Covetousness

Recently, I began reading the book of Acts and enjoying the stories of the journey and mission of Paul as he travelled from Jerusalem to Greece and Asia to convert, persuade and preach the word of God to Jews and Gentiles alike. Fortunately, I stumbled into a verse in Chapter 21 that caught my eye, 'I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel' and I initially thought, 'what is wrong with coveting your friend's success or material possession, all it does is motivate you to go and get your own.' So I decided to look in the dictionary to find the meaning of the word Covet, which means To Desire or To Wish For Earnestly. It then dunned on me that Paul was saying that he never wished for or desired any other man's possession which means he didn't secretly desire that his neighbour's wife was his nor did he desire that his friend's donkey was his own.

You see, coveting another man's gold can lead you to steal the man's gold and in order to steal the item which you covet you may have to harm or deceive the man. You have suddenly sinned and may continue this cycle all your life. This is how robbers started stealing, they coveted other people's possession.

There's more, we know that we have been commanded not to covet our Neighbour's possessions which if we break becomes a sin and can lead to more sin, but we have also been warned to take heed/beware of covetousness period. Jesus Christ warned us Himself in Luke 12:15, "Take Heed and beware of Covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possession" and the Lord went on to cite a story about a man who had so much crop that his barn was not able to fit in it, so he built a greater barnyard and after building he said to his soul 'Soul, you have many goods laud up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry' and that night God took his life.

This tells us that yes, you should want to be wealthy, but be careful as you pursue that wealth and that your wealth is not what gives you life nor is it what to should be the determining factor of your living or quality of living. Also, it tells us that our money can not do anything for us if God takes our life. Only God has control over everything; he is the beginning and the end of our faith.