1 Timothy 6:17-19
Greed. We don’t have to look far to
see the greed around us. We all know of Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg—people who
are worth hundreds of billions of dollars—and we see that they want more. More,
more, more. But, we need not focus on our billionaires. We look around our own
cities, in our communities, and even in the mirror…and we find greed.
“Greed
is defined as the immoderate love or desire for riches and earthly possessions.
A person can also be greedy for fame, attention, power, or anything else that
feeds one’s selfishness.”[1]
It’s a love or desire for more riches, more things. Last week’s look at
gluttony revealed that far too many of us have much more than what we need. One
of our greatest challenges is finding space to store our stuff—our unnecessary
often redundant stuff.
But,
there is another element of greed in our lives: time. We become greedy of our
time. Perhaps it’s to be expected in this rapid, rushing world of ours. We only
have so many hours in a day, and those hours—besides sleeping, eating, and
working—become quickly filled with family activities, after hours Zoom
meetings, spouses’ wishlists, and all of the other things that crave our time.
Soon, we become greedy with our time…and we hold on every minute we can.
Where
does greed come from—whether greed for money or greed for time? Greed is born
out of fear…fear of not having enough, fear that we’ll need more than we
already have. Since our God says hundreds of times in Scripture, “Fear not!”,
we know that fear is not from God. In fact, Jesus gives us every reason not to
fear, not to be afraid that we won’t have what we need. In his “Sermon on the
Mount,” Jesus reminds us that God provides, so we don’t need to live in fear of
not having enough (Matthew 6:25-33).
As we
have already seen, it is not enough to let go of greed; we need to replace the life-robbing
(“deadly) attitudes and behaviors with life-giving virtues. Paul tells us in
his letter to Timothy that Christians are not “to put their hope in wealth,…but
to put their hope in God…to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be
generous and willing to share” (1 Tim. 6:17-18). We replace our greed with
generosity.
The
poet, Maya Angelou, says this: “I have found that among its other benefits,
giving liberates the soul of the giver.” We find freedom in trusting God and
letting go of fear. I have yet to hear anyone bemoan being generous with their
resources or their time. Let us be a people of generosity, sharing our lives
and resources as able with the world around us.
Sunday, June 29, 2025
“Seven Deadly Sins Life-Giving Virtues”
Watch/Listen: HERE
[1] Ostberg and René, “Greed | Description, Deadly Sin, History, Bible, & Facts,” Encyclopedia Britannica, last modified July 14, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/greed.
