Strength For Today | 贪心的反面

I once had a man come into my church office and confess the sin of gluttony. When I told him he did not look overweight, he answered, “I know. It is not that I eat too much but that I want to. I continually crave food. It’s an obsession.”

一次，有个人来到我们教会办公室，忏悔其贪吃的罪。当我告诉他，他看起来并没超重，他回答道：“我知道。并不是我吃得太多，而是我想要吃太多。我不停地想吃，已经成瘾。

Covetousness is very similar to that man’s gluttonous attitude. You do not have to acquire a lot of things, or even anything at all, to be covetous. If you long to acquire things and are focusing all your attention on how you might get them, you are guilty of covetousness.

贪心和这人的贪吃非常相似。并非你一定要获得很多东西才是贪心，甚至你什么也没得到也会是贪心的。只要你渴望获得东西，并全神贯注于如何得到它们，你就犯了贪心的罪。

It is not wrong to earn or possess wealth. In the Old Testament, Abraham and Job had tremendous wealth. A number of faithful New Testament believers were also fairly wealthy. The problem comes when we have a greedy attitude that craves money above everything else. Paul warns us, “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang” (1 Tim. 6:10). Loving money is perhaps the most common form of covetousness; it is akin to lusting after material riches in various forms.

赚取或拥有财富并没有错。在旧约圣经中，亚伯拉罕和约伯都极其富有。新约中许多忠实的信徒也相当富裕。可当我们态度贪婪，将求取钱财视为头等大事，问题就来了。保罗警诫我们：“贪财是万恶之根。有人贪恋钱财，就被引诱离了真道，用许多愁苦把自己刺透了”（提前6：10）。贪恋钱财也许是贪心最常见的形式，等同于贪求各式各样的物质财富。

No matter how it appears, this kind of covetousness breeds the same spiritual result—it displeases God and separates us from Him. More income, a bigger house, nicer clothes, a fancier car can tempt all of us.

无论它以怎样的形式出现，这种贪心都蕴育出相同的属灵结果—它令神不喜悦，并使我们与神分离。更多的收入、更大的房子、更好的衣服、更漂亮的汽车会诱惑我们所有的人。

But the Lord wants you to be free from the materialism that so easily controls your non-Christian neighbors. Your earthly possessions are only temporary anyway. You will lose them all one day soon enough. So God tells you and me to be “content with what you have” (Heb. 13:5), realizing that we have “a better possession and an abiding one” (10:34) in our salvation.

但主想要你从物质主义中得自由，它是如此轻易控制着你不信的邻居们。无论如何，你世上的财产只是短暂的。不久的某天，你终将一并失去它们。因此，神告诉你我要“以你所有的为足”（来13：5），要知道我们的救恩中有“更美长存的家业”（10：34）。

Is there any covetousness or materialism in your life today? Confess it to the Lord, and pray that He would give you a renewed desire to trust Him rather than uncertain wealth.

今天，你的生命中还有贪心和物质主义吗？请向主认罪，并求神赐给你新的渴望，渴慕去信靠祂而非信靠不定的财富。

Read Luke 12:13-34.

阅读路加福音12：13-34.