Avarice and greed.

Introduction

Although we are surrounded by it and it encroaches more and more each day into our society and economy, we hear precious few pronouncements against the evil of avarice. It is so much touted as good for the individual and the world economy that Christians tend to mute their opposition to it. This article breaks the silence and--rather than concur with those who extol avarice as good for everyone in the world--this article shows that the Bible and its first readers and the earliest disciples of Jesus considered it a sin, not a virtue. They having written at a time before the division into modern-day denominations, their statements are applicable to Catholic and non-Catholic Christians alike.

Avarice, also called "greed," is the intense and inordinate desire for money and temporal goods. Although usually a venial sin, it becomes a mortal one when a person in his or her greed neglects the virtue of charity. The earliest Christians, who were much closer than we are to the writing of the New Testament and to the traditions and values of Jesus and His apostles which were not written down until generations later, were at one in condemning it as sinful rather than a trait beneficial for individuals and society as a whole.

The essence of greed

The essence of avarice is usually considered to be or is summarized as the love of money. According to the Apostle Paul "the love of money is the root of all evils" (1 Timothy 6:10). Polycarp of Smyrna, a bishop and martyr of the first half of the second century who had known the Apostle John and other early disciples, repeated this statement in a letter to a Christian congregation. The Christian Sibylline Oracles, a work bearing the name of a pagan prophetess into which early believers inserted Christian ideals and values, also said that such love is the source of all evil.

Even the desire to accumulate a lot of money is sinful. According to Saint Paul, "those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction" (1 Timothy 6:9). The Sibylline Oracles called it a double-edged sword that destroys the spirit.

The New Testament

The earliest Christian documents, the books of the New Testament, contain instruction about avarice. First Corinthians 5:9-11 condemns associating with greedy people, especially greedy Christians. It includes the greedy in the same category as idol-worshippers, the sexually immoral and robbers. Second Corinthians 6:10 states flatly that the greedy will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. The Letter to the Hebrews 13:5 exhorts, "Keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have." The second chapter of 2 Peter, which may have been written by Simon Peter himself, condemns those who from the motive of avarice exploit Christians with false words (2:3) and have "hearts trained in greed" (2:14).

Origen on Greed

The early Church father who said most against greed was Origen, a preacher, teacher, lecturer and author who was active in Egypt and Palestine in the first half of the third century. The father of systematic theology, he was the first to produce a connected, organized and methodological presentation of Christianity so that it could he a rational religion worthy of acceptance by intelligent and cultured people. Writing more than any single Christian before the sixteenth century, he influenced all Christian thinkers for centuries to come.

Origen's Commentary on Romans and homilies on various books of the Bible include over forty-seven disapproving references to avarice. He called greed "most offensive" and considered it as bad as false testimony and violence. He said that it is a vice that should be restrained and fled from. He preached that Christians should master and exterminate this vice from their land. He warned his hearers not to be harassed by thoughts of it. He even said that avarice violates the Christian virtue of generosity because the greedy shut their hearts from the brothers and sisters in need. He opined that avarice is the source of many disputes and quarrels and that it impairs the mental faculties. He even went so far as to say that greed is worse than idolatry and that Jesus does not love those who even think of avarice.

Other Writers Against Greed

Some other early Christian writers disapproved of avarice. Among them, Clement of Alexandria, Origen's predecessor as dean of the world's foremost Christian educational institution, opined that it was a symptom of uncontrolled appetite, while a second-century collection of sayings for the Christian life considered that it demonstrated an excessive love of body. Writing in Tunisia during the earlier part of Origen's career, the Church father Tertullian condemned the person who esteems money more than charity to the poor. Nearly a dozen other writings from the first two centuries of Christianity regarded greed as inconsistent with a Christian lifestyle.

A pitiable vice

Avarice was seen as an evil not only for its effects on other people but also because it harmed the greedy themselves. In his Commentary on Matthew, Origen called avarice a "sickness of the soul" for which people should come to Jesus for healing. He deplored as unhealthy the state of "lovers of money wholly intent on money and on preserving and gathering it" whose avarice impaired them like sleep "drowsy in their reflections" and existing in "an atmosphere of vain and dream-like fancies concerning realities, not admitting the things which are actually true, but deceived by what appears in their vain imaginations."

Origen's student Saint Gregory the Wonder Worker called for pity on the person "who is left entirely alone, having neither brother nor son, but prospered with large possessions, lives on in the spirit of insatiable avarice, and refuses to give himself in any way whatever to goodness." Gregory wrote that such a person is "full of terror to himself".

The teacher of them both, Saint Paul the Apostle, wrote in 1 Timothy 6:10 that because of the love of money "some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs."

Greed among clergy and religious

Clergy especially are to be on guard that they not be greedy or lovers of money. According to 1 Timothy 3:3, a bishop is to be "no lover of money." The Letter to Titus 1:7 prohibits a bishop from being greedy for gain. Origen echoed this command in his Commentary on Romans. Perhaps because they handled all monies in the very early church, deacons were also singled out not to be lovers of money--1 Timothy 3:8; Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians 5:2; Origen, Commentary on Romans 8.10.4.

Greedy nuns posed a problem in the ancient Church. A Church manual of the early third century found it necessary to tell them to refrain from being actively concerned with obtaining money for themselves. According to Origen, the blessing from nuns' dedicating their virginity to God was cancelled out by their greed. Polycarp too condemned sisters who loved money.

Near occasions of avarice

The early writers exhorted Christians to avoid even near occasions of avarice. Origen in his Commentary on Romans counsels us not to attend theatres or other amusements that would inflame our souls to greed. Along with the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 5:9-11) he tells us not to be friends or partners with the greedy or even eat with them. This is particularly the case if the greedy person is a Christian (1 Corinthians 5:11). Second Timothy 3:2-5 also instructs Christians to avoid "lovers of money."

Conclusion

Thus we have ample witnesses from the early, undivided and apostolic Church that greed is a very bad or even a pitiable vice, especially when it has a negative impact on the greedy persons themselves or on those whom their avarice prevents them from helping. Today, on the one hand, we have the free-market economists and advocates of the view that single-minded pursuit of money and profits by every individual and corporation (or at least by those that are already wealthy) will result in a more prosperous society and world with more goods and services for everyone. On the other, we have the apostles, the Bible, the Church fathers and other saints who unanimously condemned such ideas and course of action as sin. Which do you choose?

David W. T. Brattston is a Christian freelance writer living in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. All Scripture quotations in this article are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952 and 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission dated July 21, 1993.