By
Brian Mitchell
“God lets men have their playthings like
little children that they may learn to distinguish them from true and valuable
possessions. If they are not learning that lesson, then He takes them away;
that through the lack of them and misery thereof they may finally learn what is
most valuable.” “The more things men seek, the more varied the things they
imagine they need, the more they are subject to vanity—all the forms of which
may be summed up with one word, that being disappointment. He who would not be overwhelmed
with this disappointment must seek for that which is truly valuable and not
merely temporal.”
The point of these quotations is to
demonstrate the folly of seeking after, with one’s whole heart, that which will
not endure and in the end will not bring any lasting fulfillment. Possessions
and wealth are not inherently evil, the inordinate all-consuming pursuit of
them is. It is fine to have material possessions, the problem is when we are
never satisfied with the possessions we have and so we continually want more
and more and more. When we don’t find ultimate fulfillment in these possessions
we wonder why.
The problem is when our things possess us
instead of us possessing our things and using them for God’s glory. “Take heed
and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of
the things he possesses” (Lk.12:15). Covetousness—the strong desire for that
which others have, characterized by greed. The problem for many Americans is
that they are never satisfied with what they have, they are as we shall discuss
later, addicted to the pursuit of material possessions.
Constantly we are bombarded with images
from T.V., magazines, movies and books that encourage us to desire more. Often
with the sense of entitlement that says in effect that “you deserve everything
you want.” One of the greatest causes of the current economic crisis is the
financial overextension of many American families who simply used credit to
afford lifestyles that in essence they simply could not afford. Thus, when the
credit dried up and the housing market crashed, people finally woke up to the
reality that they were in dire financial straits.
What was the root cause—materialistic greed
and covetousness which is the closest biblical word to materialism. Sadly, the
church has not gone unaffected by this dilemma and thus materialism in all its
ugly forms is one of Satan’s greatest weapons against the people of God. We
want and do not have and so instead of learning to be content with what we have,
we simply want for more and do whatever we can to get it.
One of the greatest ironies of covetousness
and materialism, especially in relation to how dangerous it is, is the
difficulty of detecting or admitting the sin in our own lives. That is why it is
one of Satan’s most deceptive weapons. In an article written by Paul Keller, a
Catholic priest was reported as saying that “in all of his years of hearing
confession, he had heard people admit to every sin imaginable—except the sin of
covetousness.”
This is because when it comes to
materialism and the covetous attitudes which lead to it, it is extremely hard
for any of us to admit that our own materialistic desires have become either
selfish or excessive. That is why it is time for us to be honest about this
problem and if guilty of it we need to repent and start putting first things
first again.
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