Avarice:
I saved the best for last. Not
the best in a spiritual sense but the best
case of “worst”. Everyone knows the adage “money is the root of all evil.”
Are you with me? That’s what people misquote quite often. It’s not money which
is the problem, it is "the love of money”:
759
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while
some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves
through with many sorrows.
Now since it is known that
misplaced love is mankind’s root problem, there is nothing more to learn. It
struck me one day, I don’t love money yet
I do evil things. There must be more to it than that. Of course, there is! Language
is a barrier. That’s why God confounded it at Babel. In the koine Greek, the
word is philaguria which is very close
to “avarice” in the English language. 759
Avarice adds many more offshoots
– or hairy roots- to the root of mankind’s problem! Avarice is “extreme greed for material gain.” 760 The love of money is merely the things of the world. That love of
things is referred to in scripture as “the flesh”:
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft,
hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you
before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
You may recognize most of these from the Ten Commandments which intent is
to make sinners aware of their sins – avarice. These things are not all
material gain as the definition implies. However, they are epicurean – that pleasure
is the greatest good, according to Epicurus. 761 Through pleasure, tranquility
could be achieved. Of course, that is the opposite of what Paul argued at Athens
against the philosophers as he condemned their “unknown god”.
Tranquility is essentially the need for self-actualization from the hierarchy
of needs pyramid of Maslow which was examined earlier. This brand of
self-actualization, however, is not based on needs but luxuries. It is what is
called “the pleasure principle” of Sigmund Freud who stretched “pleasure” into
a need! Pleasure for him, was to
avoid pain, which is a basic biological and psychological need. 762 Those
in the field of psychology have the uncanny ability to twist any desire into a
need!
It should by now have become apparent that avarice was the fruit of the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. How so? First, recall the twelve fruits
of the Tree of Life: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.
These fruits are watered by the Holy Spirit. Compare them to the fruits of the forbidden
tree from above: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and others. The former are of the
spirit or soul, and the latter of the flesh.
It seems that the Tree of Life has three parts. What is seen represents
God the Man called Jesus. The root, the unseen part, represents the Father from
which the Tree emerges, and the living waters which watered the Tree from below
represents the Holy Spirit who nourishes the Tree and its fruits through the
Root! The Root of the Tree of Life is “goodness” which is called grace.
On the other hand, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil has sort of an
unholy trinity. What is seen thereon has beauty, is good for food, and will
make one wise. That tree stands for Epicureanism, and its bark represents the
flesh of mankind and its symbol is the serpent!
That tree has a root as well. It is avarice. That root is watered with
iniquity. It flows in abundance in contaminated soil. From iniquity, or the
spirit of Satan, is the power from below – the pleasure principle which grows the
fruits of iniquity.
As the bark of the forbidden tree is the flesh, the bark of the Tree of
Life is God incarnated – glorified flesh which is incorruptible! 763
Of course, the bark of the forbidden tree is corruptible and will die unless restored
by Living Water which to be righteous one must drink! 764
Avarice, being the root of all evil. Is then mankind’s problem. The
pleasure principle enslaves the flesh or men, and eventually the flesh
destructs. The Holy Spirit circumvents self-destruction, and those who trust the
blood of Jesus, representing the Living Water, will receive incorruptible flesh.
That will be recognized by the fruits of the Spirit.
Avarice is man’s inclination and was inherited from Adam. Theologians
call that propensity toward pleasure “original sin” because our desires are the
same as Adam’s. Living in the flesh
is incorporating the “pleasure principle” into our lives. (Skeptics deny that psychology
is a religion but they merely created scientific terms for the spiritual).
There is a type of serenity which comes on with carnal satisfaction. That’s
where Stoicism and Epicureanism overlap. Each come to a point of
self-satisfaction but the ways to achieve that are opposite. Whereas Epicureans
achieve serenity through pleasure, Epicureans become serene through abstinence.
In either case, their peak experience is through themselves, not through Jesus
Christ.
Back in the Garden was where mankind made the first attempt to kill God.
He stood alone in the midst of the Garden just waiting for his newly created
friends to stand by Him. They failed God. They stood under Satan’s Tree and
listened to the serpent. God surely cried right then. Eve naively entered into
temptation. Adam voluntarily and knowingly sinned after Eve tempted him. Avarice
was the root of Satan’s evilness as he tempted children of God to become his children.
God didn’t die but did lose His Fatherhood. He allowed His creatures to choose
their own father. They chose Satan. 765
Of course, avarice
is the love of material things. Most of
the things on the last are wrong thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, but they
are those of human beings which are represented by very material things – the flesh.
Avarice is wanting things which appease the flesh. Idols are representations of
gods. The objects of mankind’s desires are not idols, the flesh of the people is.
Things are to appease the idols of all
the selves. Hence, avarice is mankind’s way
to self-satisfaction while the gifts of the Spirit are for satisfying God. He
gives the gifts then mankind uses them.
The best example of avarice was with a person in my church. His wife had
bought him a small less-expensive Rolex ® watch. My other friend has a fake
Rolex Presidential watch. (Note: Having Rolexes is another form of avarice). As
the two were group-praying at the altar, Presidential man saw common man
admiring his Rolex! Perhaps that illustrates why avarice is so wrong. The watches
were the “money” but the admiration or possibly envy, was the love of it.
Avarice includes about any idea which is “all about me” (“me” being any
of us). The earth is heliocentric. Narcissists believe it is self-centric and
so do those who self-actualize and take it seriously. Those into themselves
strive to reach nirvana – a state of bliss in eastern religion. I did take some
liberty with the “materialism” of avarice but as they say, money isn’t everything
but it’s way ahead of what’s in second place!”
The death of my brother demonstrated that the love of material things has
little avarice in the eternal scheme of things. When he was told that he was
terminally ill, he sold all his things in
preparation for his death; not for the money but to leave his wife with some
support. With death eminent, those his estate meant little to him. On his
deathbed, he carefully reached for cash and gave some of it away, saving the
remainder for his heirs. He gave away everything because it meant little to him
as the grim reaper came to lead him away. Where he was going, God would take
care of him, and he knew that!
On the other hand, most people place the value of money above everything.
In Kentucky, as in West Virginia and other places, the government pension fund
was spent on other things. It was insolvent, and mostly teachers were effected
(and affected). The Republicans, now in
charge sought to make it solvent. Some minor cuts were made. Of course, in the eyes
of the public employees, any amount was major! Under the leadership of their
union, teachers picketed the Republicans. Even my Christian friends had a streak
of mean-spiritedness. They failed to realize that the pickets should have
occurred when the fund when insolvent, not during the effort for solvency.
Of course, each person wants to hang on to what is die them. In the
private sector, I experienced similar cuts in benefits. Neither did I like
that! My company became insolvent and filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. I
could have lost all my retirement but was content that I got to retain most of
it! I thank God for that even with my
losses.
During the course of time, I have been very vocal regarding “social issues”.
Those are the things society has determined to be beneficial to themselves.
Usually, they are at odds with the Doctrine of Christ. Social issues are things
like abortion, same-sex marriage, freedom from
religion, and other non-economic things. We often hear, I am an economic conservative but a social
liberal. That statement is oxymoronic since social programs cost
extravagant monies. Social causes are avarice and at odd with spiritual issues.
Those protesting the minor cuts in their benefits screamed publicly like
cry-babies, and many were hateful in demeanor. How dare the governor steal our money! I agree with them somewhat. Those who were
tenured deserved what had been promised. However, the new policy was for those
without tenure but many of them cried the loudest! However, under the previous
administrations when things were going awry, they were silent. Neither were
they vocal when the institution of marriage was destroyed and the disgusting
actions of Planned Parenthood were being revealed!
What mattered most to them were not the spiritual issues but the love of
money. Their avarice was showing, and God saw it. I did too! Who would have believed
that Christians would come to remain silent as the Church is destroyed but be
angry with the loss of a few dollars? People are pitiful, and many Christians
are as well! Socialism has deceived them again with their social justice
without regard to spiritual justice.
There are many other examples of avarice. The commercialization of Christmas
comes to mind. Even birthdays are all
about “me”. What am “I” going to
get? The best thing to “get’” is freedom
from things!
Another brother of mine lost most of his own retirement due to the
carelessness of one daughter and the spend-thriftiness of his other daughter.
He was dismayed because his own livelihood was jeopardized. I recounted to him
my own losses in the 2008 recession. God took care of me in spite of the
losses. I am at peace because money means little to me where I am going soon.
The counseling was effective. My brother is at peace because peace does not
depend on money!
The best biblical example of avarice is the rich young man. 766
His social work was good, having done
good things all his life. On the other hand, his love of God was lacking as he
placed wealth over serving God. Many “Christians” today are the same; they do
good works but their love for God is lacking. Several preachers have told me
that when people become disenchanted with God, the first thing that goes is
tithing. The love of money is more important
to them than accordance.
Scripture says that it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a
rich man to go to heaven. 767 Of course, that is impossible to
do! However, there are rich Christians who are faithful to God. Most rich men have avarice. It’s not the money
the rich men love but their problem is its importance. Most wealthy people prioritize
the pecuniary over the spiritual. God’s dollars in Heaven is love! That should
be earthly dollars as well! Self-indulgence or avarice, is having other gods before
God. It demotes God to the servant – even a genie – and promotes selfish people.
It is killing God!
759 Holy Bible (KJV); 1 Tim 6:10.
760
Merriam-Webster Dictionary; “avarice”.
761
Wikipedia; “Epicureanism”.
762
Wikipedia; “pleasure principle”.
763
Holy Bible; 1 Cor 15:51-53.
764
ibid; Rev 7:17.
765
ibid; Gen 3.4
766
ibid; Mat 19:16-30; Mark 10:17:31;
Luke 18:18-30.
767
ibid; Mat 19:24.
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