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Those who love God should never partake in avarice nor covetousness
Praise be to the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth and all that which dwell in it. To God belong all riches and glory and adoration.
There are people who think they have made it in life, apparently. They believe that their material wealth and fortunes is the be all and end all of their life. Little do they care for others, let alone the condition of their own hearts. For their souls are only in a tizzy about aquire more and more riches and still not satisfied with their wealth.
Some of these people then resort to illegal and unethical tactics to get more money for themselves at the cost of the peace and happiness of their friends and family and also their coworkers and servant’s. While the other’s don’t do any evil methods to get more wealth but they do this ethically but in an obsessive manner. So what’s common between the former and latter types of people is both have made gods of their cravings for possessions, the very thing the the Lord Jesus warned his disciples about.
And Jesus said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15)
Those who are using wicked ways to illegally get riches will surely fall if not in life then in after life. Scammers once caught are put in jail. More so worse is a massive jail that holds the souls of those whose hearts only served money rather than the Lord God. This is an enternal penitentiary called as the Lake of Fire in which all sinners will be cast into when they’re judged by God!
The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him, [saying,] Behold the man that made not God his strength, but put confidence in the abundance of his riches, [and] strengthened himself in his avarice. (Psalm 52:6-7)
The best way to avoid temptation to such excessive greed or avarice is to not associate with people who are into it. If you are in the company of such people they might directly or indirectly into their sinful ways. Beware O believer in Jesus for you have been warned!
But what I meant was that you were not to associate with any one bearing the name of “brother,” if he was addicted to fornication or avarice or idol-worship or abusive language or hard-drinking or greed of gain. With such a man you ought not even to eat. (1 Corinthians 5:11)
Love Jesus Christ more than anything so that keep away from the love of money. For if you continue to hold on to the Lord God then the Lord will continue to abide with you.
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)
Christ be with you!
Suggested articles:
Never covet anything that belongs to your neighbour
There are some people who covet things of others during hard times. Some covet during easy times. While some people, covet all the time. No matter what time anyone covets, it will only be a bad thing to do. Read on to know why.
What does it mean to covet?
Some of you reading this might not be aware of the meaning of the word ‘covet’. So let’s see that is the definition of this which I have taken reference from dictionary.com
- inordinately or wrongly desirous of wealth or possessions; greedy.
- eagerly desirous.
By the definition of what it is to be covetous, you’ll notice it’ about having a wrong desire towards having something that belongs to another.
The Bible condemns covetousness in all its forms.
Such wrong desires are already denounced by the Bible and here’s a verse about covetousness:
“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 is your neighbor’s.” (Exodus 20:17)
So you must be vary of covetousness each time. Don’t give any excuses about this. Ever!
Is it wrong to desire anything?
Now it’s not wrong to want to eat good food, earn a good salary, and even have a good spouse. In fact, you can pray to God about these things and wait upon him to grace you with a miracle for all your needs. This is true when you are not stealing from anyone nor taking away things from anyone by trickery or deceit.
What are the consequences of wrong or covetous desires?
What is wrong is having a desire to want something that belongs to another. Because such evil desires can lead to even bigger sins. The following verses confirm this:
- So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6)
- Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever. (1 John 2:15-17)
- Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death. (James: 13-15)
From this we can understand:
- Covetousness itself is a sin.
- Covetousness is not from God.
- Covetousness can lead to bigger sins.
- And all sin leads to death.
If you have lived a life of covetousness, please repent of it unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Confess this and each sin unto to the Lord God and ask for his forgiveness. The benefits are yours to accept when you choose to repent and believe in the Gospel; eternal life and friendship with God in Jesus Christ.
Christ be with you!
Further reading:
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- Pratice your faith (disciplesofhope.wordpress.com)
- Do not covet another one’s spouse (disciplesofhope.wordpress.com)
- Do you discern? (disciplesofhope.wordpress.com)
Do not covet another one’s spouse
Praise be to the Lord Jesus who by the Holy Spirit leads us in all righteousness. We pray that we respect each other and be a blessing to each other in our walk with Christ. Remind us O Lord God, that we do not covet any person or things which is unlawful and will cause sorrow to others. Help us to abide by what is true love and not be deceived by the lust of the world. Amen and amen.
The Holy Scriptures do tell us not to covet. This includes not coveting another one’s spouse. And this is a warning about adultery as well.
And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s. (Deuteronomy 5:21)
Read the following words of Jesus and you will notice that lustful covetousness is the same as adultery. The punishment for this is hell which is mentioned along with this.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. (Matthew 5:27-30)
So this should make it abundantly clear that you are not to covet a spouse that is married to another. Do not be a seducer of married one’s. It’s a sin against the Lord God who wants marriage to be holy. By trying to entice a married person to commit fornication or even marry you is to be a cause for trouble for that person’s spouse, family and children. Never be so evil.
If you are not married and you say you want to get married, then do get married to someone who is not married like yourself. If you are not happy with your current marriage, then don’t ruin others happiness by stealing their spouse, keep your selfishness to yourself and deal with it.
I won’t stop at only holding individuals responsible to avoiding coveting another one’s spouse. Even the people in general and the state should get their act together. No group nor organization has a right to make money by corruption of society. Everyone who is a corrupter of humanity is cursed! I feel very sorry to see innocent spouse who was forced to divorce her unfaithful spouse. Her tears and her children’s tears are sorrowful and the society stupidly blames her for everything. At times there’s an unfaithful wife too and her innocent husband is manipulated into divorcing her. He then ends up more poor and with kids who in sorrow to look after. Indeed we live in an evil and adulterous generation!
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)
There are plenty of idiots who promote adultery in various forms. Novels glorify the hero who can kill enemies but seduce their wives and daughters. Movies show that it’s cool to flirt with a woman who is not your wife. Then we have songs and their accompanying videos in which a foolish woman singer, yes foolish but exquisite in looks, goes on to sing about her sexuality and makes a lot of direct or indirect appeals to men to lust for her and so buy her music. Obviously, there are some male singers who also do something like that though with even more cunning appeal to beguile women to buy more of their music works. They don’t care if any person who was influenced by their works gets sexually transmitted diseases or gets a humiliating divorce. So I’m not surprised that when their ‘fans’ die in their sins, these very writers, actors, singers etc will shrug of responsibility and won’t even care that these people are now forever tormented in the fires of Hell.
Don’t think of this as a generation gap issue or being old-fashioned. Even in the past centuries such things did happen but were more limited as technology had yet to catch up. These things were even exposed in the past times. Let’s read what an early Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo (born in 345AD) had to say about this:
[Y]ou are not ashamed of your sin [in committing adultery] because so many men commit it. Man’s wickedness is now such that men are more ashamed of chastity than of lechery. Murderers, thieves, perjurers, false witnesses, plunderers and fraudsters are detested and hated by people generally, but whoever will sleep with his servant girl in brazen lechery is liked and admired for it, and people make light of the damage to his soul. And if any man has the nerve to say that he is chaste and faithful to his wife and this gets known, he is ashamed to mix with other men, whose behaviour is not like his, for they will mock him and despise him and say he’s not a real man; for man’s wickedness is now of such proportions that no one is considered a man unless he is overcome by lechery, while one who overcomes lechery and stays chaste is considered unmanly.”― Augustine of Hippo, Sermons 1-19
All those who promote adultery by calling it good are clear fools! Just because you are faithful to your wife doesn’t mean that you encourage your friend to keep going in his sin of adultery. Any man who entices his friend to seduce others for fun is not a true friend at all. This applies for women who keeping giving wrong ideas to their female friends to become habitual seducers of men. I’d say that it’s better for a woman to be friendless, that to have a friend male or female who teaches her such wickedness.
To conclude, to avoiding feelings of covetousness towards the spouses of others I suggest that you reflect on the following:
- On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense. (Proverbs 10:13)
- When adultery occurs, three of the Ten Commandments are broken: you shall not commit adultery, not lie, and not covet your neighbor’s spouse. – Dennis P. Hollinger, The Meaning of Sex
- He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself. (Proverbs 6:32)
- Adultery is a disguised detour en route to your personal demise. – Paul Davis, Adultery: 101 Reasons Not to Cheat
Disciples of hope 