Title: Humans and Greed/James 1:14-15
Contents
Humans and Greed/James 1:14-15
There is no term more complex than the problem of greed. When I looked up the Bible about greed, it was not an easy term. But what I have discovered is that even if a person believes in Jesus and is born again, greed is not born again. Therefore, just because you believe in Jesus, your greed is purified, and there is no way that it will disappear or diminish. That's why the Bible says, "Put off the old self of the old ways according to the lusts of temptation." Greed should be controlled, and should not be thrown away, but we should not pray for it to disappear. But no matter how much I search for the opposite of the word greed, I can't find it. The expression indifference cannot be the opposite. As such, greed is a difficult word, and God tells us to cast off greed and have a good conscience. I tried to connect whether it is the opposite concept in the sense of whether a good conscience can control greed, but there is no exact opposite concept of the word greed.
I can't forget one of my cousins, Gojong. At that time, my brother heard that it was a water disaster and graduated from the electrical department of Busan Technical High School. At that time, Samsung Electronics established a factory and selected 30 technicians. 900 people from all over the country took the test. My older brother took the exam with a 30 to 1 competition ratio as a senior, and out of 30 successful applicants, he passed alone. It was also a topic of discussion that I passed the 30th place, but the bigger topic was that I took the exam after 6 months of training and got 1st place. So Samsung Electronics gave me a special treatment. This older brother loved me very much, but once he said these words to me, I can't erase it from my mind. “You also believe in Jesus, so why are people who believe in Jesus so greedy?” There was a conflict at work, and it turned out that he was a believer in Jesus, and I think he was disappointed because of that.
The root of sin is greed
His brother's one word is that faith in Jesus is in direct proportion to greed. If greed is mismanaged, it will fail even after receiving grace. We do not fail because we do not have faith, but because we mismanage our greed, our faith is damaged in our life of faith. As such, the problem of greed is a terrifying problem that is constantly being challenged by humans. But if we examine the root of the fruit of sin, we find that the root of sin is greed. .
If we are greedy, we see it as a bad thing, but human greed is the energy of a living organism, and the problem is the quality of greed. Greed is a quality issue rather than a negative view of its own energy. Greed is not necessarily bad, but there are good greed and bad greed depending on the quality. Then there are many teachings in the Bible about the root that forms the quality of greed, but the root of greed is values. The quality of greed is formed according to what value I perceive. So, if you hold on to bad values, your greed will worsen, and if you hold on to good values, your greed will become good.
Jesus told this parable. This is a story in the parable of the kingdom of heaven. When a man found a field with treasure hidden, he sold everything and bought the field. This man, having found a treasure no one has ever seen, sold all he had and bought a field. Because he saw the treasure hidden in that field. That treasure speaks of the value of heaven. A person who knows values behaves differently and has different desires.
good value and good greed
We should all have good desires, but as Ephesians 4:22 says, we must not follow the lusts of temptation. Do not follow the greed that Satan gives you. And they are told to put off the old people who follow the old customs. Old habits are giving up bad habits. Greed must be controlled and thrown away, but greed itself cannot be abandoned no matter what. You must have the right values that are the root of your greed and that influence your greed. When the values of what I will live for and work for are formed, that person's values will change. Hearing General Choi Young's teaching that 'look at gold like a stone', you shouldn't be asked to see gold and treat it like a stone. When you hold onto your values, you can think of gold as a stone. You can overcome the temptation of gold by holding on to something more precious than gold. What is the reality of our greed? Those who know a greater value than the reality that I want to get now can control that greed.
According to the people who keep Jindo dogs, it is absolutely no fun to have other dogs. It is said that Jindo dogs are not cowardly in front of any dogs. It makes the owner very proud to go with him. And Jindo dogs are said to know how to tell when to bark and when not to bark. Dogs do not know the difference between barking and non-barking. That's why they say they raise Jindo dogs even if they pay a lot of money. In other words, quality is important. Ladies and gentlemen, the biblical teaching for us today is that we should educate our innocent young children who are growing up with holy greed, not technique or technique. Many wrongdoers have the decisive bad behavior of their parents in childhood, and they repeat the bad behavior of their parents and become much worse than their parents. We need to raise young children to be children with dreams full of ambition, but we need to raise them as motivated children based on holy values and sound judgment, knowing how to make the right value judgments.
dignity for money
A Gentile monk and a Jewish rabbi had met and boasted to each other that they made a tribute to God. The rabbi asked, 'What kind of money does a monk give before God?' 'I take silver and gold coins, draw a circle in front of me, throw them into the air, and if they fall in the circle, I will make a tribute to God. If they fall outside, I will have them all.' 'What does the rabbi do?' 'I throw money into the air unconditionally, and God does what doesn't fall, and I get what's falling' This is a satire of the ugly greed of the Jews. In this way, ugly greed is connected to all human actions.
what is greed for
In apartment villages these days, both Tong and the class leader are women. I beg you today. I hope that you do not try to be good only as deacons and kwons in the church, but do it voluntarily if you live in an apartment village or a general residence, or if you are entrusted with a deacon or a class leader in the neighborhood. If you do it well, the gospel will be witnessed and the name of Jesus will be revealed. This is evangelism. We have to show our values where we live. Now, why I am doing this, the desire for the action must be revealed as a value.
God tells us that holiness is a blessing. The word holiness is a fairly comprehensive term, but if you put it concretely, it is not about going to a monastery to find holiness and discussing holiness during worship. It is holy when it is a guarantee that you and I are different. The word holiness itself has the same meaning as the word saint as a distinction. Our desires are different and our values are different. If our values are the same as the people of the world, no distinction is made to us. Differentiation occurs because of different values.
closing words