Greed and Idolatry

“For greed is the essence of idolatry.” (Ephesians 5:5 TPT)

Greed is the excessive desire for anything. We can be greedy for money, possessions, food, power, prestige, pleasure, approval, thrills--the list is endless. The objects of our insatiable desires become our obsessions. 

Idolatry is the excessive adoration of anything or anyone other than God. It is the worship of things that are tangible, worldly, and attainable by human hands. 

Greed is the essence of idolatry. Greed pushes God from the center of our lives and replaces it with stuff. We pursue our ambitions. We put our trust in our acquisitions. We invest in our dreams. The more materialistic we become, the more peripheral our faith becomes. 

"You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them—the usual variations on idolatry—will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God." (Ephesians 5:5 MSG)