The Sin We Treat as a Virtue
The Major Issue in Christ’s Teaching
by
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THE PROBLEM The sin we treat as a virtue is also the sin (and its remedy) which was the major issue in Christ’s teaching, the one he warned against in the strongest and most severe terms. It is the sin that Paul called idolatry, and that he said he personally found to be the trickiest of them all. It is probably the most common sin we commit. Certainly it is the most comfortable of our sins, and the one we are least likely to recognize in our lives—even while it is doing the greatest damage to us. 1.1 THE MAJOR ISSUE IN CHRIST’S TEACHING What then is this sin that we treat as a virtue? In a word: greed. Or, as it is sometimes rendered in various translations of the Bible: avarice, or covetousness. The Tenth Commandment4 is directed very explicitly against this sin, in its various forms. Jesus said to beware of it at all costs (Luke 12:15)—it keeps people out of the Kingdom. Paul says that he found this sin very insidious, and he needed the clear word of Scripture to straighten him out about it.5 He describes the devastatingly deadly damage it does to our lives (1 Timothy 6:9-10). Its consequences are immense, and both Jesus and Paul give a lot of attention to what we must do about it. By far the most dangerous thing we can do is to fail to take these warnings to heart. Richard Halverson tells us truly, Jesus Christ said more about money than any other single thing. 6 Richard Brott amplifies this: In the Four Gospels, Jesus talks about money issues more than salvation issues. Doesn’t this tell you that He knows how greedy and selfish we can be? Surely He knew that we hold on to that which we cannot ultimately keep. Greed comes from selfishness.7 This question of greed—and of materialism, money and wealth—is indeed the major issue in Christ’s teaching. It featured more often and more prominently in his ministry than any other issue. It arose in incident after incident—the rich man seeking eternal life, the tax collector up a tree, the brother asking Jesus to judge a financial dispute, the widow’s mite, the payment of the temple tax or the tax to Caesar. It was the focus of twothirds of his parables.8 It was constantly raised in all his major teaching addresses recorded in the Gospels, and is the crux of many of his short sayings, and the point of his sharpest warnings. These will all be discussed in the course of this book. It demands our attention. It is a devastating danger to be avoided. It is the place where Christ’s teaching is most diametrically in opposition to the thinking of the people of his day—and the people of our day. If we ourselves have not realized all this, we urgently need to do a complete rethink. Truly, if we do not recognize that this is the issue to which Jesus directed our attention more than any other during his earthly life and ministry, then our concerns are not in tune with the mind of Christ. For this is the major issue in Christ’s teaching, and he said that getting this right is central to how we live our lives. He said that this matter really matters.
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About the Book
This book is for all those of us who love the Lord Jesus: because this whole topic is an issue that deeply concerns every one of us, and it really matters. Is there indeed a sin we treat as a virtue? Could this possibly be true of us, of me?
Yes, there is a sin we are treating as a virtue.
This sin is greed—sheer plain greed. Coveting. The comfortable, respectable, sin. But the extremely dangerous and damaging sin. It is condemned by the Tenth Commandment. It is the sin Christ spoke against more often and more vehemently than any other— he warned against it in the strongest possible terms: “Beware! Take care! Watch out!” It chokes the Word of God in your life, he said. It hinders a person entering the Kingdom of God and deprives them of eternal life. That is how serious it is. Paul said that greed is a form of idolatry and can destroy a person. He found this sin sneaky, tricky, and insidious. The risk to us from this sin is all the worse because it is so often not recognized as sin. It is so all-pervasive that we do not actually see its deceitful danger. But statistics show it is insidiously at work in the church, seriously affecting its work and witness in the world.
It is a trap and a snare that can so easily catch us quite unawares. Breaking free of it is in fact one of the most difficult issues we face in our Christian lives. Can anything be done about this? Yes! It is crucial that we become aware of what the Bible says about it, and then think through how to live our lives in accordance with biblical teaching.
This book will point to all the relevant Scriptures. Can you afford not to heed what they say? They just might save you from spiritual disaster. Don’t treat this lightly. Jesus didn’t. Paul didn’t.
About the Author
Ward Powers is an Anglican clergyman of the Diocese of Sydney, Australia. He has had the charge of a number of parishes in the Diocese, and has been on the faculty of Moore Theological College, Sydney, and of the Sydney Missionary and Bible College. For the past fifteen years he has been the Director and also Dean of New Testament and Ethics at Tyndale College, Sydney.
He is the author of numbers of journal articles and a dozen books on various issues relating to marriage and divorce (the field in which he gained his Ph.D. from the University of London), the three Synoptic Gospels (the field in which he gained his Th.D. from the South African Theological Seminary), and various subjects of Christian doctrine and ministry. This present book draws upon his study of the Scriptures and the outworking of their teaching in his own life and ministry.
He lives in Sydney Australia, where he exercises his ministry through Tyndale College, and through his writings. He has two sons, David and Philip, from his first marriage to Val, who died some years ago, and is now married to Colleen. He plays tennis each week and enjoys reading science fiction and mystery stories.