"Money don't get everything, it's true,
But what
it don't get,
I can't use.
Just give me money.
That's what I want."
--B. Gordy
Whether it is Donald Trump, Jim and Susan McDougal or any
number of others, those lyrics echo a sentiment which threatens to overtake Americans. In truth, there are those who are much
less wealthy, people like me and you, who are just as greedy, just as covetous as the billionaires who can never seem to get
enough.
Everywhere in our nation, people are trying to "make a fast
buck," and anyone who tries to stand in the way of me and my fortune had better look out. The main character of the film "Wall
Street" a few years ago pronounced, "Greed works. Greed is good." And don't be deceived into thinking that greed was confined
to the 1980s and Republican administrations. Greed, for many people in the 1990s, is still working and is still "good."
This is not new. This is not a subject about which the Bible
is silent because it is some 20th century phenomenon. Greed is as old as law. In the Ten Commandments, God instructed man,
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant
or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor" (Ex. 20:17).
One of the most condemning factors involved in greed is that
it causes us to despise the blessings we already have. We leave our air conditioned homes, drive in our air conditioned cars
to an air conditioned church building, where we sing, "Living below in this old sinful world, hardly a comfort can afford."
Can we honestly say that we are not immensely blessed by God in this country?
Even more troublesome is that we seek to carry our greed to
the next life as well. "I'm satisfied with just a cottage below/A little silver and a little gold/But in that city where the
ransomed will shine/I want a gold one that's silver lined." It is not enough that Jesus has promised to prepare a place for
us (Jn. 14:2), we want to write the architect's specifications to meet our desires (our greed?)
The truth is, few of us are "satisfied with .
. . a little silver and a little gold." We want new cars, new homes, new clothes, new toys, new this and new that. And we
are shamed by the apostle's words in Philippians 4, ". . . I have learned to be content in whatever
circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every
circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need" (vv.
11-12).
What was Paul's secret? Read one more verse:
"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" (v. 13). Paul's secret was the same as the one he gave Timothy, "Instruct
those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God,
who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy" (1 Tim. 6:17). Paul's secret was that he trusted in his God, and not in whatever
he had, be it humble or rich.
The teaching is actually that of our Lord. "Do not lay up
for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal; for where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:19-21).
The uncertainty of earthly wealth is far too fragile on which
to fix our hope. Hope must be moored to something great and powerful and strong. Our hope must be fixed on force
gives us the gift of eternal life in His sacrifice for us. While it may be true that "money can't buy happiness,"
it is even more true that money can't buy salvation. Only our faith in god can give us such hope.
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