The Four Sins of the Materialist
Rituals are repeated sacrificial acts of worship to one’s god or goddess. Rituals are an integral component to religion. Religion is man’s endeavor to regain communion with God on human terms. Religious practices are designed to bring comfort and peace to the weary sinner… for a price. Religion profits by helping people relieve guilt through pecuniary payments for sins. Priests advertise forgiveness through atoning gifts purchased from them and then given as peace offerings to others. All of this ties into the materialistic malaise during the final month of each calendar year.
Retailing temples dominate the American landscape. They are occupied seven days a week, sometimes twenty-four hours a day, with worshipers looking for salvation. Advertisers serve the temples by bringing the spirit of the season and the message of reconciliation to the moderately religious. Advertising eagerly brings in the holy day spirit, and worshipers are raptured into the bright lights and big city shopping scene. High feast holidays, such as Black Friday and Boxing Day ensure saving and satisfaction are guaranteed. Money back guarantees add to the promise of worshiper contentment with their new talisman of prosperity and well-being.
The secret to religion is to keep the people coming back. This will keep them giving sacrifices in response to the elusive objective of getting what their souls long for…peace with God and peace with their neighbors. Religion always intensifies the promise of bought redemption, especially when levels of sacrifice do not achieve the desired results. In other words, “your cheapskate gift is not accepted!” The incentive remains for you to come back one more time and try it again next year, with better savings than ever, and then you just might get what you want. The mystery of material satisfaction is attractive like a casino in Las Vegas, just closer to home. The illusion of happiness is elusive, but the allure is irresistible.
What drives the economy of materialistic therapeutic religion? There are four sins, maybe five, committed by the materialist: greed; covetousness; hoarding; and oniomania. We will consider each one and then look at salvation from their false promise of salvation.
Greed is idolatry (Col 3:5), and idolatry is sin against God (Dt 5:8–10). Greed is the desire for more. Sometimes greed is linked to material gain, and sometimes it is linked to non-material gain. It is the epitome of discontent. Achan was greedy in the material sense (Jos 7); while Absalom was greedy for the power of his father the king (2 Sam 15). Solomon would be happy with just one more wife (1 Kgs 11). The red flag for greed is often complaint. The rabble among the Israelites complained to Moses about the wilderness menu, and with quail in their teeth, God killed them with a plague at Kibroth-hattaavah, “…there they buried the people who had been greedy (Num 11:34).” The greedy man spurns and curses the Lord (Ps 10:3). It plagued all ranks of Jews in the years preceding exile in Babylon (Jer 6:13; 8:10).
Jesus warned against greed (Lk 12:15). Paul included greed on the list of reprobate sins (Rom 1:29; Col 3:5). Paul also linked it closely to sexual immorality (Eph 4:19; 5:3), as did Peter (2 Pet 2:14). Lust of the eyes and lust of the flesh are boundless. The more sensuality an advertiser employs, the more enticement to greed. The apostle also warned against those who entice with words for gaining more (1 Thess 2:5; 2 Pet 2:3). Clearly, the Bible warns us about people speaking sensually, first, to discontent us, and then to sell us on something that really satisfies.
Covetousness is more intimate than general greed. To covet has an object in view, where greed is more ethereal. God’s moral Law (Ex 20; Dt 5) prohibits coveting a neighbor’s spouse or anything else in a neighbor’s possession (Dt 5:21). The Law exposes coveting as a sin (Rom 7:7), but this knowledge only exacerbates coveting (Rom 7:8). Clearly, covetousness leads to stealing (Mic 2:2), which is also prohibited by God’s commandment (Dt 5:19). Covetousness has another twist. It is closely related to the sins of envy and jealousy. Sometimes, it is not the stuff, it is simply striving with one’s neighbor, who has the stuff (Eccl 4:4). He who has the most stuff apparently wins the competition, or does he (Eccl 6:1–2)?
Jesus warned that deeds of coveting begin in the heart (Mk 7:22), and the heart is wicked above all else (Jer 17:9). Coveting breaks the Law of love for one’s neighbor (Rom 13:9). Bad company corrupts good morals (1 Cor 15:33), and so Christians should avoid people who practice sin without repentance (1 Cor 5:10–11). These people do not inherit the kingdom of Christ and God (1 Cor 6:10; Eph 5:5).
God restrained the sin of covetousness in others when His people went to worship Him at the tabernacle (Ex 34:24). Israel served Yahweh when silver and gold idols were burned with fire, but the silver and gold itself became coveted during the good work of idol destruction (Dt 7:25). When God was purifying the land or the people, the materials under the ban were prohibited, but Achan again serves as the warning against wanting what God despises (Jos 6:18), by his own confession (Jos 7:21). Evil king Ahab did not restrain himself, and did not warrant God’s grace for restraint, in coveting Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kgs 21).
Fashion clothing rides the wave of trending haute couture. Lust of the eyes includes the heart coveting the latest jeans or shoes worn by a model or a neighbor. In the last Olympic Games, the USA track and field team set the trend for high visibility yellow track shoes. It was not long until these shoes were on the feet of seventh graders across America.
Hoarding is our third consideration. The classic example of hoarding is found in Luke 12:13–21. A greedy, covetous soul in the crowd implored Jesus to become the family judge of inheritance. Jesus condemned the spirit of greed (v. 15). He then told the parable of the rich fool. Successful productivity led the man into hoarding his profitable gains. His barns were torn down in order to build bigger barns to hoard his goods. Like the Israelites in their greed (Num 11:34), the rich fool was struck down by God, unexpectedly (v. 20). Laying up treasure for oneself is unacceptable to God (13:21).
Money and possessions are problems I have personally seen in my brief sojourn in this world. Each night when I used to walk my dog through our California neighborhood, someone was usually fiddling with something in their garage. I marveled at the stuffed confines of every house with its garage door open. There was not even one exclusion to my survey. Every garage I have ever observed in that town was stuffed to the maximum capacity without exception. Having spent ten years as a financial consultant, I am well aware of people hoarding money, too. Because we trust Merrill Lynch more than God, we store up money in intangible investments. Meaningless is the prayer, “give us this day our daily bread.”
Fear drives people to hoard money and possessions. They appropriate the lie of God’s unfaithful provision. Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth (Mt 6:19),” but Americans are very guilty of this idolatry. My wife is fascinated by a television program that highlights this sin. It is called, “Hoarders: Buried Alive.” Each episode carries the tale of two “victims” that have filled their houses and yards with material possessions to the point of burying themselves. A psychologist is brought into the storyline in every case. Hoarding is called, “a mental illness.” The cause of the behavior is usually something traumatic in the person’s life. A turn of events, or fortune, or death in the family drives the victim to comfort himself or herself with stuff. This sin is not so much linked to greed and covetousness, but it is related to and introduces our fourth materialistic sin.
Oniomania is the uncontrollable desire to buy things. Hoarders buy things for their first pleasure, and then they accumulate them, without discarding anything, as their second pleasure. Every year on Black Friday someone is trampled to death at Wal-Mart or Best Buy or some other store that sets an early morning opening time. The crowd lusts for “deep discounts” on selected items and even camp outside the store, in line, for days in advance. When the doors are about to open, people jump the line and force their way into the store. Someone falls and the mob simply crushes them to death while walking over them.
The human brain clearly receives extreme endorphin rushes from these exhilarating events. Oniomania is a heart/head tag team combination working like a drug in the consumer. The “high” comes when money is exchanged for consumer products. Nothings says, “love” like a new $70,000 luxury car purchased during “Black Friday savings month.” Of course, no one knows what that means. It does not matter. Advertisers have consumers in the palm of their hands, and consumer products manufacturers and retailers delight in the confused frenzy. Everyone should be happy because the economy is growing, right?
There are other people in this economy, and they sell something called, “credit.” This is a financial tool designed to help people spend money they do not have (5th sin?). Lending money at interest (usury) was prohibited in the community of faith (Ex 22:25); but it was an acceptable practice if you were a lender, but not a consumer, of debt in relation to Gentiles (Dt 15:6). Consumers often become slaves to debt (Prv 22:7), and this is sin. Christians are to lend, expecting nothing in return (Lk 6:35), which is really just an encouragement to unconditionally give to the poor and needy. The object is economic equality in the church (2 Cor 8:13–14), which has never been preached in my ears. In theory, people of faith trust in God’s gracious re-supply for every good work (2 Cor 9:8).
In summary, we have looked at some economic sins revealed in the Bible. We have seen how these sins are related to others and lead to idolatry, which is placing someone or something in a position of primacy above one’s affection for God. We have observed the spiritual nature of materialistic worship of idols, and how these sins flourish into addictions. They all originate from sin nature in the heart, and they manifest in ungodly sinful behavior. Like all sins, these destroy people, and for this reason, we must expose them as evil (Eph 5:11).
In conclusion, the hearts and minds of people are easily influenced by evil spirits bearing idolatrous messages, which cause impulses toward sinful actions. The one and only solution for these sin problems is for a person to set their affections on Jesus Christ. This is no mean task. In fact, no man is willing to give up the above-mentioned idolatries in preference for Jesus Christ (Jn 1:12–13). Even worse, every person is unable to deliver herself from sins of the flesh (Rom 8:7). What is required is a new heart beating with spiritual impulses from a heavenly influence. The Christian says, “I am persuaded.” He says, “I count all things as loss, save for the knowledge of Jesus Christ (Phil 3:7–8).” New values take hold, reordering priorities, and the stuff of the world grows strangely cumbersome.
Receive the indescribable gift of God, Jesus Christ (2 Cor 9:15). Take hold of Christ, and treasure Him in your heart and in your mind (Lk 12:34). No psychology, nor philosophy, can deliver you from the many and varied sins of materialistic idolatry. Only Christ can convince you that you have come into the world with nothing and you will leave the world with nothing (1 Tim 6:7). Only Christ can be your treasure on earth as He is in heaven. Forsake your idols and find true contentment and satisfaction in Christ alone.
It will cost you nothing (Is 55:1) but the price of repentance, which is simply turning around, walking out of your retail house of worship, so to enter His gates with thanksgiving in your heart (Ps 100:4). Treasure this Christ and all the other stuff will be added to you by His gracious hand of perfect provision (Mt 6:33). And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7), along with your wallets, unto eternal savings.
David E. Norczyk
Spokane, Washington
January 13, 2021
