June 25, the death trap called covetousness. Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation,

into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

1 Timothy 6-9.

Covetousness can destroy the soul in hell, forever. The reason I am sure that this destruction is

not some temporary financial fiasco but final destruction in hell is what Paul says three

verses later in 1 Timothy 6-12. He says that covetousness is to be resisted with the fight of

face. Then he adds, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which

you made the good confession. What's at stake in fleeing covetousness and fighting for

contentment by face in future grace is eternal life. So when Paul says in 1 Timothy 6-9 that

the desire to be rich plunges people into ruin, he isn't saying that greed can mess up your marriage

or your business which it certainly can. He is saying that covetousness can mess up your eternity

or as 1 Timothy 6-10 says at the end, it is through this craving that some have wandered away from

the face and pierced themselves with many pangs, literally impaled themselves on many pains.

God has gone the extra mile in the Bible to warn us mercifully that the idolatry of covetousness

is a no-win situation. It's a dead end street in the worst sense of the word. It's a trick and a

deadly trap. So my word to you is the word of 1 Timothy 6-11. Flee these things. When you see it

coming in a television ad or a Christmas catalog or an internet pop-up or a neighbor's purchase

run from it the way you would run from a roaring starving lion escaped from the zoo. Take hold of

eternal life.