Driven by Greed

 

Greed is described as, an excessive desire to acquire more than you have, especially wealth and material possessions, which usually leads to inappropriate behaviour.

Then Jesus said to them, “Be careful and guard against all kinds of greed. People do not get life from the many things they own.” (Luke 12:15 ERV)

This verse forms part of Jesus’ response to a man concerning an inheritance after the death of his father, who wanted Jesus to tell his brother to share them with him. It appears that this man desired more than his fair share as Jesus told a parable soon thereafter, about a rich man who had some very fertile land (read Luke 12:16-21).

It was a bumper harvest for this rich man but rather than donate some of his crops to the poor and marginalized, he thought to himself, ‘What will I do? I have no place to keep all my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I know what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger barns! I will put all my wheat and good things together in my new barns. (v 17, 18). There was absolutely no thought of building food banks or even supplying food kitchens.

People like this rich man are interested only in self-gratification, self-indulgence and are driven by greed. As believers, we aren’t even supposed to eat with persons who are driven by greed. Apostle Paul made that quite clear in his exhortation when he cautioned the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 5:11(NIV), it is such a serious violation, that he paired greed with sexual immorality…

But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy…Do not even eat with such people.

Listen, not murdering and stealing may be easy laws to follow but when it comes to caring for the poor, the widows and orphans, loving your neighbour as yourself and avoiding envy, lust and greed, following those laws prove difficult.

Jesus Himself condemns persons for their greed (see Luke 16:15) and Luke emphasizes that the driving force of greed stems from people’s love of money (see Luke 16:14).

Don’t for one minute fool yourself by believing that greed, which is linked to the love of money, is not a root of serious and mortal iniquities. It is listed as one of the most severe sins, a sin that destroys your relationship with God.

Years ago, I began trading in foreign exchange as a means of supplementing my income. It was something new and interesting and I was excited about the prospect of the better life it would afford me and my family. I really enjoyed the rush of keeping watch on my trades. But something happened to me during that time that completely surprised me.

I realized that the more trades I won, the more trades I wanted to win. I was becoming greedy. My motivation for trading had shifted from being a fun pastime into an obsession to gain more. Driven by greed, I stopped placing stop loss indicators on my trades and then, one day, I stared at my phone in horror as I lost every single cent I had invested and earned on that initial investment.

Well, God was not about to leave me to develop this character trait that would lead me to certain destruction, so He gave me a very harsh awakening that morning, one that I desperately needed.

You know, I was simply being foolish because the fact that I was being greedy was not foreign to me, but I still chose to ignore this new greedy me that I really didn't recognize.

My intentions, though admirable at first, now reeked of actions that were morally ambiguous and I was morphing into a fiscally irresponsible human.

Unfortunately, greed is a serious violation that even Christians choose to commit; falling into this kind of sin isn’t a remote possibility, greed is a deceiver that can too easily creep into our lives undetected.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NIV) tells us to choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

There are many verses throughout that bible that warn us about the consequences of greed. Being driven by greed places the intense desire for wealth and material possessions above the love and devotion that is due to God; we worship things and they become our god.

Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves…greedy people (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 NLT)

Greedy people will not inherit the Kingdom of God! That is removing far from your life, the life that Jesus Christ sacrificed His life to give to you and me. We must choose life in all its fullness.

Beloved, Jesus was concerned about people and everything that concerns them and that hasn’t changed.  Jesus’ concerns include the economic state of all of us and He wants us to be just as concerned but not just about ourselves but about giving to others who are in desperate need, about the blessings that will come to the poor, about mutual dependence and not a top-down system and about those in financial distress. 

When we pray “Forgive us our debts”, it encompasses sins and includes monetary indebtedness.

Jesus taught His disciples then and teaches us now, how to live financially wise in the present in order to lay up treasure in heaven, not in a doggedly determined way seeking to accumulate bank accounts on earth.

All those parables, that pay particular attention to wealth management, debts, daily wages, land ownership, and lost coins, highlight the same concerns. The ones that begin with “There was a rich man who . . .” are not likely to be stories of well-loved, exceptionally generous and kind business owners.

It’s not that Jesus had or has a problem with business owners or with being rich, but with those owners whose love, worship and devotion were misplaced; the issue is those persons with an insatiable desire for more, who would sell their souls for the promise of receiving a miniscule percentage of a financial pie because they were and are driven by greed, those are the persons to whom Jesus refers.

Ponder your conscience and if you realize that you are driven by greed, you need to repent. Pour out your heart to God in genuine remorse, and God promises that if they pray to me and repent and turn away from the evil they have been doing, then I will hear them in heaven, forgive their sins, and make their land prosperous again. (2 Chronicles 7:14 GNT).

Beloved, this wonderful promise from God has nothing to do with world economics, this is prosperity from the Kingdom’s perspective, a benefit of being driven by heaven’s economic plan of God who gives you the ability to produce wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18 NIV).

 

Amen †

 

Shelley Johnson “Driven by Greed” ©2026 May 6, 2026