The Greedy

             The greedy bring ruin to their households, but the one who hates bribes will live. (Proverbs 15:27 )

Our society loves to condemn the greedy, all of whom they suppose to be rich. If you’re not in the “one percent,” or perhaps the “ten percent,” you can’t be greedy. According to the Cambridge Dictionary Online, Greedy means “wanting a lot more food, money, etc. than you need.” The problem is, of course, in that pesky phrase “than you need.”

Does an emotional need to keep up with the Joneses constitute the sort of need we should include before we decide someone is greedy? In The Screwtape Letters, Uncle Screwtape suggests that greed need not include only “more, more, more,” but can also mean “I only want this one very specific thing, done or made just so. It’s such a little thing. I don’t think it’s too much to ask, but if you won’t accommodate me in this insignificant way, I’ll understand. I don’t mean to be a bother.”

Greed doesn’t have to about money or things. It can be about power, attention, or anything else we might want to gather to ourselves. I’ve seen genealogies online that have obvious mistakes in them, so that no one else can have the true information about that line at the expense of that genealogist. And I understand their feelings because it’s irksome to put years of research into a subject and hand it to others to claim as their own.

So, returning to the passage, how does the greedy person ruin their household? Think of Scrooge. Money came before family, friends, and comfort. Think of the people who complain that they can’t afford a home of their own, but they have expensive cell phones, huge TVs, regular fancy manicures, wonderfully styled hair, cigarettes, eating out, pop, coffee-shop coffee, alcohol, tattoos, subscriptions to various streaming services, etc. They are as greedy as Scrooge, but in the opposite direction. While he had to hoard every penny and could never have enough money, they have to hoard luxuries so that they can afford nothing else and then complain that someone else is keeping them from their dreams.