“And one of the company said unto (Jesus), Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. 14. And (Jesus) said unto him, Man who made me a judge or divider over you? 15. And (Jesus) said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things which he possesses.”
Jesus was not reacting to just what the man said, but what Jesus knew was in the man’s heart. The man was making this request because he was covetous, or as we would say today, he was greedy. Then Jesus told the familiar parable about the farmer who had a bumper crop one year and instead of sharing it with others as Jewish law required, he built bigger barns and claimed it all for himself. Jesus, who created everything, and who actually owns everything, was not covetous, and He certainly warned us against it as well. What is wrong with being covetous? A covetous person is thinking only of himself or herself. Let’s refer back to the parable. The man in the parable did not wish to share his good fortune with others, but opted to keep it for himself. (Count the personal pronouns in the parable.) Jesus Himself was certainly not selfish, nor does He want us to be selfish. Paul wrote about this in Philippians 2:4: “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” A covetous spirit says that I am the only person that counts. That is counter to everything that is taught in the Christian faith. God is a giving God and He wants His people to be giving people. The Bible does not teach that it is a sin to be rich, but that it is a sin to be ruled by riches. Jesus said that it was “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to go into the kingdom of God." He did not say that it was impossible. He did intimate that it is easy for possessions to take us over and make us act selfishly. A covetous person does not own things, rather he or she is owned by things. This was illustrated by Jesus’ encounter with what we have traditionally called “the rich young ruler.” This incident is recorded in Luke 18:18-23. The gist of it is that the young man wanted to know what he could do to inherit eternal life. After Jesus talked with him about the commandments, the young man said that he had kept all of those. So Jesus told him that he lacked one thing and that what he should do is to sell all that he had and distribute it to the poor, then he would have heavenly riches. Jesus did not make that demand on all rich people, but he saw into the heart of this young man and knew that he was possessed by his possessions and that he would never take a step of faith as long as he depended on his possessions. It is easy for we affluent Americans to be owned by our possessions, because we have so many of them. A covetous person cannot be a genuinely happy person. This goes against everything that we believe today. People across America spend millions of dollars playing the lottery, thinking that if they win all of that money they will be happy. There has been follow-up on many of these big lottery winners, and a good many of them did not end up happier. In all fairness, this does not speak of all lottery winners, but it does speak of a lot of them. (One of their complaints is that they discover that they had kin folks that they never knew they had.) Money and possessions do not make us happy. A person who has a lot of money is happy if his or her money does not rule his or her life. Not all rich people are covetous, and there are middle class and poor people who are covetous. Whatever your financial standing, what you possess cannot make you happy. You have to be happy in your heart, mind and soul. I pray that you are not a covetous person and that you are not owned by what you possess. Put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, not in your possessions. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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