Mammon is feeds flesh because it seduces people into serving themselves and the things of this world. He is behind money, the epitome of all earthliness. All earthliness is of the flesh, which mammon feeds off, and everything that is of the carnal flesh seeks earthliness. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like (Galatians 5:19-21).
Since the flesh is absolutely unable to seek God or submit to Him, mammon manipulates it by seducing it with the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life (1 John 2:16) as satan did to Jesus to tempt Him into worshipping him. Satan told Jesus he would give him bread, protection from death, and all the kingdoms of the world (Matthew 4). The bread is promised to appeal the lust of the flesh, the protection from death appeals to lust of the eyes and the kingdoms of the world is to appeal to the pride of life.
Mammon seeks cause conflict and hatred between people out of envy and jealousy. Envy and jealousy make people feel wronged by others because of what they have or do not have. People feel as though they are treated unjustly and unfairly by what they do or do not have because of envy and jealousy. Envy is anger directed towards another for what they have. Jealousy is directed toward the self for what one has compared to what others do not have. People can be envious or jealous about all kinds of things - money, romance, family, education, health, security, popularity or anything else that is of this world.
Since the carnal flesh can only seek that which is of this world, mammon uses the things of this world to puff up their pride which is the root of envy and jealousy. When one is full of envy or jealousy, one hates others, either because of what they have or do not have. Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not (James 4:2).
Since the flesh is absolutely unable to seek God or submit to Him, mammon manipulates it by seducing it with the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life (1 John 2:16) as satan did to Jesus to tempt Him into worshipping him. Satan told Jesus he would give him bread, protection from death, and all the kingdoms of the world (Matthew 4). The bread is promised to appeal the lust of the flesh, the protection from death appeals to lust of the eyes and the kingdoms of the world is to appeal to the pride of life.
Mammon seeks cause conflict and hatred between people out of envy and jealousy. Envy and jealousy make people feel wronged by others because of what they have or do not have. People feel as though they are treated unjustly and unfairly by what they do or do not have because of envy and jealousy. Envy is anger directed towards another for what they have. Jealousy is directed toward the self for what one has compared to what others do not have. People can be envious or jealous about all kinds of things - money, romance, family, education, health, security, popularity or anything else that is of this world.
Since the carnal flesh can only seek that which is of this world, mammon uses the things of this world to puff up their pride which is the root of envy and jealousy. When one is full of envy or jealousy, one hates others, either because of what they have or do not have. Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not (James 4:2).
Jealousy and envy make people feel irritated, frustrated and miserable. No one likes to feel that way, but people still choose to envy and be jealous of others because envy and jealousy are of the flesh and they feed of the flesh. They make people more satisfied to serve their flesh, not merely for earthly gain, but because envy and jealousy itself causes people to feed the flesh. The spirit behind it is mammon.
I live in a country that has one of the highest living standards in the world (not that I am proud of it), but yet the people here are miserable, angry, frustrated, hateful of each other, violent and insecure. The rates of depression and anxiety in the country I am from are very high. Rates of violence are high. It is reported that one woman gets killed each week by an intimate partner (not that the identity of the victims matter or is relevant in any way).
It has even been joked by overseas media that the best place to do loan business is the country where I live - that is, Australia. Even the Australian newspaper claims that Australians have the highest personable debt in the world. It also has the highest personal debt to disposable income ratio in the world. This is evidence of the mammonisation of Australia - it is not merely 'materialistic', but extremely mammonised. Even the Christians here yield to the temptation to serve mammon and are worried about their basic needs.
Australians generally have a dislike and fear the people of China and India, owing to their rising economic success. Once again, it is not that the identity of the people who are being disliked that matters. The issue is that of envy and jealousy because of the success of others. Much commentary has been written in the media expressing such fear.
Envy and jealousy causes people to hate and fight each other. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work (James 3:16).
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