BEWARE OF THE AVERAGE...

And he said to them, "Take heed and be on your guard against all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of what he possesses." (Luke 12:15)

What is the place of material possessions in a Christian's life? How should he treat money, goods and possessions? The Lord Jesus spoke about these issues when he was asked by a man to intervene in a family dispute over an inheritance. The Lord refused to intervene in the case (Luke 12:14), but used the incident to speak about the role of material possessions in this life.

Those who possessed material goods received a warning from the Lord to beware of covetousness (Luke 12:15). Avarice or greed is the excessive desire or ambition to have more and more. After warning the disciples about this, the Lord continues: they must not think that a person's life is summed up by the material things he has (Luke 12:15b).

The man who had asked Jesus to intervene was thinking only about his share of the inheritance. In fact, he interrupted Jesus in the middle of a sermon to present his request! Is this not a typical image of the modern church and society? People are so dominated by financial and material issues that they often don't hear or understand Jesus' message.

To illustrate His teaching, the Lord told them a parable about a rich man who was a fool (Luke 12:16-21). From a materialistic point of view, however, this man was very wise and not a fool. He had become rich (vv. 16-17). He had vision (v. 18). He planned to retire and live on his income and enjoy life (v. 19).

Is this not the image of the modern man and woman? Is this not the plan of life that even many Christians have adopted? What could be wrong with that? After all, the rich man in the parable was not dishonest. He grew rich through hard work and the harvest of his own fields. What's wrong with preparing for the future?

The problem with that rich man was not that he was rich or dishonest. It wasn't the fact that he was planning for the future. The problem can be boiled down to three things:

(1) He thought of no one else but himself. It never occurred to him to give, to contribute, to offer of his abundance to others.

(2) He didn't think of God and didn't take him into account either - notice that God is completely absent from the plans he made. He could even be an observant Jew, with religious habits, who went to the synagogue every Saturday and followed Israel's dietary laws and times of daily prayers. But he was a practical atheist.

(3) his plans did not extend beyond this life—note that his plans only extend to "many years" (v. 19). He could not see that life does not end with death and that the soul transcends earthly life and projects itself into eternity. Sadly, there are also Christians who make plans and strive to secure their future as if they were going to live here forever. They lost the sense of eternity, the vocation of pilgrims in this world.

Note now the penetrating question that God asks him: "Fool! This night your soul will be asked of you; and what have you prepared, for whom will it be?" (v. 20). "The shroud has no pocket," says an old proverb. Accumulated riches will be of no use beyond the grave. By that night, he would be dead and his heirs, by the next day, would be laughing and enjoying what he'd worked so hard for all his life.

The Lord's teaching is this: we should not waste our lives accumulating goods and possessions to the point of forgetting God and others. That would be greed. It would be worshiping money. It is not a sin to get rich and to possess property and goods. But it is a sin to live only for this and forget about God and others. The best remedy against avarice is giving, giving generously and regularly to alleviate the suffering of others and promote the Kingdom of God in this world (1 Timothy 6:17-19).

SOURCE:

Augustus Nicodemus Lopes