What does the Bible say about greed?

The Bible passages below can be used in sermons, prayers, or pastoral care focused on greed.

Examples

• Joshua 7, greed causes people to break faith (the story of Achan)
• 2 Kings 5:20, greed carries consequences (the story of Gehazi)
• Habakkuk 2:5, greed is insatiable (like Death they never have enough)
• Luke 16:14, greed leads hearts astray (the Pharisees were lovers of money)
• Mark 12:1-12, greed can lead to murder (the parable of the greedy tenants who murder for gain)
• 2 Peter 2:14, greed is a matter of the heart (false prophets have hearts trained in greed)

Warnings

• Proverbs 15:27, don't be greedy for unjust gain (those who hate bribes will live)
• Proverbs 28:25, greed leads to strife (the greedy person stirs up strife, but those who trust in the Lord will prosper)
• Matthew 6:24, greed competes with God (you cannot serve both God and wealth)
• Luke 12:15, guard against greed (be on your guard against all kinds of greed)
• 1 Timothy 6:10, greed leads to evil (the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil)

Greed in vice lists

Greed or avarice appears in lists of vices in the following Bible passages:

• Mark 7:22, adultery, avarice, wickedness…
• Romans 1:29, wickedness, evil, greed, depravity
• Ephesians 5:3, immoral, impure, greedy
• Colossians 3:5, evil desires and greed

Reflections about greed for preaching

What is greed?

A sermon on greed can point out that in the New Testament's vice lists, greed shows up next to some of the sins that often derive from it: deceit, strife, theft, murder. In Colossians 3:5, pleonexia (greed) sits next door to porneia (lust), each a flaming and dangerous desire.

Greed is, therefore:

• not mere covetousness, which may be restricted to just an item or two
• not miserliness, the disposition to hoard, which might or might not accompany greed
• not stinginess or tight-fistedness, which might or might not accompany greed

Greed as folly

A sermon on greed can also warn that, like other forms of idolatry, excessive desire for wealth often competes with desire for God, distracting the greedy from their transcendent source of security. Greed can be socially isolating, interfering with natural forms of fellowship. And it can be as addictive as it is insatiable. Those who center life on their stock portfolio will find that it is never rich enough, never thick enough.

Greed is unfulfillable. But it is, meanwhile, a notorious troublemaker. In most economic settings, capitalist or not, greed ignites a host of crimes, including extortion, graft, blackmail, kidnapping for ransom, theft, kickbacks, bribery, trading on insider information, and other forms of dishonest gain — all of which, in turn, tend to incite malice and strife.

Like the six other deadly sins, avarice is a root sin that generates a lot of other sins and a lot of misery. It also generates ironies, such as the spectacle of communist party officials who want their position not because they believe in communism, but because they want power and the wealth produced by power. (Powerful and rich communist party officials are exactly the kind of people Marx was against.)

Greedy culture

Self-control around wealth is a challenge to Christians living in any culture in which greed is freely stoked and indulged. Snobbish advertising, incessant marketing, celebration of the wealthy as the true winners in the human race (money is how you keep score) makes economic modesty look like the refuge of chumps. In such a culture, the church will need to become subversive, cultivating anti-success symbols, behavior-modification giving plans, covenants of fiscal responsibility among members, and the like.

While trying to subvert greed, the church will also celebrate the achievements of talented and generous moneymakers who use their wealth to wonderful effect. The fact is that if money is needed to support the church's ministries, somebody has to make it.