This is the season of cheers. Christians have just celebrated Christmas, the occasion that marks the birthday of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Soon, the people of the world will be celebrating New Year. But even as we splurge and merry, we should always strictly adhere to message that Christ delivered from His Father who sent Him. There are many vices that Jesus condemned and one of them is greed. Greed is the excess fondness of money and fortune. It is one of the bad manners that draw to various evils and sins. Greed is selfish excessive or uncontrolled desire for possession or pursuit of money, wealth, food, or other possessions, especially when this denies the same goods to others. There are many warnings in the Bible about giving in to greed and longing for riches. Jesus warned, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:19 and 24). The Bible further warns that greed is a trap that brings ruin and destruction and no impure or greedy person has any inheritance in the Kingdom of God. Yet we continue to show our greed every day by the things we do. During the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, several lives were lost while many children were orphaned. When the Genocide ended, some children, like Pascal Ndahiro, found out that some of their relatives had moved in to their land and chased them away when they started demanding that they be given back their land. Right now, Ndahiro is trying to eke out a living in Kigali, while the relatives have stubbornly refused to cede his inheritance. He has nowhere to go but just to watch, praying that God will visit the hearts of his relatives and prompt them surrender him back his land. Greed is an inappropriate attitude toward things of value, built on the mistaken judgment that my well-being is tied to the sum of my possessions. We have mistaken belief that the more we acquire, the less our problems are. Ahab only coveted Naboth’s vineyard in his heart—one form of greed. But Jezebel, his queen, acting under the banner of entitlement—”Are you the king of Israel or not?” (1 Kings 21:7)—arranged for Naboth’s death and seized the vineyard. When we covet our neighbours’ house, car, spouse, or whatever else, we see them as rivals or impediments to our own gratification. Pastor John Kalimba of Christian Redeemed Gospel, Kimihurura says that in a number of his sermons and actions, Jesus warned against falling into greed, and the desire to try to acquire too much riches. “We know that the only disciple of Jesus who showed excess greed for money is Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver. Judas’ place in history of Christianity is that of infamy because of this,” he says. According to GotQuestions.org, It is the love of money, and not money itself, that is the problem. The love of money is a sin because it gets in the way of worshipping God. Jesus said it was very hard for rich people to enter the Kingdom of God. When the rich young ruler asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life, Jesus told him to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor.
