HAPPINESS IS NOT THINGS POSSESSED

HAPPINESS IS NOT THINGS POSSESSED   

"Covetousness, which is idolatry" Col. 3:5

In the paragraph from which these words are taken, we have a dark list of evil things against which Paul warned the saints. Perhaps the one which would by the ordinary standards of life be considered least harmful, or at least, less repugnant than the rest, is COVETOUSNESS. Admittedly it is not a pleasant word, and describes something which we all dislike in other people; but the ordinary man would hardly support it, for instance, with fornication as equally reprehensible. And yet it is the one evil thing, which Paul stops to characterize, and he does so by declaring it to be IDOLATRY, the most heinous of spiritual sins. It is evident that the Apostle looked upon it as a MOST DEADLY form of sin. In his Roman letter he declared that it was the commandment, "Thou shalt not covet," which awoke in him the CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN (Rom. 7:7-8). What is there in this sin which is so deadly? First, it is idolatry, in that it only obtains when man thinks of life as consisting in things possessed, rather than in RIGHTEOUS RELATIONSHIP TO GOD. No man covets until he has lost the TRUE OUTLOOK ON LIFE, and imagines that it can be conditioned by the things around. Therefore, it is a sin also against others, for to satisfy the desire, others are wronged. Thus, finally, it is self-destructive, for these wrong conceptions and activities always react upon the soul to its own undoing. And yet what ecclesiastical court ever yet arraigned a church-member for covetousness? Perhaps, the principle that qualification for throwing stones is freedom from the sin we would punish, is the reason of the reticence. At any rate, it may be healthy for us to allow our Lord to deal with us on the matter.