Tag Archives: greed

Improper

06 Sunday Mar 2016

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CONQUERING GREED-1
CONQUERING GREED
Today’s Reading: 1 Timothy 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 6:17 Version CEV
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+6%3A9-10%2C1+Timothy+6%3A17&version=CEV

As Christians, we are challenged to live a simple lifestyle. This principle applies the same way, to a worker who dreams of having his own house, as to a very successful businessman.

The Bible warns that “You must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.” (Ephesians 4:17-18)

The important thing is not the amount of goods that pass through our hands, but the meaning that those assets have for our lives and the way that we manage them before God.

The Christian enjoys the goods that the Lord has given him. However, he does not put his heart and trust in them. He does not cheat or oppress anyone, or lose sleep over profits and the accumulation of wealth or the loss of these. He does not want to get rich, not dependent on lotteries, gambling or the money earned without honest work.

Finally the Christian pays his taxes to the government, thus fulfilling the mandate of Jesus when he said: “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” (Luke 20:25)

The Christian knows very well what God says: “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1Timothy 6:9-10)

A Bible writer clearly tells us, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. (Ephesians 5:3)

Greed must be absent from our homes, because people are much more important than goods; and joy, peace and eternal life cannot be bought with money.

Ildefonso Torres

Greed

05 Saturday Mar 2016

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greed-1

As a companion picture to the wise use of wealth, there runs through Proverbs a series of stern and heavy denunciations of him who clutches riches for their own sake, who plunders the impoverished and feeds upon their misery. Meditation on this hideous side of life can scarce be beneficial to those who themselves suffer for lack of worldly goods, lest it make them over-bitter; but surely every wealthy man to-day should ponder the wisdom of this portion of the “book of wisdom.”

‎In those days when famine was ever close at hand, wealth depended very directly upon the possession of grain, the eastern staff of life, which sometimes, as in Joseph’s day, could be sold at enormous prices to those who, without it, died. So that he who withheld corn was indeed “cursed” of the starving people. “Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivered from death.” “He that is greedy of gain troubled his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live.” ‎“He that oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.”

The Bible and its Story, Volume 7: The Prophets, Isaiah to Ezekiel

No Partiality

05 Thursday Nov 2015

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Preconceptions
Today’s Reading: Deuteronomy 16:19 Version ESV
What determines the existence of preconceptions in society? A compendium of Social Sciences says that human beings tend to underestimate what cannot be compared.

Preconceived ideas are acquired. They are not born with man. We, as we grow, we learn gradually to carry out certain associations of ideas: a flower equals beauty; man is strength; women represent emotions; Jewish is synonymous with greed; abroad is a “gringo”. These images end up forming part of the people.

However, more damaging than the words and images is our behavior towards minority groups; or our contempt for the lower classes, an attitude of superiority, relative to others, based on the haircut, lower education, lower purchasing power and many other things.

But for God all men are equal, because he created them in his image and likeness. God does not show partiality. All of us need God to live, to breathe, to exist.

Hear what the Bible says, “You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.”

Ildefonso Torres

Greed

16 Wednesday Sep 2015

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Envy
Today’s Reading: Galatians 5:19-26
Envy or greed is the desire to possess what belongs to someone else. Of course, God does not like envy or greed. In one of the Ten Commandments, greed is prohibited.

Envy made Cain murdered Abel, his younger brother. The envy of Joseph’s brothers made them sell him as a slave to the Egyptians. The envy of the Jewish priests led them to deliver Jesus to Pilate to unfairly be crucified.

Envy is not just a desire for new clothes, a luxury car or new toys; it is the uncontrolled and selfish desire to own something that belongs to our neighbor.

The immense desire to possess something reveals our inner dissatisfaction and leads to anger, hatred and even murder. That’s why the Bible condemns envy and addresses this issue very seriously.

The sooner we despise this kind of sin in our hearts, the better will it be for us and for our relations with others and with God.

If the Spirit of Christ takes hold of our lives, we will have the strength to conquer envy. There will be no room for envy in a happy and loving heart.

Ildefonso Torres