LiTPP^Ti-ov _!;„„t..rf ri...- i;.o.,,;,„^;,; 1?56; Baur, Vorle- s.,„.,... . ,-. ; 11. 102-105; Volkmar,
-, .i;.,, ,.,. p. i.z; A. Brandt, Zeit- i--~, ]). Buff. ; W. R. Smith, RS\ 1894 ; de la Sainte Cine, 1889, pp. 62, 258 ; juv'tate Jxistins de,i Mdrtifrcre, 1890, p.
Christliche Abendmahl im Lichte dfr I. p. 6ff. ; JiUicher in Throl. Abhand- ■ker ffewidmel, 1892, p. 217 ft. ; Joh.
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re «' 10 1
red Je
pp 4b 60 1 1
1303 Tht lit r t 11
but onh 111 so lir a
Co\ enant idea See further ;
GEEKH\EDI;S Vos COYETOUSNESS.-This word (Gi xX^ovt^la.) ha.s the root-idea of greed, shown in a strong desire to acquire, even more than in a keen wish to keep. In the Gospels, as elsewhere in Scripture [see, how- ever, Eph 4"], the term is confined to a reference to property ; the verb (wXeoveKT^a) is wider in sense. As the complexity of social life increases, so may the shapes the evil can as.sume. To ordinary avarice have to be added subtle temptations in the realm of rank and fashion, conventional ambition, cultured ease, or delight in successful activity unsubordinated to ethical aims. The tinge of covetousness comes in wherever men so absorb their life in the temporal that they impair its high instincts for the spiritual. ' Wliat is a man profited, if he sliall gain the wliole world and lose his own soul ? ' (Mt 16=«).
To the mind of Jesus wliat stands condemned is, characteristically, the possession of a certain spirit— the spirit of grasping selfishness. The forms assumed, the methods employed, are not minutely dealt with, and not matters for specific cure. Rather the one tap-root is to be cut, or a general atmosphere created in which the noxious weed must perish. And the almighty power to this end is the holy spirit of the gospel, which on the one hand is a spirit of loving trust towards God the Father in providence, and on the other a tender feeling towards fellow-mortals which prompts to ready sacrifice of all things to their good. The iiiaii with the great possessions (Mk 10"), who ;ittr;utt'il .losus, had yet one luxury to discover- thai ..t dnjuu ^ood, giving to the poor, and so cuvrtin- wralili uf the riglit kind. Not the coming tu uur iiaiuls of earthly good is con- demned, but the absence of the one spirit which shall inform and vitalize its use. The triumph of religion is to turn it into ' treasure in heaven ' (v.^'). A classical passage is Mt 6'"", with which com- pare Lk 12---*' and I6'''\ Tlie higher life being concerned with faitli and i:iin,liiess and the things of the spirit— the realm i. vealed in the Beatitudes, it is clear inversion to be al)^urbed for their own sake in the things of time and sense. ' Moth and rust ' are the emblems of their corruptibility ; and theyare unstable, like property exposed to ' thieves.' It is the mark of a pagan mind to be full of anxious and self-centred concern for meat and drink and raiment (v.^=). Such persons reverse unconsciously Christ's principle that ' the life is more than meat ' (Mt6"); and the Pharisees, 'who were covetous' (Lk 16'''), by their blindness to the true order of importance called forth essentially the same re- I buke, ' that which is highly esteemed amongst men, ' is abomination in the sight of God ' (v."). Though
COWARDICE
CREATION
381
they had one eye for religion, tliey kept the otlier for the worUl, hence inevitably their truly distorted views. In the last resort of psychological analysis ' no man can serve two masters ' (Mt 6^), and the Pliarisees are pilloried for evermore as the awful example of hypocrisy in this respect. With Jesus, in these passages, the first postulate of religious worth is, that people must be single-minded and whole-hearted in service — ' Whero yoiir treasure is, there will your heart lie al-n" (Mt ('>'-'). And to
only one quarter can thi- rnliulitr 1 In-art turn—
' the kingdom of God and his lit^hti'dusness' (v.^-''). Coincident with that, as lumible faith feels, all needed things shall be added unto us. With exquisite insight Jesus points to the fowls of the air and the lilies of the field as eloquent at once of the minuteness of Divine Providence, and the trust we may place in a Heavenly Father's care. 'Are not ye,' He asks, 'much better than they?' ( V.'*). (Cf. as an enforcement of the lesson, Christ's own unworldliness of character, and trustfulness in earthly matters. And as a counter-illustration to the Pharisees, cf. the convert from their straitest sect, St. Paul, who having food and raiment learned therewith to be content, 1 Ti 6«, cf. Ph 4").
On a question arising of family inheritance (Lk 12'''''^), Jesus warns against covetousness, and for impressive depth nothing excels the summary there — ' A man's life consisteth not in the abun- dance of the things which he possesseth ' (v.'^). As one concerned with the spiritual domain, Jesus refuses to touch the civil matter of property. Wisdom lay in leaving questions of the law to lawyers, although the consideration is doubtless implied that even then there should be found a permeation of the Christian spiiit. The point which Jesus presses is fhi- falsity of the vulgar notion that it is 'possessions' whicli make life worth living. Devotion to tlie outward is, in His gospel, vanity ; tlie loving and discerning soul has God for its possession, and from sheer sympathy of heart joys in His work amongst men.