COVETOUSNESS IS A VICE MOST CONTRARY TO TRUE RELIGION

C.H. Spurgeon

“And He said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” [Luke 12:15]

Of all the vices, none is more contrary to true religion than COVETOUSNESS. Grace may exist where there are many occasional sins, but never where there is abiding Covetousness.

Covetousness, which few men will confess, is yet a very common sin of professing Christians.

Beware of growing Covetous, for this is of all sins one of the most insidious.

Many a man, when he begins to accumulate wealth, begins also to ruin his soul.

Instead of doing more for God he does less. The more he saves the more he wants, and the more he wants of this world, the less he craves for the world to come.

This disease creeps upon men as slowly as certain infectious diseases, which slumber in the blood for months, until they find occasion to manifest themselves.

Watch against a grasping spirit, dear friend.

If you find the money stick to your hands, mind what you are at. It is all well enough for you to seek to make all you can rightly; you are bound to do so, and to use it properly.

But when the gold begins to cleave to you, it will eat as a canker, and will soon prove your ruin unless God prevent it.

Take a bright knife from your table and bury it into the earth in your garden, and leave it there, and see how it will rust. This is what will become of your soul: put it into the earth, and keep it there, it must corrode.

Let us not be content to tarry down below in the marshland of the poor poverty stricken religion of this present day. But let us climb the high mountains where the sun of God’s grace is shining brightest, and stand there enjoying communion with Him, leaving the world beneath.