The Idolatry of Covetousness

 

Luke 12:15 TPT ‘Be alert and guard your heart from greed and always wishing for what you don’t have. For your life can never be measured by the amount of things you possess.’

Human beings have the tendency to keep acquiring and wanting more, no matter how much we have, we must have more, more shoes, more clothes, more bags, more money, more things, more status, more Instagram followers, more education, more ,more and more. Please don’t get me wrong it’s ok to want more, but when we want more to the point where we live in a state of discontentment and envy which is covetousness and greed we have crossed the line.

The Oxford dictionary describes covetousness as ‘the feeling of having a strong desire for the things that other people have’. Greed on the other hand is described as ‘a strong desire for more wealth, possessions, power etc than a person needs’. The times that we are in has made it increasingly easy for us to be covetous. Social media is a big and major contributor to this, when we see other people’s possessions on social media, we wish they were ours, sometimes we reach the point where we are very unhappy, depressed and we become envious.

‘Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry.’ (Colossians 3:5) Covetousness is idolatry because if we are content with what God has given to us and we know how much he loves us we will be grateful and not be covetous. A covetous man or woman is an idolater because he/she places higher value on something other than God and worships the things of this world. For example a man desires a pair of shoes, this is ok, what is not ok is when he wants to get the pair of shoes by  any means possible, it then becomes a sin because the pair of shoes has become more important to him than God, it has become an idol. To get what he really desires, he will lie, he will cheat, he will steal, he will even kill because he has been overcome by the strong desire to have the pair of shoes.

 ‘For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy of gain, and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely’ (Jeremiah 6:13) in this verse of scripture God was rebuking the Israelites because of widespread greed and covetousness in the land, so they were rejected by God and His judgement came upon them. We must take the issue of covetousness very seriously, especially in these peculiar times because no covetous person will inherit the kingdom of God (Ephesians 5:5). If we find ourselves longing too much for the things we see on social media, it is ok to go on a break for a while, this is wisdom. An article by Forbes tells of 6 ways in which social media impacts its users.

1.       Its addictive

2.       It triggers more sadness and less well being

3.       It promotes mental unhealthiness

4.       It fosters Jealousy

5.       It makes one delusional

6.       It makes us less sociable.

Social media has brought immense blessings and benefits to us and it is an end time tool used by God, hey I’m sending this message via social media. But we must be wise.

The only antidote for covetousness and greed is contentment. 'But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it, but if we have food and clothing we will be content with that. (1Timothy 6:6-8)

1 Corinthians 12:31 God tells us to covet earnestly the best spiritual gifts, the only thing we should be coveting are spiritual gifts. Are we constantly comparing our lives with others? Are we depressed, and frustrated just because we feel our mates are doing so much better than we are? Remember that your friends only show their high points and their wins on social media not their losses, not the sad and difficult moments. I encourage you to begin to keep a gratitude book starting from the first day of the month of March, write down daily 3 to 5 things that you are grateful to God for, and see what will happen at the end of the month. I would leave you with this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”