Q20. Greed

[Pastor Ralph]

Q20. (1 Kings 21:26; Colossians 3:5; Ephesians 5:5) What is the modern-day equivalent of idolatry? In what ways is greed similar to worshipping a false god? How does greed keep us from being true disciples of Jesus?

[Siphoñ]

Q20(1Kings21:26;Colossians 3:5;Ephesians 5:5)What is the modern day equivalent of idolatry?In what ways is greed similar to worship false God?How does greed keep us from being true disciples of Jesus?

Sexual immorality,impurity, **** and evil desire are equivalent of idolatry. 

Greed is when a person serving to Gods this is against God commandments. 

Paul says no greedy or idolatry will inherit the kingdom of God.  

[Krissi]

Primitive people, it is said, need idols to help them conceptualize the unconceptualizable – God. Idols are just a prompt. A way of learning. An idol corrects the mind when it goes down errant paths, so it functions as a visible reminder of the way God is.

None of this is true, of course.

I firmly believe that every person on this earth has a religion; a faith or fear in something. Religions don’t need a god. Secularism, for one, is a godless religion, though it’s not a religion without idols. I know (or know of) people who worship artificial intelligence seeing in it the destruction or hope of humankind. Their idol is technology. I know many Greenies whose strange millennialism is a hope in the restoration of the earth. Their idol is the earth. Politics functions as idol for many as it alluringly combines power and a sense of purpose. Behavioral rituals that accompany strange sexual perversions, an obsession with food, fitness and health, the constant checking of one’s cell phone, women who cling to fading beauty with morning routines that take hours … these rituals are religious, in a way.

People without our God manufacture their own gods as compensation, for everyone must have a religion. Idols aren’t something that people “back then” used to make, but something people now – very intelligent people, at times – make without self-awareness. Once I began to look for idols, I found them everywhere. Idols are ubiquitous in our culture.

In the Colossians and Ephesians verses, greed is an item on a list that are idolatrous. I read those lists as consequences or proof of idolatry, not equivalences. I see them are evidences of an un-Christian character.

A true, mature Christian has few idols. Idols, in the Christian life, are sins that have not yet been put away. We all have them. They’re the things we don’t want to deal with, not those we struggle with.

[Katy]

Q20. Modern day idolatry can be subjective and can take us off guard. What I mean is that I might regard something as idolatry but my family may regard it as progressive. Eg decorating too often, changing furniture and fittings, mainly done for show. That money could be used to give to a missionary agency, or to buy something for a poor person. Anything that takes us away from spending time with God is idolatry. We all have duties that have to be carried out but we must make time to spend with the Lord. That may involve getting up earlier etc. We need His leading and guiding each day to keep us from idolatry. If we are in doubt if we are guilty or not of idolatry, He will guide us if we earnestly seek Him. If we have idols in our lives it means that we do not find Jesus is sufficient, we feel the need to supplement with something else. How sinful this is, to demonstrate to Jesus that He and what He has done is not enough for us. It must be a sign to us that we are not immersed enough in the things of God.  We don’t know Him properly and certainly don’t understand all that He has done for us. 

[hanks]

Q20. (1 Kings 21:26; Colossians 3:5; Ephesians 5:5) 
What is the modern-day equivalent of idolatry? In what ways is greed similar to worshipping a false god? How does greed keep us from being true disciples of Jesus? 
Unlike the olden days when people put their trust in stone or wood statues, to provide for their every need, today we put our trust in money, to provide for our every need. But putting our trust in anything but God is idolatry. Our modern-day idols are the symbols of power, pleasure, or prestige. We seem to think that the more we possess the happier we will be, and this has given us over to greed, which is idolatry (Col 3:5). Jesus Himself warned us: “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). Jesus should know – He is our creator! We need to ask ourselves if we have an excessive yearning for material possessions, for power, for pleasure, or for prestige. If this is so, we need to take this as a most earnest warning, telling us that through our greed, our focus is not on our Lord, but on the false gods of possessions, power, pleasure, or prestige. The world has got this all wrong by measuring a person by what he owns, instead of what he is. In 1 John 2:16 we read: “For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the **** of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world.” The love for the world is not compatible with love for our Lord Jesus, thus keeping us away from being His true disciples. The **** of the flesh is our evil appetites within our nature; the **** of the eyes is our evil desires from what we see; the boasting is our unholy drive for self-glory. Worldliness is the love for passing things, and we will never find true happiness with things. Pure joy is only found in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 

[lighthouse2014]

Modern day idolatry may not look like ancient worship of hand made idols, myths or celestial constellations, but greed, phonography, drugs, wealth, material goods, hording to name a few will keep us from worshiping the true God. If our heart takes us to greed then we have become gods over the things we desire. 

[Christopher Olamiji Taiwo]

Q20. (1 Kings 21:26; Colossians 3:5; Ephesians 5:5) What is the modern-day equivalent of idolatry? In what ways is greed similar to worshipping a false god? How does greed keep us from being true disciples of Jesus?

In the modern day the equivalent of idolatry are the worldly life, such as fornication, adultery and other evil desires contrary to holy life. 

Greed is similar to worshipping a false god, because a greed man is an evil man, they are so concerned about their money than God. 

Greed keep us being a true disciple of Jesus Christ because we are so much concerned about the money and property than things of God. 

[Irmela]

Q20. (1 Kings 21:26; Colossians 3:5; Ephesians 5:5)

What is the modern-day equivalent of idolatry?

In what ways is greed similar to worshiping a false god?

How does greed keep us from being true disciples of Jesus?

Desire for something that is not ours to have, is a form of idolatry. This can be material things, it can be in way of a job, it can be physically or mentally, in learning or what we have acquired in life (like an insatiable desire to climb the social ladder, or keeping up with the Joneses).  Colossians 3:5 does not beat about the bush but puts it very plainly.  

immorality    (whoredom)      (fornication)

impurity      (uncleanness)

sinful passion

evil desire

greed   (covetousness)

The Amplified Version reads that these things listed are a kind of idolatry because it replaces your devotion to God.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

The thing coveted is idolatry is commonly found the erotomaniac behavior of so many today.   Via the internet and mass media, people are enamored by having a mental possession of a famous actor, popular movie star, brilliant preacher, or a prince.  It is a diseased form of love coupled with idolatrous admiration and worship.

Pleonoxia is centered on something or someone that is not godly.  Those that went to the pagan temples in Ephesus or in Corinth, were full of pleonoxia.   They were centered on immoral behaviours and on idols.    Their hearts were not centered on Yahweh.   Prophet Ezekiel makes this very clear.   Many times in his sermons, prophecies and visions, this pleonoxia robs people of their full attention to Yahweh.  They cannot be obedient to DEUTERONOMY 6:4.   The Shekinah  left the Temple was partly due to the idol that was by the northern gate.   Yahweh is our jealous God.   Prophet Ezekiel saw the impure idols in the secret chamber.  God will not tolerate secret sins.    Many people today don't have a deep understanding of the HOLINESS OF GOD; secret sins cannot be present in the lives of true BIBLE CHRISTIANS.

Our focus ends up on the wrong things.  Luke 12: 13-15 is an eye opener.  Covetousness is forbidden for the Christain.  It will cause the soul gracious harm (1 Corinthians 5:11; Ephesians 5:3-5; 1 Timothy 6: 9-11).   It must be uprooted from the heart of a Christian.    We are called to the royal priesthood, a holy nation; we are a different people.  We have a much serious calling, no time to waste in matters of the world, the flesh and the devil.

[blezed]

What is the modern-day equivalent of idolatry?

Modern-day equivalent of idolatry is sexual immorality, impurity, ****, evil desires and greed.

In what ways is greed similar to worshiping a false god?  How does greed keep us from being true disciples of Jesus?

Greed is idolatry. You cannot serve God and Mammon both. One will go lacking.

 

 

[JOLLAM BANDA]

Greed is the modern day idolatry. Greed is idolatry because when it gets into someone it takes him or her away from God in terms of devotion, reliance, time and worship.  Anything a pesron supremely desire and covet is his or her god which is idolatry. Jesus teaches us to love one another and anyone who doesn’t love is not a disciple of Jesus Christ. Greed keeps us from loving others. Covetousness is the root of all sin, because it is a selfish desire. Adam and Eve sinned through covetousness. They craved for themselves what God had not given them. The same discontentment infects the human race today.

[Kym Nixon]

Materialism, idol worship of celebrities, fame, power. Greed makes a person worship the object of their affection, which are things. They look to money as their provider and security instead of God. jesus said you can't worship God and mammon. You will love one and hate the other. They are polar opposite desires that clash with discipleship of Jesus.

[Old Jerry]

I think that the modern-day equivalent of idolatry is running after money and all the things that it can buy. Sex and violence in TV is another idol we worship. The way that greed is similar to worshipping a false god is because take a football game. If it comes on during church time they will stay home and watch the game. We chase after greed instead of Jesus.