Check Your Aim

And Jesus said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. (St. Luke 12:15)

          By now you have seen those MasterCard advertisements with the punch line, “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard.” One ad highlights the costs of a trip to Scandinavia for a man and his father – but in the end says such a trip was “priceless.” The ad clearly intimates that you too can create “priceless” memories by spending various amounts of money using your credit card.

          Priceless? Not hardly.

          But that ad works, because you and I believe that we can buy our way to happiness, and if we only had this one thing or that particular job we’d be satisfied.

          We’re not talking about going to college or getting a job and improving your standing in life. We’re not talking about saving money or about wise investments. We’re not even talking about working hard for something you might want.

          This morning, you and I are talking about a form of idolatry that is rampant in the church and in the world and, indeed, in your heart and mine. Our focus is on coveting (lusting after) what belongs to another person: his house, car, job, spouse – everything. The Scriptures teach that covetousness is idolatry, and idolatry only brings you and me misery.

          Priceless? No way. The price of covetousness and of the worship of “things” is joy in Christ.

          And the answer to our unhappiness and to our financial woes isn’t a good economic plan or a new credit card. The answer is to appreciate above all what God has done for you in Christ – and to let him be your satisfaction.

          We have arrived where we began our study of the Decalogue: with the topic of idolatry. St. Paul explicitly equates covetousness with idolatry in his letters to the Ephesians and to the Colossians, and that connection makes sense. To lust after anyone or anything is to give that person or thing the energy, desire and effort that only the Lord deserves.

          Jesus told a parable about a rich fool who made his belongings his idol yet ended up truly impoverished. God had blessed the man with an abundance of crops, yet the man failed to view those crops as a gift from the Lord. He instead chose to make them his god, in which he placed his hope and trust and in which he found his joy. He could have tithed of his possessions or given to the needy, but he wastefully built new storehouses – temples?! – in which he could place his gods. That very night, however, he faced the Lord’s judgment … and all of his possessions could not spare him from God’s righteous wrath for his sin.

          Is there someone or something other than the Lord God who consumes your thoughts and energy day after day? Are you angry with God, perhaps, because you aren’t a physician or an investor with a large salary? Are you mad that you don’t have the gifts or meet the qualifications to serve in a church office? Is there a job or a house or a spouse that you believe would satisfy your soul – if only you had it or him or her?

          Getting an education and a job and improving yourself is noble. Craving things, especially at the expense of another, is heinously sinful. It amounts to setting someone or something in the place of the one, true God in your heart – and that is idolatry.

          Note, secondly, the dire consequences of covetousness: idolatry always results in misery.

          An idol, by the very definition of the term, cannot give life; it only is able to sap you of life. After all, an idol is a false god, and if your idol is an inanimate object, it clearly cannot bless you with life in any form.

          The rich fool of whom Jesus spoke in Luke 12 trusted that his possessions would bring him security and joy, but Jesus noted that a person’s life did not consist in his property. The greatest need you have as a human is to be cleansed of your sin by the blood of Christ and set into a right and living relationship with the God who made you and will judge you. The rich man’s goods might have made his physical life more comfortable, but they couldn’t rescue him in the day of God’s wrath.

          Interestingly, in that same chapter, the Lord went on to exhort you and me not to fret about our clothes and food and possessions. Why would Jesus shift into preaching against anxiety after warning you and me not to make “stuff” our gods?

          He made this link because coveting and even acquiring more possessions does not lead to happiness or to security. Curious, isn’t it, that the more you lust after and obtain material goods, the greater your anxieties? You are worshipping a false god that can’t help you, and the more you run to that god for help, the deeper you fall into the pit of hopelessness.

          St. Paul warned young Timothy to flee the worship of money, because those who preach false doctrines for profit wind up straying from the faith and losing their claim to the most-precious Jewel of all, Christ. In that famous passage in 1 Timothy 6, Paul writes that the love of money is the root of every sort of evil, for it causes people to err from true Christian belief as they chase after a worthless idol. They pierce themselves through with many sorrows as they treat God and neighbor with utter disregard and go to any extreme to feed their idolatrous cravings for money.

          Jesus isn’t worth money. He alone is priceless.

          If you covet another person’s possessions or spouse, for instance, you will destroy your own and their lives in your quest to grasp what God has not given you. Such a bleak scenario has been borne out too many times in history, Paul warns Timothy. When money becomes your god, it will lead you into the paths of misery and of sorrow.

          Only the Good Shepherd leads you in the paths of righteousness.

          The answer to idolatry and to covetousness is to guard your heart – and to appreciate the work of Christ for you.

          Jesus says you and I are to watch and to guard against covetousness; this vigilance requires constant and prayerful monitoring of your soul against the lure of idols. St. Paul teaches Timothy that “Godliness with contentment is great gain,” much as he writes to the Hebrews that we should be content with such possessions as God has given us and be thankful that He is our never-failing helper.

          Consider for a moment your life from a heavenly perspective. While your financial concerns and your need to eat are important matters, are they of eternal consequence? This world is perishing, one day to be consumed in judgment. Until that time, you and I can look around and watch as our food molds, our clothes wear thin and our automobiles decline in usefulness. Is that meal or that outfit or that car really important?

          Paul remarkably declared he could be content in any situation in which the Lord placed him. That’s an astonishing statement considering Paul was imprisoned for Christ’s sake. After all, who could be content in prison?

          Yet the apostle rejoiced time and again that not only did the Lord meet all of his physical requirements, even more did He satisfy the longing of Paul’s soul in Christ. By providing the spotless Lamb to take away his sins and give him new and genuine life, God had given Paul all he needed. Everything else was bonus.

          In the end, it’s all about your aim.

          If your aim is to spend, spend, spend and to covet endlessly in order to create “priceless” moments for yourself, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. If your aim is to walk with the Lord in the light of His saving mercy in Jesus, then you’ll put possessions in their proper place – and you’ll live richly in the Savior.

          CS Lewis once wrote that if a person aims for all the pleasures earth can offer, he will miss out on the best of earth and certainly on the blessings of heaven. But if a person sets his sights on heaven – on glorifying and enjoying God forever – he will be satisfied, and he’ll also have the best of earthly living “thrown in.”

          Aim to know Christ more fully. Covet his blessing and his intimacy. Seek to exalt him in daily life. Then all those “other things” surely will be added unto you.