Greed: A Universal Blind Spot

Recognizing and overcoming our love of money and stuff.

One of the first lessons a good driving instructor teaches is the importance of checking blind spots. These are areas outside our peripheral vision that require intentional effort to see. Neglecting them can lead to accidents, injury, and worse.

Similarly, Scripture warns us about a potentially perilous blind spot: the love of money and material possessions (1 Timothy 6:6-10). Jesus warns that it is impossible to love and serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24). A significant part of greed’s danger lies in its ability to make us unaware of or numb to its presence.

In Luke 12:13-34, Jesus warns against all forms of covetousness, stressing that life does not consist of material abundance (v. 15). Unlike other sins, which are clear and undeniable, greed often hides behind a veil of a self-deception that says, "I’m not rich, so greed isn’t really an issue for me or people like me." Even though most of us are among the world’s wealthiest population (as evidenced by ownership of computers and handheld devices that enable us to read blog posts), we don’t consider ourselves rich because we compare ourselves to those who have even more than we do. Several studies, including one from Harvard, show that even those earning six figures can feel that they cannot afford everything they need. This self-deception makes it challenging to see our greed and, in turn, justify our reluctance to live generously.

To help us address our hidden greed, Jesus urges us to stay vigilant (Luke 12:15). This means carefully examining our actions and motives, especially when opportunities to practice generosity arise. Avoiding discussions about giving, charity, or confronting poverty is a form of self-imposed and chosen blindness. It is good to ask ourselves tough questions:

Do I really need this much?

Could I live more simply?

Am I able to give more to support God’s work and other people’s betterment?

Ignoring physical illness in ourselves is dangerous. Similarly, ignoring signs of greed in ourselves can be spiritually harmful not only to others but to ourselves. We are wise to place ourselves in environments that invite us to openly discuss our relationship with money and material possessions.

Comparing our generosity to others is not helpful because like wealth, generosity is relative. Giving $1,000 is a significant sacrifice for a college student. But for a high wage earner, it is a drop in the bucket. Whatever our situation, we ought to recognize greed as a universal problem…as our problem…as my problem.

For those with more, greed shows up as hoarding and self-indulgence.

For those with less, greed manifests as worry and anxiety about not having enough.

Money’s False Promises

Money deceives by promising security to us. We even use that very word, "securities," in reference to our financial holdings. But consider Jesus’ parable, where the rich fool believed his wealth guaranteed a secure future (Luke 12:19). But Jesus directs attention from money to trust in God’s provision, as shown by the birds who neither sow nor reap and have no money coming in, yet are fed and sheltered daily by him (Luke 12:24). Like the birds, our emotional well-being must not be tied to our financial status; materialism gives us a short-lived “happy rush” when we feel that we have enough and long-lived discontentment when we feel that we don't.

Money also falsely promises significance. Jesus teaches that true glory and beauty come from God, not from material possessions and the things they can buy (Luke 12:27). We often spend money to enhance our status or appearance, seeking validation through external means. This pursuit turns money into an energy-depleting idol. It turns us into rats running frantically in a rat race.

Our use of money can help us identify our idols with greater specificity. To let it do so, we must be brave enough to ask ourselves where we spend money with the least effort.

If we seek our glory in body image, we might join an expensive health club, hire a trainer, or get an overpriced haircut.

If we seek our glory in appearing successful and important, we might spend large sums on a house in a prestigious neighborhood, higher education, trendy clothes, or other things—not for their intrinsic value (none of these things are bad in themselves, and can be fully enjoyed when put in their rightful place)—but to make ourselves look and feel more beautiful or impressive.

We add to our own blindness when we tell ourselves that we are not greedy, especially compered to others. However, humility invites us to look beyond comparison and honestly examine our hearts. Are we clinging tightly to our possessions, or are we willing to open our hands and hearts to share with others? Self-examination is crucial for overcoming the blind spot of greed. And what is the measure for us? It is not whether we are more or less greedy than the next person. Instead, according to Jesus, the measure is whether or not, if asked, we would give up all we had to follow Jesus (Matthew 19:21).

Healing from Greed

We can tell we worship money when we spend a lot of time and energy chasing after it (Luke 12:30). Like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, we turn money into our "Precious," seeing it as the solution to all our problems—a pseudo-savior and surrogate Jesus. When we worship money, we will sacrifice nearly everything else in life to get it. Like every counterfeit savior, the love and worship of money will make hollow promises to us, then demand that we sacrifice ourselves to attain or keep it.

The cure for greed begins with awareness of God’s generosity to us in Christ, followed by a responsive heart that cannot help but be generous (Luke 12:33-34). Receiving begets gratitude, gratitude begets generosity, and generosity begets freedom. And the freedom Jesus provides welcomes us into a kind of wealth that has exactly zero to do with the abundance of our possessions.

Jesus teaches that those who try to save their lives will lose their lives, but those who give up their lives for His sake will find their lives, and find them to the full. Generosity is challenging because it requires us to first regard Jesus as our inner wealth and security who makes us rich in the truest sense of the word (Luke 12:32). Recognizing the riches that our already ours in Christ allows us to give freely.

God treasures us immensely, which is the foundation of sustainable generosity. Jesus, though he was rich, became poor for our sake, so that through his poverty we might become rich in him (2 Corinthians 8:9). This truth is the path to overcoming greed and developing a generous heart. Becoming givers when we were once takers stems from the heart, reflecting the life of Christ in us, the hope of glory.

As someone once said, the best things in life…

…are not things.