Shortly before Christmas last year, my wife and I had some friends over. The conversation turned to films, and we reminisced about the holiday movie monopoly The Lord of the Rings had created a few years back.

"We definitely have to see those films again," our friends agreed. "We should watch them over Christmas."

"Can you imagine watching the extended versions all in one day?" I said. "That would be one crazy event!"

"Actually, we've never seen the extended versions," they admitted.

"We own all three. Do you want to borrow ours?"

"That would be great!"

Then, half-jokingly, I added, "You'll have to bring them back, of course."

But they immediately saw the other half of my statement and said, "Isn't that implied in the word 'borrow'?"

I was caught red-tongued in greed. Of course returning them is implied! But my thoughts were stuck on what would happen to my stuff, not how I could share with others.

This is sort of a silly example. "Were you really that worried about your DVDs? What did you think they were going to do, toss them in the microwave with the popcorn?" But that's what makes it so serious. Even with something as petty and temporal as DVDs and in a scenario that presented miniscule risk (they were trustworthy friends), I wasn't thinking about how I could bless others (friends, no less!), but about whether I would ever see my precious DVDs again. Gollum would be proud.

Bargain Bills

Greed can take many forms, and they're often quite obvious, such as an unwillingness to give back to God through offerings or to share with others, instead spending endlessly on myself.

But sometimes the line between greed and smart money sense blurs. It's striking to see how often Scripture calls us to give away our money and how infrequently it tells us to spend on ourselves. In fact, Jesus himself makes a poignant contrast in what we are to store up for ourselves in his Sermon on the Mount:

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on 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" (Matt 6:19-20). The location of our storehouses exposes the deepest truth about who we are: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matt. 6:21).

Where our money goes says a lot about our spiritual state, and so does keeping it in our wallet. For example, American evangelicals commonly brag about finding bargains and saving money, as if you're more spiritual the less you pay. It's true, some people on tight budgets look for affordable bread and diapers for daily survival. Others search for good deals so they can give more away — that treasure in heaven. But most of us look for cheap stuff so we can spend the savings on ourselves.

I first encountered this strange form of money-hoarding when a professor told our class that, while in his 60s, he had trimmed some of his trees when he should have paid someone else to do it. He fell from a ladder and broke his hip, costing him thousands in medical bills and months of physical pain. He says God used the (expensive) accident to show him how greedy he was — greedy because he didn't want to part with his money to pay another working soul.

Economics is a lot of things, but it's definitely social, and thinking about the people on the other end of your credit card could mean the difference between selflessness and greed. While there's no justice in getting robbed by a merchant for overpriced items or services, neither is there justice in robbing another of his due, all so I can buy more stuff.

Corporate America can complicate our addiction to greed by making it seem like we're getting good deals when we're actually participating in a system that denies their laborers what they've earned. N. T. Wright describes this subtle form of injustice: "The rich use the power of their money to get even richer while the poor, who can't do anything about it, get even poorer. Most of us scratch our heads and wonder why, and then go out and buy another product whose profit goes to the rich company."¹

Benefiting from this unjust system by keeping more dollars in my bank through cheap products could be just as much a mark of my own greedy heart as amassing loads of pricey gadgets. Instead, parting with my money for that which has worth, whether a purchase or cause, and supporting others who work or have need demonstrates that God is weaning me from an obsession with this world.

A Capital Sin

Scripture shows it is a far greater danger to have a heart full of greed than an empty bank account. While money is not the root of all kinds of evil, the love of money is, and Paul explains that "it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs" (1 Tim. 6:10). Here Scripture highlights the personal danger greed poses.

To help us grasp the seriousness of greed and its subtle forms, Scripture lists greed amongst more external, obvious sins. In 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 Paul says that if a fellow Christian "is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler — not even to eat with such a one" (v. 11). He calls to "purge the evil person from among you" (v. 13) and by using this phrase he invokes a legal tradition in Israel attested throughout the book of Deuteronomy, where God commanded Israel to stone individuals caught in certain egregious sins (e.g., Deut. 31:1-5; 17:2-7; 22:22-24).

Paul's point must be made clear. He's warning that when a community of believers condones certain gross sins, including greed, it weakens the whole community and opens a floodgate to the decline of the entire church. Instead, standards must be maintained to keep the community pure.

That doesn't mean forgiveness is not available. A little later in the same letter Paul extols the forgiveness offered through the triune God: "And such" — greedy, promiscuous, and unrighteous — "were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:11). God is faithful to cleanse those who repent (1 John 1:9), but the unrepentant sinner stands at risk.

We could go on to other biblical passages that highlight the seriousness of greed, such as Christ's condemnation of the avaricious Pharisees (Matt. 23:25-26) and how greed breaks a person's integrity, opening them up to dishonest gain just so they can get what they crave (Prov. 15:27; 1 Tim. 3:8; Titus 1:7). Scripture clearly teaches that God hates greed. One major reason why is that greed challenges God for owning your heart.

Going back to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives a definitive statement about the danger of money: "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money" (Matt. 6:24).

Greed is not just that you like holding on to money, but that money has its hold on you. And if money is holding you, God isn't. That's why Scripture not only condemns greed, but shows how comparatively greater is the value of wisdom and love for God. Over and over Proverbs shows wisdom's supremacy to riches: "How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver" (Prov. 16:16; see also Prov. 3:13-18; 8:10-11, 18-19; 20:15; 22:1).

Avarice tests the state of your heart, your deepest devotion, and that's why it is so vital for Christians to purge greed from within.

Give and Gain

I'll never forget hearing Mark Young, a missions professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, tell us, "I like to ask people for money." It shocked me. That was the thing I dreaded most about missions work. But it didn't scare Dr. Young; he happily raised funds for various overseas missions projects. He explained, "I like to be in the business of weaning people off their addiction to money, and devoting it to the kingdom of God." For Mark Young, greed is a serious dilemma facing evangelicals, but the antidote is giving it away.

The early church in Acts joyfully shared "all things in common," "selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need" (Acts 2:44-45). Consumed with love for Christ, they happily sacrificed things of this world to lay up treasure in the next.

We need to test our attachment to stuff: Could I go without my plasma screen? Could I lend my car to someone who needs it, even if that creates a hardship for me? Perhaps we can learn, as the early church did, to share what we have as if we didn't own it. The best action for overcoming greed is to give.

Complementing generosity is contentment. Hebrews 13:5 commands us, "keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have," an exhortation that highlights the greedy person's discontentment with God's gifts. Why can we have contentment? Because God has said "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb 13:5). In God's promise to be faithful we find the contentment that frees us from false securities such as money and worldly success.

The poor widow who put her two small coins in the offering box exemplifies contentment. Even though her gift was monetarily small compared to that of the ostentatiously rich, Jesus said it was greater than all because it revealed her heart, for "she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on" (Luke 21:4). She was content with her station and trusted not in coins but in the promise of her God. Contentment crushes greed and promotes giving.

It's not that we need to stop enjoying life; Christ feasted with his disciples, and so as the body of Christ we feast together bound by the Spirit of Christ. But we recognize the final feast has not yet arrived. In the meantime, while we wait for what we will share with Christ at his second coming, we don't hoard what we have now; we spread it to those who are hungry.

"The reason why many never receive any remarkable [spiritual] benefit of what they give," Jonathan Edwards remarks in a sermon, "is because they give so little."² May we not be known for hoarding, but sacrificing. May we not be overly attached to this world, but lay up treasures in heaven. May we not give little, but give abundantly to fight poverty, promote Christian community, and glorify Christ, imitating the one who gave His very life so that we might have life and have it abundantly. And in giving may we gain Christ.

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1. N. T. Wright, Simply Christian (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), 5.
2. Jonathan Edwards, "Much in Deeds of Charity," in The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader, ed. Wilson H. Kimnach, Kenneth P. Minkema, and Douglas A. Sweeney (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 199.