Covetousness is Idolatry

Covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5). The cure for covetousness is not tossing a few dollars in the offering each week. Like chopping down a tree, an idol has to be killed at the root. And one half-hearted swing of the axe doesn’t bring it down.

We need to make an intentional, deliberate, committed effort to kill the idol of materialism, and only faithful stewardship… giving rain or shine whether it’s convenient or not… will cure it.

I am more and more convinced that the only thing that will turn our hearts from hoarding and keeping our resources into hearts marked by generosity is a renewed vision of the cross of Christ.

“For you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Who, though He was (infinitely) rich, yet for your sake He became poor that we, through His poverty, might be made rich (eternally).” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Only the reminder that our salvation was purchased at a horrible price, that our sins were washed white as snow in the avalanche of His grace flowing down from the cross; only THAT will be the motivation we need to become faithful stewards.

Captured by such a defining vision, Isaac Watts wrote, “Love so amazing, so Divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” If we are holding back from faithfulness to God in this matter, it is simply an indication that our hearts have not been fully gripped by the depth of God’s love and sacrifice for us.

The answer… the remedy is not a guilt trip from a pastor. It is a Spirit-sent vision of the grace and mercy and love of God that flowed from Calvary. That’s what chokes the idol to death.

And that’s what turns us from idolaters into worshipers, and from worshipers into stewards as we gladly give “our soul, our life, our all” to Jesus!