KEY SCRIPTURE: Matthew 26:15. “And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.”

Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’s disciples left the gathering of the disciples with the master, to negotiate the life of Lord Jesus Christ.

What on earth could move Judas to do that? It is covetousness that made him to go and negotiate for the life of the master. Judas could have intuited that he could easily make some money from no mean a person like the Lord Jesus. He believed Jesus would have escaped so he could wisely go away with the money, because he was a thief, Matthew 27:3. “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, “May be his plan did not work out for him. He brought back the money and went and hanged himself.

Dear one is there anything that you love more than Jesus? Judas loved money so much that, Satan deceived him through his lust for money to betray the Lord of glory. Anything that means more to you than Jesus can lead you to betray the master one day.  The Lord gives the answer as follows;

Luke 14:26. If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple”. Nothing that we have, or can get can ever be compared to the Lord Jesus. We should be ready to lose anything, even our very lives for the course of our Lord Jesus.

I think, out of this study, we may define covetousness in another way. Covetousness is anything that we love more than Jesus Christ.  To love your life more than Jesus would cause you to covet for your life at the expense of Jesus. It is also applicable to anything including money. Dear one, would you be ready to give up everything in honour of our master and saviour? This is the only condition that makes you a real disciple of Jesus. Everything would pass away, but our Lord abides forever. The bible says all things were created by him and for Him, so that He may have the pre-eminence the first place in all things (Col 1:17-18). All things must be placed at His feet. Would you surrender your everything to His Lordship today? Would you be a real disciple from today?

CONFESSION

Lord Jesus, you are the first in my life. Everything in my life is secondary to you. Even my very life would not be compared to you. Have the first place forever and ever.

FURTHER STUDIES

Colossians 1:16. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

Colossians 1:17-18. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.