Coveting - The Bible on Money

“I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.” - 1 Corinthians 5:9-11 (NKJV)

That was one of the first thoughts that came to mind after reading this passage in 1 Corinthians.

There is a connection between these verses and coveting here. But here’s another point, first: As Christians, sometimes we get a little ahead of ourselves. So far ahead with our “righteousness”… that we leave the Kingdom behind.

That’s what these verses are telling us.

We’re so concerned with not spending any of our time fraternizing with worldly people, that we’ve deserted them. Who, then, can introduce them to eternal life through salvation? If not us, then whom?

Leaving someone behind, no matter what they believe, sounds a lot more like being an unbeliever, without love, than it does being a follower of Christ.

As followers, sometimes we lose ourselves in the blanket of our salvation, that we don’t see where we sin, or where we have room for correction. We lose ourselves in such piousness, that we’d rather turn a blind eye to the unfair way a Christian friend accumulated their wealth, than to eat lunch with our coworker who says he doesn’t believe in God.

No one is holy but the Lord.

Your coworker doesn’t believe, but he spends his time volunteering at a homeless shelter every weekend. And your brother in Christ has lied, cheated, and stolen, all for the mansion on the beach he’s always wanted.

Which one can you see the goodness of God through?

God cares more about our needs. And when we choose to love Him, He provides for our needs so that we shall not want.

Let us not covet and seek profitable gain. Instead, let us seek correction that covetousness blinds us from.

And let us shine… so that all people, believers and unbelievers can see God in us.