I don’t know anyone who is not selfish or greedy or both once in awhile. There is always something which tempts us in these ways. Not admirable traits. Certainly not the traits of Jesus Christ. They reside in our sin nature.
When we were small children, we took what didn’t belong to us and thought nothing of it until either our parents or our friends’ parents gently removed the thing from our hands and gave it back to its rightful owner(s). Other times we were instructed to share what we had, but when the play time came to an end, the friend left without our thing because it belonged to us.
As we grew a little older, we observed that some of our friends owned things we wanted, maybe things our parents couldn’t afford to purchase for us or things our parents decided weren’t worthwhile for us to have. We might have experienced a little envy due to the fact that we really liked that thing and enjoyed playing with it when we visited those friends. Sometimes that jealousy caused a bit of resentment toward the friend(s) who seemed to get or have anything they wanted. However, our parents explained to us why we were not in possession of that particular thing and either gave us the option of finding a way to earn the money to buy it for ourselves or told us in ways they thought we could understand why that thing would not be allowed a place in our home.
If we decided we truly wanted that thing and it was acceptable to our parents for us to save whatever money we were able to earn to buy it, after a time we learned whether or not we valued it enough to work for it. If we did, we diligently kept at whatever odd jobs we could hustle and proudly counted up the dollars and cents to make the purchase. The thrill of buying it and playing with it usually lasted about two weeks before this prized possession became just another thing we liked before the lust for a new thing took its place. Or we discovered it took too much time to earn the money so the desire for the thing faded and was easily satisfied by the occasional visits to the friend’s house who owned it.
Approaching young adulthood, we realized there was no easy way to acquire things. Work was a requirement. The task then became to determine what kind of work satisfied the soul while providing a way to make a living. For some of us it required schooling, some more, some less. For others of us we worked several jobs before finding the one which led to the completion of our goals. We also learned life had its ups and downs, and the old adage which some of us heard more than others—that innocuous “money doesn’t grow on trees”—became a reality we hadn’t really taken to heart until then.
As adults, we know there will be hardships and crises and things which require more money than we make. Homes, cars, children, illness, broken limbs, storms. There will be sacrifices. Some of us will overcome monetary setbacks with acquired wisdom from previous errors in judgment. Most all of us at some point in time will need some assistance from parents, loans, or short-term credit choices. If we choose the wrong means for our aid, we can end up with greater problems than our original need.
Christians are equally prone to make mistakes. The only difference is we can call upon God and ask for His forgiveness for our errant decisions, request His wisdom, count on His companionship through the fiasco we’ve created. He determines whether or not to provide a miraculous deliverance from our messes or if it would benefit us more to plod through the mire with His assurance that one day “this too shall pass”.
You see where I’m going with this?
As adults, if you’ve worked for everything you’ve ever gotten starting out at minimum wage and gradually climbing up the income ladder to provide for a family, do you want to give a larger portion of your earnings to the government to redistribute to someone who doesn’t work or won’t work or who works but not as hard as you do or in a job that doesn’t pay what yours does? This has nothing to do with being selfish or greedy. This has to do with enabling. The selfishness and greed come from those who want some of what you have because they don’t have it for whatever reason.
Socialism puts in place a dumbing down of the people. It seeks to equalize the work force and bring down the wealthier members of an economy, using their money to redistribute it to anyone who has less. The problem with that is the people in government always suffer from corruption when large sums of money become available to them. Think Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae: Franklin Raines, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd. So what inevitably happens is certain members of government skim off the top of this acquired money and pad their pockets before redistributing it to those they deem should receive a portion of it. Franklin Raines was fired from the management of Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae because of the poor job he did, but he left with something like a $19 million dollar payoff to soothe the black mark to his résumé.
Shame on you if you covet the wealth of your neighbor. Whether or not they worked for it, God will determine what becomes of them and their money. It’s not yours. Period.
Christians, be generous with what you earn, but remember this: “You will always have the poor among you.” Why? Because this is a fallen world. Everyone is not the same, nor were they intended to be. Socialism elevates an elitist government and is nothing more than selfish and greedy tyranny.
It’s appalling that a candidate for the presidency of the United States of America is blind to the devastation of socializing a free nation and taking from those who’ve gained some kind of “wealth” and deciding who should receive a piece of it after individuals in the government pocket their share, but it’s even more devastating to know that so many of this country’s citizens can’t see the horror of such selfish greed hidden under a pseudo altruism.
Father, we place ourselves in your able hands and once again plead for your mercy upon this great nation. What has made it great is founding it upon your principles and establishing you as its Leader and ultimate Provider. We are desperate for you, God. We need your mercy and acknowledge that our hope is in you, not in man. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Into the Fire 
Leave a comment