Ellul: covetousness

Friday, September 7, 2012
    Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957
Meditation:
    For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
    —Ephesians 5:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When I say that people are not good, I am not adopting a Christian or a moral standpoint. I am saying that their two great characteristics, no matter what their society or education, are covetousness and the desire for power. We find these traits always and everywhere. If, then, we give people complete freedom to choose, they will inevitably seek to dominate someone or something and they will inevitably covet what belongs to others, and a strange feature of covetousness is that it can never be assuaged or satisfied, for once one thing is acquired it directs its attention to something else.
    ... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), Anarchy and Christianity, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1991, p. 20 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only You can save me from my greed. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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