Covetousness And The oil spill in our Soul

I have been reading through Colossians recently and few things keep tugging at me and have given me much food for thought this week. So, I thought I would share them with you. In Colossians chapter 3, Paul is talking about seeking things of the Spirit and putting to death things of the flesh. “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth…Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Col 3:2,5

 All through Galatians and Colossians we see this war of the flesh and the Spirit. We are given the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22 and fruit of the flesh 5:17. We are instructed to produce fruit in accordance with the power that has been given to those who are in Christ to do good in Christ’s name. As I have been meditating on this lately I got this picture in my mind of our Soul (before newness of life) being covered in black oil. It creeps into every crevice, it chokes out life, and it stains everything it touches. That is a sad and hopeless picture. But God saved us and breathed life into our oil choked lungs and gave us dawn dish soap to clean up the mess! In my mind, I see a drop of soap going into a pan of oil and how the oil is broken apart and gives way to the “grease cutting” soap. This washing process is a life-long job of Christ cleaning up our flesh and slowly making us more into his image and less of our own. This is why we are told over and over to put to death the things of the flesh because there is still residue, there is still the stains of sin left on our souls. It will not be until we are united with Christ in glory that we will be made perfectly clean and will not battle the flesh anymore. 

Now, I want look at that last sin of the flesh mentioned, covetousness, which leads to idolatry. I think as women we have a strong tendency to envy and to covet. Not only is it a product of the flesh (a sin) but it brings with it a host of other sins. What happens when we covet? It goes something like this. First, we have fleshly desires that are greater than our desire for God, this is idolatry! We should want God more than anything else in this life. As soon as He is no longer our focus we start to focus on ourselves, therefore putting ourselves above God. This is breaking the first commandment “You shall have no other gods besides me”.,
 In this article, http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/discerning-idolatry-in-desire, John Piper states ““Covetousness” means desiring something other than God in the wrong way. But what does that mean “in the wrong way”? The reason this matters is both vertical and horizontal. Idolatry will destroy our relationship with God. And it will destroy our relationships with people. All human relational problems—from marriage and family to friendship to neighbors to classmates to colleagues—all of them are rooted in various forms of idolatry, that is, wanting things other than God in wrong ways.” I could not have put it any better. If you want to read more about covetous being idolatry that is a great article linked above.

When we covet from our neighbor, (their nice new house, their helpful and devoted husband, their obedient children etc) often times we start to judge them to comfort ourselves in the flesh. After we have committed the sin of envy and covetousness we add to it judgment. We start to make judgements on them to gratify ourselves in the flesh and to make ourselves more (dare I say it) “holy”. We see friends of ours who are experiencing success. They just got a HUGE new house and they practice hospitality all the time. But instead of us rejoicing we covet the house and their social lifestyle and then make judgments on them and try to pick them apart to find a fault. You look closer and see their kids are in public school, then think to yourself, “Wow, how sad, I really pity those kids growing up in public school and having such materialistic parents.” Or we may have friends that are super healthy and athletic, and we then make judgements thinking that they are obsessed with their body image and they should be content with their bodies. The sin snowball is off to a nice rolling start.

The good things that happen to those around us, we tear them down with covetousness and judgement. Both of which have no place in the Christian life. This kind of sin crushes joy. Women cannot share their joy with other women because instead of rejoicing with those who rejoice, there is envy and bitterness. The sad part is we see this rampant among Christian women!!! How can this be? 


Here is the solution. Thankfulness! When we love God we are thankful for his saving grace, when we are thankful, we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. 

 “So walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” Colossians 1:10
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony, And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Col 3:12-17

Let us become mighty women for the Lord with the peace of God ruling our hearts. Let us love our Lord above all and love each other enough to not listen to other women making judgments, enough to rejoicing with those who are rejoicing, enough to admonish each other with patience in the Word. Let us be known for our thankful hearts. Giving thanks to God the Father for all things, keeping our eyes fixed on him! Grace be with you dear sisters!