For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

• 1 Timothy 6:10

The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the Lord your God.

• Deuteronomy 7:25

“From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.

• Jeremiah 6:13

Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.

• Jeremiah 8:10

So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked by your lewd conduct.

• Ezekiel 16:27

My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to hear your words, but they do not put them into practice. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain.

• Ezekiel 33:31

About the title…

“For greed all nature is too little.”

• Seneca the Younger

I am continuing the series of quizzes on the “seven deadly sins: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth.”

We will look at “Greed”.  Questions might pertain to verses that contain the words “greed or greedy.”  There are 25 such verses in the NIV, but greed is found throughout the Bible as a terrible sin.  It is related to covetousness.  Otherwise, why would we want more than we have?  It points toward a distrust in God’s provision.

The questions are in Biblical order.  Only four questions are from the Old Testament.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Psalm 10 talks of the wicked man who blesses the greedy, reviles the Lord, but hunts down whom?
2	The greedy bring ruin to their households, but those who hate what will live?
3	God had to turn His face from His Chosen People due to their sinful greed, but what will he do for them?
4	How greedy is the wicked foe in Habakkuk 1 and 2?
5	Both Matthew and Luke mentions Jesus passing woes onto the teachers of the Law and Pharisees.  Jesus says that they clean the outside of their cup, but the inside is full of greed and what?  Note: It is a different word in each of these Gospels, roughly synonymous.
6	When Jesus taught His disciples to not be greedy, He mentioned that life does not consist of an abundance of what?
7	What should the Corinthians do when around greedy people and a variety of other bad attitudes and behaviors?
8	In First Corinthians 6, Paul lists nine types of people who will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Greedy people are one of these.  List at least two others.
9	In Ephesians 5, Paul lists three things that he relates to idolatry.  One is greed, what is one of the other two?
10	In 2 Peter 2, Peter warns of false teachers.  He mentions that they are bold, arrogant, and greedy, but what Commandments are they breaking?

I have written about greed a few times.  And one of the problems is that we compare ourselves with others.

When we covet the things that the neighbors have, that brings greed into the picture.  We can get what we need by legal or illegal means.  We could steal what we need.  We could bear false witness against someone for monetary gain.  Sadly, if we were in line to inherit, we could help the moneyed person in the family off this mortal coil.

Coveting strongly enough and those things might follow.  For me, there was no moneyed person in the family.

But then, someone might encourage you to sell junk products to your neighbors at highly inflated prices.  Or you might wash windows at a two hundred percent markup.  There are so many ways to make a few extra bucks, and everyone that was offered to me was a matter of taking advantage of my neighbors.

I was not greedy, but when I got out of the military, I was house poor, followed by years of not getting pay raises or getting a pay raise that did not keep up with the cost of living.

And I speak of the covetousness from first hand experience.  We were the last in our neighborhood to get a microwave – when my wife found a job and we did not have the time to fix elaborate meals.  We struggled to get the boys a gaming system and then my younger son won a raffle for the next one.  And then the nightmare started.

Everything was a situation of comparing what we had to someone else.  And I did not make enough money to keep up.

But that led to what comes up after the Bible References.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Psalm 10 talks of the wicked man who blesses the greedy, reviles the Lord, but hunts down whom?	Psalm 10:2-3
2	The greedy bring ruin to their households, but those who hate what will live?	Proverbs 15:27
3	God had to turn His face from His Chosen People due to their sinful greed, but what will he do for them?	Isaiah 57-17-18
4	How greedy is the wicked foe in Habakkuk 1 and 2?	Habakkuk 2:5
5	Both Matthew and Luke mentions Jesus passing woes onto the teachers of the Law and Pharisees.  Jesus says that they clean the outside of their cup, but the inside is full of greed and what?  Note: It is a different word in each of these Gospels, roughly synonymous.	Matthew 23:25 and Luke 11:39
6	When Jesus taught His disciples to not be greedy, He mentioned that life does not consist of an abundance of what?	Luke 12:15
7	What should the Corinthians do when around greedy people and a variety of other bad attitudes and behaviors?	1 Corinthians 5:11
8	In First Corinthians 6, Paul lists nine types of people who will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Greedy people are one of these.  List at least two others.	1 Corinthians 6:9-10
9	In Ephesians 5, Paul lists three things that he relates to idolatry.  One is greed, what is one of the other two?	Ephesians 5:3-5
10	In 2 Peter 2, Peter warns of false teachers.  He mentions that they are bold, arrogant, and greedy, but what Commandments are they breaking?	2 Peter 2:1-14

Why do we become greedy?

Do we lack trust and faith in God?

Or, when the neighbors keep growing in their financial portfolio and we keep going into debt, do we blame God?  Maybe blaming God is too harsh.  We know that we are to blame, but if God would just…

That is the underlying problem.  When we want to keep up with the Jones, Smiths, and Harrisons down the street, you quickly start thinking that God’s provision is insufficient.

You either move on to other sins as mentioned before or your faith in God is shaken.

But if you don’t see the green grass next door, you can quickly find that God provides all that you need.

And a quick note about the green grass…

My neighbor, slightly higher up the hill, is the guy who pays for the lawncare to spray his lawn a few times each year.  But if the spraying is done right before a big rain, my lawn becomes as green as his.  It’s taken thirty years, and I do not feel cheated for not being able to afford a lawncare service.  God, who brings the rain, allowed me to get some benefit from his.

Just have faith.  Greed leads to nothing but bad things.

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Psalm 10 talks of the wicked man who blesses the greedy, reviles the Lord, but hunts down whom?	Psalm 10:2-3	The weak
2	The greedy bring ruin to their households, but those who hate what will live?	Proverbs 15:27	Bribes
3	God had to turn His face from His Chosen People due to their sinful greed, but what will he do for them?	Isaiah 57-17-18	God will heal them
4	How greedy is the wicked foe in Habakkuk 1 and 2?	Habakkuk 2:5	As greedy as the grave
5	Both Matthew and Luke mentions Jesus passing woes onto the teachers of the Law and Pharisees.  Jesus says that they clean the outside of their cup, but the inside is full of greed and what?  Note: It is a different word in each of these Gospels, roughly synonymous.	Matthew 23:25 and Luke 11:39	Self-indulgence (Matthew) and Wickedness (Luke)
6	When Jesus taught His disciples to not be greedy, He mentioned that life does not consist of an abundance of what?	Luke 12:15	Possessions
7	What should the Corinthians do when around greedy people and a variety of other bad attitudes and behaviors?	1 Corinthians 5:11	Do not associate with them.  Do not eat with them.
8	In First Corinthians 6, Paul lists nine types of people who will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Greedy people are one of these.  List at least two others.	1 Corinthians 6:9-10	Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
9	In Ephesians 5, Paul lists three things that he relates to idolatry.  One is greed, what is one of the other two?	Ephesians 5:3-5	Sexual immorality, any kind of impurity and greed.
10	In 2 Peter 2, Peter warns of false teachers.  He mentions that they are bold, arrogant, and greedy, but what Commandments are they breaking?	2 Peter 2:1-14	Verse 3 mentions fabricated stories, but being a false teacher means that bearing false witness is involved.  Verse 14 mentions adultery.  Idolatry would ensue if worshipping a false god.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Shawn McDonald singing Greed.  Needing more is being falsely advertised.  What we’ve got is what we need.  Everything else is only greed.

Here is Royale Lynn with Greed.

Even a secular song can express the folly of greed.  Here is ABBA singing Money Money Money.

ABBA goes into various ways of obtaining wealth, but the other songs both ask the question of when enough is enough.  What we need to understand is that God provides enough when we trust Him.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.