“If I keep handling possessions like this for the next ten or twenty years, what sort of character will I develop and what kind of person will I become?”1
I can’t think of a better question to ask ourselves as we address the deadly sin of greed. I also can’t think of a more difficult question to wrestle with, as we work through our relationship to possessions and wealth, and how we use them in our daily lives. For whatever it’s worth, the Bible has more warnings in it about greed than sex. Of course sexual ethics are important for followers of Jesus, but historically much of the church has been more concerned about sex than money and possessions. The lesson for us is that we likely need to take what Scripture says about greed, wealth, and our stuff much more seriously than we do.
Historically, the term used has been “avarice” but we’ll stick with greed. Some people are careless with their money and possessions, this is prodigality or wastefulness. Others care too much about them, they crave them. This is greed. We want to aim for generosity, for an inner detachment from money and possessions that helps us to be cheerful givers, such that giving is second nature to us.
Greed Is Not Good
Contrary to the infamous line from the 1980s movie, Wall Street, greed is not good. It doesn’t work. What is the fruit of greed in our lives?
First, the vice of greed undermines the virtue of justice. If we are greedy, we are likely to also be indifferent towards the needs of others. We want more than our fair share, we keep more than our fair share. Second, our hearts become calloused towards those suffering from the injustices often manifested in poverty. And more generally they can become calloused towards others and their needs. Third, greed leaves us unsatisfied. In greed, we are trying to satisfy our need for God, the perfect and eternal God who loves us and can satisfy our deepest needs, with stuff. We are trying to be satisfied with imperfect and temporal things, when only God will truly satisfy.
Spiritual Practices
Self-examination. If someone had complete access to all of your financial information, how much you make, what you spend, how you spend, etc., what would they conclude about you from this information? What would this reveal about your priorities, your heart? How much time do you spend thinking about money? About something you want to buy? About how to make your home more like the ones on HGTV? These are not easy questions for us. To be honest, they make me uncomfortable. But maybe that’s why we need to ask them.
Fast from consumerist pictures of happiness. Take a break for a week, or a month, from advertising as much as you can. Fast from shopping online or in brick and mortar stores. Avoid watching HGTV. Be attentive to anything that tells you that the key to happiness is wealth or possessions or a beautiful home. None of these things are bad. In fact, they can be good. But we must guard our hearts against the ways they can go bad in our lives. A fast will help us do that.
Give weekly. While online giving to a church, ministry, or other charity is much more convenient, and much more reliable, it might be good to tithe to church on a weekly basis, even with a physical check (yes, they still exist). The action of doing so helps reinforce generosity. If you’d rather not do that, reflect weekly during the collection at church on the generosity of God, and ask how you can become more like Christ in this area of life.
When we grow in generosity, we’ll experience freedom, lightness, and joy. Our hearts will be more centered on God, rather than on our stuff and on ourselves. We’ll see a sensitivity to the needs of others, the foolishness of thinking money makes us happy, and the wisdom of being a cheerful giver.
Sports and Character Growth
This past month I was happy for the chance to interview Sabrina Little, world-class distance runner and philosophy professor, on how to cultivate character in sports. You can check it out here if you’re interested.
Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Glittering Vices, p. 114. The content of this newsletter is based on my reading and thinking about this chapter in her book.