When I last checked the US Debt Clock (usdebtclock.org), individual consumer debt for US citizens was over $16 trillion! Let’s break this down. Everyone knows what a second is: 60 seconds is one minute; 1 trillion seconds is 31,546 years; 16 trillion seconds is 507,020 years!
Why are Americans in such a mess? The top answer is covetousness. We have got a fight on our hands. As Christians, we must win the fight between covetousness and contentment.
For a long time and by many people, covetousness has been called the Mother of all sins; why? Well, because covetousness will lead to adultery, to lying, to stealing and to hoarding. Covetousness starts in the heart. It is the seed from which comes many other sins. It’s a real battle!
In this corner, covetousness is condemned by God. Covetousness is not daydreaming about something you want or need; covetousness is a very strong desire for something that you do not have and someone else does have. It is a form of idolatry, which if covetousness is the mother, then, idolatry is the father of sin.
From the very beginning, man has wanted something that he cannot have. In Genesis 3, tempted by the serpent, Eve succumbed to the sin of covetousness. The children of Israel were commanded not to covet. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17 NKJV).
For the Christian today, covetousness is not to be even named among us (Ephesians 5:3). To the Christians living in the US, how much of the $16 trillion in debt is ours?
In this corner, all Christians should take action now. For the child of God, the fight between covetousness and ourselves should be a fight to the death. “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5).
We must be very cautious. What we want, and what we desire, are God’s. Remember, everything is going to be destroyed (2 Peter 3:9-10), and when we die, we are going to take nothing with us (1 Timothy 6:7). In this fight, that’s an effective one-two-punch.
