Embodying Jesus’ Anti-Greed Gospel

December 19, 2025 | Geoff Sackett

Greed is one of those topics that’s okay to bring up, even in polite company, but only if you’re talking about the hoarding done by wealthy elites. As soon as the conversation turns to how ordinary folk like you or I might be greedy, well, now things are getting a bit too personal and it’s time to change the subject.

So if your bookseller’s algorithm recommends you purchase The Anti-Greed Gospel by historian and pastor Dr. Malcolm Foley, you might be forgiven for passing it over for something more agreeable, especially since its subtitle pulls no punches: “Why the Love of Money is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create a New Way Forward.”

But we pass it over at our own expense. For Dr. Foley’s thesis—Jesus beckons his followers to live in economic solidarity with one another as a witness to his kingdom—comes straight from the Gospel.

Can this really be true? Is the Gospel really concerned with our economic witness?

Paul certainly thought so. When he encourages the Corinthian Christians to give generously to the poor believers in Jerusalem, he roots that encouragement explicitly in the Gospel: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (II Corinthians 8:9). And it was this same Gospel, writes Paul a few verses earlier, that motivated the Macedonian churches—extremely poor though they were—to be richly generous, giving “beyond their ability,” to the needy believers in Jerusalem.

So, Dr. Foley is on solid footing when he urges Jesus’ followers to embrace the Gospel that is anti-greed and pro-economic solidarity. (A practice we find expressed throughout Scripture I John 3:16-17, Acts 2:42-47, Luke 12:13-34, since it ultimately flows from the God whose nature is to share according to his abundance, as Paul makes clear in Philippians 2:5-8.) So, what else is Dr. Foley doing in his book? You could say his book is an extended commentary on Jesus’ words found smack-dab in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount: “You cannot serve both God and Mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Dr. Foley unpacks the anti-mammon Gospel in two parts.

Part I traces the history of anti-Black lynching in the United States to show that the primary driver of American racial violence was economic exploitation, not personal hatred. This is crucial because it means that the Gospel—deeply economic as it is—was in practice rejected by those who were motivated by greed. Foley pushes his thesis forward by observing that racism—that is, racialized economic exploitation—tells lies (some people are worthier than others), kills (therefore, it is perfectly fine to subject your inferiors to violence or material neglect), and steals (therefore, it is also fine to withhold material support).

Part II offers solutions to racism’s triple threat. By living out Jesus’ anti-greed Gospel, the church is called to prophetic truth-telling (following Jesus’ prophetic lead, for example, in Luke 6:20-36 and Matthew 6:19-34), creative anti-violence (sharing materially with our neighbor), and economic solidarity (living in relationships of material reciprocity)—drawing not from our own spiritual resources, but in participation with the Spirit of the resurrected Christ.

I’ve provided just a bare outline of The Anti-Greed Gospel. I encourage you to read it yourself. I have many copies; email me at gsackett@princeton.edu to purchase one. To whet your appetite, watch Dr. Foley’s lecture that Manna Christian Fellowship, the ministry I work for at Princeton, hosted a few weeks ago.