards of what is good and right. The Bible is perhaps our greatest critic - let's take a look at what the Bible says about greed:

You may recall the Old Testament story of how Naaman, the Syrian military commander who had leprosy, came to the prophet Elisha for healing. After he plunged himself into the River Jordan seven times and was cleansed of his disease he offered Elisha a gift of money, which the prophet refused. So Naaman left. Here's the rest of the story -

"But Gehazi the servant of Elisha, the man of God, thought, 'Look, my master has refrained from taking what this Aramean Naaman brought from his hand. As the Lord lives, I will certainly run after him, and I will accept something from him.' So Gehazi pursued after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he jumped off his chariot to meet him and asked him, 'Is it peace?' He said, 'Peace. My master has sent me saying, "Look, just now two servants from the hill country of Ephraim came to me, from the sons of the prophets. Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing."' Then Naaman said, 'Be prepared to accept two talents.' So he urged him and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two sets of clothing and gave it to two of his servants and they carried it before him. When he came to the citadel, he took them from their hand and put them in the house, then sent away the men so that they went. When he went and stood by his master, Elisha asked him, 'From where have you come, Gehazi?' And he said, 'Your servant has not gone anywhere.' Then he said to him, 'Did not my heart go with you as the man turned from on his chariot to meet you? Is it time to take silver, clothes, olive orchards, vineyards, sheep, oxen, male slaves, and female slaves? The skin disease of Naaman shall cling to you and to your offspring forever.' Then he went out from before him having a skin disease like the snow" (2 Kings 5:20-27).

Gehazi's greed cost him his position as Elisha's servant, and instead he got the leprosy that Naaman was cured of. It is very tempting to think that nobody will know if you take "just a little" for yourself from money donated to the Lord. A few chapters later, we read how the priests were taking for themselves money that people donated for repairing the house of God. So King Jehoash commanded better accountability - "So the priests agreed not to take money from the people without repairing the damage to the temple. Then Jehoiada the priest took a certain chest and bored a hole in its lid, and he put it beside the altar to the right as a man enters into the temple of the Lord; then the priests who were keepers of the threshold would put there all of the money brought into the temple. When they saw a great deal of money in the chest, the secretary of the king and the high priest would come up, put the money in bags, then count the money found in the temple of the Lord. They placed the money, which was weighed out, into the hands of the workers who were appointed over the temple of the Lord, and they paid it to the skilled craftsmen of wood and to the builders working on the temple of the Lord" (2 Kings 12:8-11). Two unrelated persons, one from the king and one from the priests, counted and dispersed the money. This is proper auditing of finances.

When a rich young man came to Jesus and asked how he could inherit eternal life, Jesus first reminded him of the commandments, to which the young man said he kept them all. Then - "Jesus looking at him loved him, and said to him, 'One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, taking up the cross.' But his face fell at that saying, and he went away sorrowful, for he was one who had great possessions. Jesus looked around, and said to his disciples, 'How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter into the Kingdom of God!' The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again, 'Children, how hard is it for those who trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God'" (Mark 10:21-25).

The "needle's eye" was a small gate in the city wall that a man could barely go through by stooping over. The only conceivable way a camel could get through this tiny gate was if all its load of goods would be taken off, and the camel got down on its knees and crawled through. So the only way we can enter the Kingdom of God is to unload ourselves of trusting in this world's goods. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught -

"Don't lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don't break through and steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can't serve both God and Mammon" (Mat. 6:19-24).

The "eye" here refers to the greedy gaze, looking at and desiring to have more and more money and things. On Palm Sunday, just after Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, "Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the moneychangers' tables and the seats of those who sold the doves. He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of thieves!" (Mat. 21:12-13). Christ Himself recognized how easily we can make the house of God into a den of thieves. It is so tempting to misappropriate - steal - money that is donated for building up the Kingdom of God.

When the woman anointed the feet of Jesus with expensive ointment, Judas criticized the "waste" of such a valuable item... but actually he wanted to sell it and get his hands on the money. When this plot was foiled - "Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests, and said, 'What are you willing to give me, that I should deliver Him to you?' They weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver. From that time he sought opportunity to betray Him" (Mat. 26:14-16). Judas sold out the Lord for thirty silver coins, and in so doing he sold his apostleship, forever losing his place in the Kingdom of God! What happened to Judas?

"Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, 'I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood.' But they said, 'What is that to us? You see to it.' He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself. The chief priests took the pieces of silver, and said, 'It's not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood.' They took counsel, and bought the potter's field with them, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field was called 'The Field of Blood' to this day" (Mat.27:3-8).

On the Day of Pentecost - "All who believed were together, and had all things common. They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need" (Acts 2:44-45). We need to dig deeper into this text, because it's often misinterpreted to imply a form of primitive communism. But it doesn't state that all at once everyone gave over all their possessions to the Church, nor that the Church demanded totally renouncing this world's goods. The Greek verbs "sold" and "distributed" are in the continuing tense, unfinished actions. It was a voluntary sharing economy. Later, Barnabas "having a field, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet" (Acts 4:37). He still owned the field, but voluntarily sold it and donated the proceeds to the Church.

In the next chapter, notice that Ananias and Sapphira still owned things, but when they sold a certain possession, they secretly held back part of the sale price, pretending to donate the whole sum to the Church - "But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land? While you kept it, didn't it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn't it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You haven't lied to men, but to God.' Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and died. Great fear came on all who heard these things" (Acts 5:3-5). The same fate came to his wife Sapphira, who also lied to God. Note that the principle of owning private property remained intact, but the sin here was telling lies to conceal their greed while pretending to be doing a good deed.

Just a few chapters later, we read how Philip preached the Gospel in Samaria and many believed and were baptized, including a certain Simon, a magician. Then Peter and John came from Jerusalem to pray and place their hands on the new believers to impart the Holy Spirit - "Now when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, 'Give me also this power, that whoever I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.' But Peter said to him, 'May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart isn't right before God. Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity'" (Acts 8:18-23). From this incident we have the term "simony," trying to buy spiritual power and authority.

Sadly, Christian history tells of too many instances of this evil. Human nature remains sinful, fallen and weak, still prone to greed. St. Peter warned leaders in the Church against it - "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly" (1 Pet. 5:2). St. Paul warned his disciple Timothy about corrupt people "who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we certainly can't carry anything out. But having food and clothing, we will be content with that. But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows" (1 Tim. 6:5b-10).

Thus we see that greed is a perennial problem of our sinful human nature. I could go on, writing out many more Scripture texts that denounce the sin of greed, and here are just a few of them: Rom. 15:1-2; 2 Cor. 8:13-15; 1 Thes. 2:5-6; Heb. 12:13-15 and 13:5. Please read Chapter 11: Ministry as Moderation (epieikes) and Self-Control (egkrateia) of my book The Ministry Driven Church. As Christians, followers of Christ, we are called to a life of simplicity and moderation. Let us deny ourselves, take up His cross and follow Him!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 22 May. 2016.)