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become sins against heaven and against God (Psa. 51: 4). This but anticipates the
kingdom of God on earth, when God's will shall then be law, as it is in heaven.
We drew attention earlier to Deut. 4: with its two-fold sin, and we have seen that
marriage and its travesty are brought before us in Hebrews chapter 13: Where is
idolatry? Were the Hebrews warned against that sin? And were they in any real danger
of falling into it? The answer is that idolatry is mentioned, and the Hebrews were in
danger of committing it.
"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as
ye have" (Heb. 13: 5).
"Without covetousness" is aphilarguros = "not loving silver". We have, therefore,
philadelphia, philoxenia, and philarguros in sequence, with true married love implied in
verse 4. True service turns on love, and love out of place or spent on the wrong object
is at the bottom of all evil. "The love of money (philarguria) is a root of all evil"
(I Tim. 6: 10).
"Men shall be lovers of their own selves
philautoi.
Covetous
philarguroi.
Haters of good men
aphilagathoi.
Lovers of pleasures
philedonoi.
Rather than lovers of God
philotheoi" (II Tim. 3: 2-4).
This catalogue of the evils that shall characterize the "last days" and the "perilous
times" begins and ends with false love, and has at its centre lack of love for the good.
Now this covetousness under the form of pleonexia ("the wish to have more") is
condemned as "idolatry" (Eph. 5: 5; Col. 3: 5). The corrective for "the wish to have
more" and for "covetousness" and "the love of money" is the conscious presence of the
Lord:
"Be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what
man shall do unto me" (Heb. 13: 5, 6).
At the risk of wearying the reader with the truth that "Philippians is parallel with
Hebrews", we draw attention once more to the teaching of Phil. 4::
"Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand (near) . . . . . I have
learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content . . . . . Ye have well done, that ye did
communicate with my affliction" (Phil. 4: 5, 11, 14).
Covetousness and contentment cannot thrive together. Phil. 2: 13, 14 makes the
inworking of God parallel with Heb. 13: 21, and absence of murmuring parallel with
the contentment of verse 5.
Murmuring, fornication and idolatry are brought together in I Cor. 10: 7-10, which,
together with tempting the Lord in the wilderness, is similar teaching to chaps. 3: & 4: