We live in a world where greed is idolized. In the 1980’s movie “Wall Street,” Michael Douglas’ character makes a famous speech where he declares, “Greed is good!” In the years since, it seems most of society has bought into this creed. It is easy for Christians of all ages to have this motive lurking beneath the surface of the decisions they make. This week’s lesson shows us a believer’s motive in ministering to others should be grace and not greed.
In 2 Kings 5:1-14, we are introduced to the story’s main character, Naaman. We are told he is a successful soldier who has risen to the rank of commanding Syria’s army. Evidently throughout much of his life, Naaman had struggled with the disease of leprosy.
Seeing his struggle, one of his slave girls tells her mistress that Naaman would be cured if he would see “the prophet in Samaria” (v. 3). Naaman, anxious for any possible way of healing, tells his king what the girl said. The king sends Naaman to the king of Israel with a vast fortune of silver, gold and clothes and a letter saying, “I am sending my servant … so you can cure him of leprosy” (v. 6).
Upon receiving the letter, Israel’s king tears his clothes in fear, knowing he cannot cure Naaman of his disease. When hearing of the king tearing his clothes, Elisha has Naaman sent to him so “he will know that there is a prophet in Israel” (v. 8).
When Naaman arrives at the prophet’s house, Elisha sent a servant to meet him with a message, “Go wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored” (v. 10). Naaman’s first response was anger at what he perceived as disrespect. However, his subordinates persuaded him to follow the directions of the prophet and he experienced cleansing.
D.L. Moody said of Naaman, “He lost his temper; then he lost his pride; then he lost his leprosy; that is generally the order in which proud rebellious sinners are converted.”
In 5:15, Naaman gave a clear public testimony of the grace of the God of Israel in front of Elisha. He proclaimed this God was the only true and living God and renounced all the idols of his home country. At that time, Naaman offered Elisha the vast fortune he had brought. The prophet refused the offering in spite of the soldier’s continual urging.
Elisha’s message to Naaman was that the soldier had been healed by the grace of God and grace is not for sale. We demonstrate God’s gracious nature when we carefully avoid taking advantage of others, especially those filled with gratitude over what the Lord has done to help them.
In 5:20-22, we find Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, rebelling against Elisha’s refusal. Acting selfishly, the prophet’s servant pursued Naaman and told him a lie that Elisha now requested a gift from him.
Sign up for our weekly edition and get all our headlines in your inbox on Thursdays
When a man’s heart is filled with greed and his lips are filled with lies, he is far from finding the life God has planned for him. Gehazi not only lied to Naaman about Elijah’s intentions, but to be in the spiritual place he was, he already had lied to himself. He was measuring Elijah’s conduct the way the world would measure it, not the way God measured it.
One of the great temptations of those of us who teach and preach the grace of God is that we begin to see the results and rewards of those results as the world sees it. With he Lord’s help, we can reject the selfish impulses that find expression in self-justifying thoughts and deceitful actions.
Not only did Gehazi lie to himself and Naaman, he also lied to Elisha. In 5:24-27, we see him bringing back his bounty with the help of Naaman’s servants, but when they got to the hill outside of town, Gehazi dismissed them. Being concerned the servants would be identified; Gehazi took his illgotten reward so he could hide it from Elisha.
When he appeared before Elisha, he lied when the prophet asked, “Where have you been?” The servant answered the prophet, “Your servant didn’t go anywhere” (v. 25). However, Elisha exposed Gehazi’s lies and pronounced the Lord’s judgment upon him by saying, “Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and your descendents forever” (v. 27). From that day on, Gehazi’s white skin promised that at least one of his descendants in each generation would be a leper.
The greed that ate away at Gehazi’s heart became leprosy eating away at his body. He had hoped to leave great wealth to his family, but instead, he left great shame and sorrow for years to come.
In our “what’s-in-it-for-me” society, there always is the temptation of greed beneath the surface when we make decisions and take actions. Christians are not immune from these temptations in our ministries to others.
However, as believers, we have God’s example, teachings and presence that can help us make grace, not greed, the motive for all of our actions toward others. We can be motivated to serve with a gracious spirit by keeping in mind that a greedy attitude soon poisons one’s life and relationships as in the case of Gehazi.
We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.
Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.