Greed……How do you measure it?
Consider for a moment sin, consider sexually immoral behaviour, consider theft, murder, lying, consider all manner of sins known to man and we have a concience which declares a line in the sand. Overstep that line and we know instinctively we have darkened the doorways of sin.
But of greed and selfishness, I personally find it much more difficult to measure, difficult to be so absolute in my discernment. When have I crossed the line? When is enough enough?. When might my God look down upon me in displeasure at my lack of goodwill or generosity.
The God of Israel, the creator of all things spoke loudly and clearly to His children in ages past, declaring His indignation toward those of His nation who looked the other way when poverty came close, who turned their back on a poor brother, who sought to gather more and more and more, ignoring the plight of others.
I have to ask you, based on your knowledge of what is good and what is just and what is right…should for example, a wealthy western church install a half million dollar chandelier in their entry hall whilst people of third world nations go hungry. Let me ask you does that sound right? I for one wouldn’t be comfortable about it.
Was John the Baptist off his face, or drunk in the Spirit when he declared a standard of repentance like this…“The people asked, what shall we do, how shall we repent, John replied, well you have two tunics don’t you…give one of them away…..”
And the Saviour declared to His followers…”sell what you have, give alms to the poor, then follow Me.”
So how do we measure greed and selfishness. The scriptures declare that the eyes of a man are never satisfied, so it ought to be important to know when enough is enough.
How do we measure, what is the standard….
I have to wonder if the measure of greed and selfishness we Christians might use to day, is the same measure the world uses. Is the Christian yard stick for giving and generosity based on a worldly benchmark, is it based on how we see the world around us living, how we see others giving.
The world says work 40 hours, the world says get a loan, the world says buy a new this or a new that, the world says invest in the temporal, the world says you must have superannuation, retirement savings, investment homes, the world says you must have life insurance, the world says, the world says, the world says see, look, focus upon and live like this…and for the most part I think we do.
So if we live like the world, do we also give like the world!
The bible says that we should model our lives on the Saviour, who gave all for the Glory of God and the good of others…
I am going to stick my neck out and suggest that many of us in the affluent Western churches look around at our neighbour, we see how this society lives and we measure ourselves according to this standard. Well my neighbour has this, this and this, so thererefore I also can feel justified in having this and this and this, perhaps I won’t be quite so extravagant, after all I am a Christian….
According to statistics found at http://www.generousgiving.org , Eighty percent of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America—and the total represents way more than enough to fund the fulfillment of the Great Commission.6
Who is truly leading us I wonder, the world or the word?
Luke 3: 11 John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”
Luke 12: “Sell your material possessions, and give the money to the poor. Make yourselves wallets that don’t wear out! Make a treasure for yourselves in heaven that never loses its value! In heaven thieves and moths can’t get close enough to destroy your treasure.
