Covetousness in the Bible – a heartbreaking true story
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ 14 Jesus replied, ‘Man, who appointed me judge or arbiter between you?’ 15 Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.’
Luke 12:13-15
Some versions use the word greed in verse 15, while others translate this as covetousness. Greed, envy and covetousness in the Bible are often used interchangeably but there are subtle differences.
Greed is never satiated, always wanting more even at the expense of others. Envy, on the other hand, presents as jealousy over something another person has. It observes another person’s possession and despises that person simply because they have it. Envy wants it too.
Covetousness is even more malicious than envy. It takes envy to the next level and asserts, ‘If I can’t have it, then I don’t want them to have it either!’
Sadly, covetousness is one of the most spiteful and destructive attitudes of the human heart. Like a cancer, it eats away at us from inside, destroying us both spiritually and emotionally. The negativity makes us miserable people to be around. It clouds our thoughts, darkens our conversations, and debilitates our overall emotional state.
Left unchecked, covetousness imprisons us spiritually, emotionally and even physically our entire lives.
It certainly impacts our relationships with both God and the people around us. Usually, its effects are more spiritual or psychological than physical but there are times where covetousness can take hold with very real physical consequences.
Love of Money at its Ugliest
Nowhere have the tragic effects of covetousness been clearer to me than in a story related by some missionaries in our church. The family felt called to minister to an impoverished community in Zambia, Southern Africa. One of the villages they used to visit was particularly poor. It had almost zero employment and the community was either on the breadline or starving.
One of the villagers decided to make a change and headed into the city in search of work. He found a job and returned to the village many weeks later for a brief visit with his family. He came back with cash in his pocket and bearing gifts. A television for his family and some brand new shoes for his children.
He had found success and brought the news to the village; there was work to be found in the city and their lives could change!
Far from rejoicing in his good fortune and sharing the joy of his family and children, his neighbors in the village were filled with envy and covetousness. This festered unchecked for days until finally, one evening, a group of men in the village forced their way into his home. They attacked him, beat him, and took the television outside where they smashed it to bits. They tore the new shoes from his children’s feet and took them outside too. Finally, they doused the pile in gasoline and set fire to the lot.
Once this was done, they calmed down. The beating stopped and the men departed. Their parting words were, ‘It’s fine now. We’re all good. Now you’re just like us.’
There are numerous spiritual lessons we can draw from this story. However, I’m going to focus on the economic impact of covetousness on this community. Economics is a complex subject with an intricate network of cause and effect.
Looking at this village as a micro-economy some might say they are covetous because they are poor and uneducated. However, it is equally true that they remain poor because they are covetous!
Consider the course this village might have taken if this community had rooted covetousness out of its heart. Instead of the tragic tale that unfolded, there would have been rejoicing at one family’s good fortune. In fact, a few others might have asked if the man could share his newfound knowledge and show them where they might find work as well.
Since there was now money in the village, trades might begin as neighbours began selling their goods and services to those families that had money to spend. Pretty soon, the money would have begun to spread around the village and a micro-economy would have been born. The surrounding villages would likely have heard that there was wealth in this village and would have begun travelling to the village to trade their own goods and services. Success breeds success and, in time, a thriving community could have been built. It may have taken several years or even a generation but the fate of this village could have been turned around by that one man’s actions… but for covetousness.
Such brutal acts of covetousness are rare in first-world societies. Even so, this mean-spirited attitude can still present in our own lives. When we see that pop-star or sports idol and feel the animosity as we consider how easy their life is. They earn millions of pounds and are adored by fans. It just seems wrong that they should have so much while the rest of the world struggles to make ends meet.
Covetousness in the Bible
Of course most Christians would not consciously be so uncharitable toward another human being. We tend to cloak our covetousness in self-righteous anger. ‘That money he/she squandered on that last shopping spree could have been given to the poor!’ we say. ‘It’s shameful that someone should earn such obscene amounts of money for kicking a football around a field,’ we say.
I’ve been guilty of this attitude many times in my life. At heart, it is covetousness and we need to root it out of our hearts. Let’s not forget, in these instances, the victim of our covetousness is unaffected. They don’t even know we exist. The only people we damage with this covetous attitude are ourselves. It is a chain that binds us in ways we can’t even see.
When we look at the situation in that Zambian village, we can see the folly of the villagers’ actions. We can see how they could change their situation and we can see the destructive consequences of their world-view.
However, we need to understand that those villagers can’t see this at all. They have psychological blinkers that prevent them from seeing what is, perhaps, obvious to outsiders who don’t have those same blinkers. They don’t see the folly or the consequences of their actions. All they know is that they are poor, that they are struggling. They are stuck in a cycle from which there seems to be no escape.
Now let’s turn our eyes inwards. Search for the log in our own eyes, so to speak. What cycles are we stuck in? What are we trying to escape from or change in our lives? Or what do we just wish was different? Then let’s consider; how might our own first-world brand of covetousness be holding us back?
Even when we can’t see the tragic effects of covetousness in our own lives, the effects are still there. The truth is we may never even see the chains that bind us. Not until we root out the sinful attitudes that hold those chains in place. Sometimes, the shackles that bind can only be recognised after they are broken and we are free.