The Evolution of Greed

It doesn’t take much to find evidence of greed in the marketplace or the boardroom these days. Greed has apparently become the motivation for many people’s self-ruination. The ultimate source of greed is the willingness to bow down to false gods. ….of all descriptions. It is a misplacement of trust in that which is ultimately incapable of being a source of trust. To call such things false gods is simply to understand what many have allowed to have control of their lives, whether it is their possessions or their obsessions, or their lusts for power in the worlds they choose to “rule.” Sadly the descriptions of those false gods would easily fall into that biblical description of idols written of in Psalm 115:4-7:
“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; they make no sound in their throats.”
Such descriptions relate the truth about those things we place before ourselves to worship and bow down to, rather than God. The “punch line” in this Psalm however is the next verse that says: “Those who make them (idols) are like them; so are all who trust in them.”
Greed is but one evidence of misplaced faith. It is the mark of a “taker” not a “giver.” It is the characteristic of one whose possessions take predominance over relationship. The results of greed are never attractive, but typically exploitive, corrupt, and abusing. Greed destroys those who are its victims and those who in bowing to “false gods” become overwhelmed with the never fulfilling nature of seeking what cannot be found apart from a relationship with the true Lord of all.