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| Greed and Materialism and The Seven Deadly Sins |
A delve into the world of Greed and Materialism and one of the more obvious Seven Deadly Sins, this one can still creep up on you unawares but will ultimately lead you to the same place as the other Seven Deadly Sins and that is ultimate destruction. It will be a roller coaster thrill of a ride but the destination is always the same.
The Oxford Dictionary Definition
Noun: Intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food:
What is Greed?
Greed is a sin that goes against the root of Christianity which is: love for God, love for our fellow man, and love for our bodies. Greed and it´s offshoot materialism (the love of THINGS) plays on the fact that everybody has desires (of the flesh) and wants the finer things in life and everybody wants quality, but absolute quality costs and will cost you dear. Greed encompasses the love, obsession and acquisition of money, acquisition and hording of expensive material possessions, gambling, trading and other activities to accumulate money and the focus on wealth creation and finally everything that this brings with it which is "Power". The old saying "He who has the Gold has the power" rings very true here.
Greed and Materialism. One of the Seven Deadly Sins
What are the Characteristics?
All of these activities have one thing in common they are characterised by excess with need beyond normal requirements. Gluttony is another Deadly Sin that works in a similar way to this one, but is more focused on food or drink, but Greed is the same bed fellow and shows the same characteristics and can be tied in with food as well.
How does it start?
It all starts the same way as all the other Deadly Sins. The first phase with Greed is what I call the "Seduction Phase". Bright lights, Loud Music, Fantastic Colours, Fanfares, Free introductory offers, 0% finance, Glossy Brochures and Tantalising Showrooms, buy now pay later SPECIAL deals, Black Friday Events, Free Glass of Bubbly, No obligation 14 day free trial and the hyper advanced sales techniques all polished off with sophisticated advertising that even a NASA scientist wouldn´t be able to figure out. If you don´t have the money, have this store or membership card and it´s yours....it´s simple!
If you take the bait with the massive hook in it and sign on the dotted line, you will sign up for a roller coaster ride that initially will give you a buzz like nothing else, admiring glances, doors opening for you that were always closed, friends will suddenly turn up who you never knew you had and it looks like the beginning of one long never ending party. Things are good and will continue for a while to stay that way but as with all the deadly sins when you start to realise that you are on a one way journey and that roller coaster ride is getting faster and faster and you want to get off....you come to realise that you cannot get off this thing.
Example No1 Rolls Royce v VW Golf
A prime example of excess or Greed is the Rolls Royce or Bentley. Take a trip to this website that sells high end cars and you will find the Rolls Royce Dawn is 300,000 GBP, that´s right three hundred thousand.
Now if we go down a few notches down to a perfectly respectable, reliable, quality but desirable car that most people can afford the VW Golf. THE VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 5DR TSI MATCH EDITION list price is 21,345 GBP
Lets put things into perspective and some sort of reality here. For the Price of One Rolls Royce Dawn you could have just over 14 VW Golf TSI Matches. One for you, one for your wife and you would still have 12 left over. You could give one to your neighbour, one to each of your older kids, donate one to charity.....that still leaves 8! This is an illustration of greed. Both cars do exactly the same thing, get you from A to B, have a heater, radio/mp3 player, have seats, 4 wheels, somewhere to put your luggage or shopping, a steering wheel to go round corners, have headlights so you can see where you are going at night and windscreen wipers so you can see where you are going when it´s raining. Only difference is, the Rolls Royce will have a better ride (whatever that is) draw more admiring glances and pointing fingers and oohs and ahhhs and will turn more heads and is a status symbol, but will cost you a fortune in fuel and insurance. You have to be a millionaire to drive one.
Q: Which one is the Christian Car? A: The VW Golf............. but probably second hand!
You could apply this to expensive Art in the Millions, 5 or 6 bedroom properties when the average family is 4 people, massive mansions with massive grounds, super yachts and cruisers, Chandeliers that costs 100K and need reinforced ceilings to support them and the rest.
Example No2 My personal Experience
As mentioned in the featured video shot in the Knightsbridge Area I personally used to trade the financial markets, share or day trading they call it. Nothing big just 4 figure sums probably equivalent to a good jobs one months salary or double that before tax. That´s a lot but it´s peanuts in the financial markets. When you play this game which is essentially gambling, two emotions will feature in your life 24/7 and they are Fear and Greed. Fear when you are losing money or buying when the market is going into free fall and everybody is bailing out, (that´s how you make the big money) or Greed where you are making money and you want to make more, and when you have made more you want more than that.
From my experience this roller coaster combination of emotions and some incredibly adverse markets led to myself nearly going bankrupt, ending up to my eyeballs in debt at the 5 Figure Level equivalent to a a good jobs YEARLY salary, debt collectors chasing me day and night and being homeless for quite some period of time. This is my personal experience of Greed, hence this article, I have been there got the T Shirt and lived (just about) to tell the tale. Others have not and may have taken their lives after such an experience (those thoughts entered my mind during that terrible time)
Example No3 Gambling Situation No2 The Gee Gee´s
Let´s look at a Gambling situation that demonstrates Greed and it´s associated emotions. You walk past a bookies and see a Free 50 GBP bet (terms and conditions apply) you walk in, get welcomed with open arms, sign on the dotted line, place your bet 50GBP on a 100/1 total loser horse with no form called "First Across The Line". The bookies willingly take your bet knowing this thing will never win and you have lost 50GBP (although you will have lost nothing it´s a free bet). You check online the following day expecting it to fall at the first fence only to find out it won and you have just won 2550 GBP (2500 plus 50 original bet). BUZZING You go back to the bookies to claim your money but think you are on a winning streak and you see a horse called "Definite Winner" at 20/1 rank outsider. You think go for it, put all your winnings on that horse all 2550 GBP. Check the following day it´s won again you now have 51,000 GBP plus original stake 2550 = 53,550 GBP.
BUZZING EVEN MORE thinking WHOOOO HOOOO You decide to go for it, put the whole lot on another horse that looks a winner called "Rocket Speed!!!!!!" at 10/1. If you win you will have 535,550 plus original stake of 53,550. That´s nearly 600K. You decide to stay and watch the race. Your horse is in the lead with 500 metres to go, Ferraris, Champagne and Ocean Cruisers fill your mind, private beaches in the Bahamas. 200 metres to go and your horse is eclipsing the field, along comes the last fence, it falls and the rest of the field comes past. 600K and those fantastic dreams go up in smoke, you walk out head hanging low. The next day you return with 5000 GBP of your own savings for your kids education to try again. You see a horse called "Bermuda Dream" it´s at 50/1 with average form but you think if it wins you will be half way back to that 600K at 250K. With that name it´s got to win???. Of course the horse comes second and you lose your kids education money, you walk out feeling the lowest you have ever felt. Thoughts of remortgaging the House come into the mind. You just know where this is heading.
This is a prime example of the roller coaster emotional ride you will get on with Greed and it´s cousin Materialism. That Free 50GBP bet is basically Free Crack Cocaine to get you hooked and coming back for more. The Bookies never lost a thing, you never lost anything either it was afree bet, BUT you lost that 600K dream and you want it back and they know that. This is how gambling works and The Bookies always in. It can lead to rack and ruin, bankruptcy and worse. Casinos, online gambling, fruit and slot machines all work on the same principle. The trick is to win that 53,350 walk out and never go back again. The clever and Christian way is to never go in those places in the first place!
Other Examples
There are plenty of other examples of Greed, the famous Scrooge being one and the act of selfish hording, Greed can lead to people partaking in theft of valuable items, robbing banks or jewellery stores and this will ultimately lead to imprisonment or worse but these people think it is worth the risk. The acquisition of power is another example of Greed, politics is a good example and careers another striving to get ever higher on that ladder and making huge life sacrifices. The higher you go through the ranks the more devious methods you have to use to get to the top, a selling of the soul is part of the journey, which many willingly do to achieve that power and rank.
Another example of Greed is doing an average job and working 20 hour days 7 days a week with just 4 hours sleep a day (excessive overtime). I used to work at Heathrow Airport (one of many jobs I´ve had) and knew a guy who did this. 20 hour days with 4 hours sleep (at the airport). He looked terrible but he showed me his pay slip which was 3 times mine with a big smile on his face, Looked at him with jaw to the floor and congratulated him, but even back then when I was not in the faith, realised he was paying a terrible price in the long run. I never followed his example although the opportunity was there.
How can you overcome Greed and the other Seven Deadly Sins?
Greed works just the same way as the other sins, your life will be starting to resemble one homage to excess, in Greeds case it will be money, power and materialism. It will display the same cycles as the others which is Buzz, Guilt, Depression.......Buzz, Guilt, Depression and you end up on a viscious cycle and become a slave to this sin and it will ultimately lead to your downfall. You will be perpetually trying to fill a hole that can never be filled. Could take months maybe even years but it will get you in the end. Greed is what the whole Western Economy is based upon. If people just cycled, drove basic cars, wore basic clothes and just spent money on food, water, heating and lighting, the economy would collapse as we know it. Hence the marketing and advertising to stimulate these habits in society.
If you want to really understand what Greed is all about watch the original version of "Wall Street" with Sheen and Douglas. It´s just a Hollywood film glamourising the financial world, but it´s a pretty accurate depiction of where Greed will take you..........that is to your ultimate destruction in some shape or form.
So what´s the answer? No man can conquer this on their own, there is just too many temptations in this world, advertising, special offers, credit card offers with 0% balance transfers, easy loans, buy now pay later, sophisticated sales techniques not to mention stores and online with their bright lights and loud music. These things are all there to entice and seduce to get you on this roller coaster ride.
To overcome these deadly sins requires a change of Heart. Power does not come from yourself to change the heart. Only God alone can make you a new creation and give you a new heart which will make you walk in his ways. When this event takes place in your life, the seven deadly sins of gluttony, envy, sloth, wrath, pride, lust, and greed will start to fall away and the power they have in your life will also ease away. Only the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your life can achieve that and then you will desire to live a life based on the Bible and not of The World and it´s desires. Non Believers will have a difficult time overcoming these deadly sins without this help which is only achieved by being Born Again and Saved.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
26. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Bible Quotes about Greed
Matthew 6:19-21
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Proverbs 15:27 - He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live.
1 Timothy 6:9 - But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
1 Timothy 6:10 - For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Ecclesiastes 5:10 - He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
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