I recently read Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller.  Here is a convicting excerpt from the chapter on greed.  I highly recommend the book.  Keller has a unique way of telling you more about yourself than you ever knew.

Some years ago I was doing a seven-part series of talks on the Seven Deadly Sins at a men’s breakfast.  My wife, Kathy, told me, “I’ll bet that the week you deal with greed you will have your lowest attendance.”  She was right.  People packed it out for “Lust” and “Wrath” and even for “Pride.”  But nobody thinks they are greedy.  As a pastor I’ve had people come to me to confess that they struggle with almost every kind of sin.  Almost.  I cannot recall anyone ever coming to me and saying, “I spend too much money on myself.  I think my greedy lust for money is harming my family, my soul, and people around me.”  Greed hides itself from the victim.  The money god’s modus operandi includes blindness to your own heart.

Why can’t anyone in the grip of greed see it?  The counterfeit god of money uses powerful sociological and psychological dynamics.  Everyone tends to live in a particular socioeconomic bracket.  Once you are able to afford to live in a particular neighborhood, send your children to its schools, and participate in its social life, you will find yourself surrounded by quite a number of people who have more money than you.  You don’t compare yourself to the rest of the world, you compare yourself to those in your bracket.  The human heart always wants to justify itself and this is one of the easiest ways.  You say, “I don’t live as well as him or her or them.  My means are modest compared to theirs.”  You can reason and think like that no matter how lavishly you are living.  As a result, most Americans think of themselves as middle class, and only 2 percent call themselves “upper class.”  But the rest of the world is not fooled.  When people visit here from other parts of the globe, they are staggered to see the level of materialistic comfort that the majority of Americans have come to view as a necessity.

Jesus warns people far more often about greed than about sex, yet almost no one thinks they are guilty of it.  Therefore we should all begin with a working hypothesis that “this could easily be a problem for me.”  If greed hides itself so deeply, no one should be confident that it is not a problem for them.

1. Jim Says:
   February 25th, 2010 at 1:12 pm

   OUCH!!!