We all hate corporate greed. No one likes being reduced to a dollar sign. No likes being treated like a sales target. We can all feel when we’re being pitched and we hate it, especially when it’s clearly disingenuous and false.

The reason we hate it so much is that no one wants to be used by someone else just to make a buck. It’s fine for a company to make a profit. They have to feed their families too. But it becomes wrong when they do it by lying, cheating, deceiving, false-marketing, and generally treating people like inanimate objects (ATMs) rather than human beings.

It’s wrong to use people for one’s own ends. We all agree on this. Take cigarette companies for example. They profit by selling a product they know is harmful. They are harming their customer to make a sale. Yes, the customer has a choice, but profiting by exploiting someone’s woundedness is despicable. It’s nothing but pure, unadulterated, ugly greed.

This is the essence of greed. It embodies the worst side of business – companies serving themselves at the expense of their customers rather than truly serving their customers by solving real problems. We all hate corporate greed. It is an injustice that needs to stop.

But there’s a worse kind of greed. Our culture practices it all the time without realizing it. We actually are proud of it, patting ourselves on the back for it. But it’s just as much an injustice as corporate greed.

Social greed. Using someone else for our own ends. Harming someone else for our pleasure. “OMG, that’s horrible! Who would do that? That would be so wrong!” we exclaim. But we do this all the time, we are entertained by watching others do this, and we praise it as a good thing.

We participate in the injustice of social greed when we sleep with someone we’re not married to. We are using someone else to satisfy our own need. For men, we’re often getting our pleasure from using someone else. For women, it’s often the need for relationship. But in both cases, it is still using (and harming) another person for our own ends.

Sex sets up an eternal relationship between two people. You give your sexual partner a piece of your heart. Forever. F-O-R-E-V-E-R. That’s a long time. After enough partners, you don’t have a heart left. So when you finally meet the one God has for you, you want to give your heart fully, and you don’t have a heart left to give. How tragic is that.

This is greed. Social greed. And it’s just as wicked and harmful as the greed of cigarette companies. It’s an injustice that needs to stop. And you can help stop it with these two tips.

1) Stop allowing yourself to be an object of social greed.

If you’re dating someone who says they love you and wants to sleep with you, they’re lying. Pure and simple. They may not know what real love is. But if they want to sleep with you outside of marriage, it’s not love they’re feeling for you. It’s greed. It’s hunger. They want to use you for their own pleasure. You’re an object to them, not the person you are to God. Say “no” and dump them flat.

You deserve better. Yes, you do. If you think not, please, take a season off from dating. Get healing for the pain inside that causes you to want to trade sex for hearing someone say they love you. Jesus has so much more for you.

2) Stop practicing social greed.

When we sleep with a someone we’re not married to, we’re using them for our pleasure. Sex is the greatest possible expression of love; namely, “I have (past tense) committed my life to you.” There is no greater expression of love for another person than having committed your life to them. This is the love sex expresses.

The problem is, if you’re not married, you haven’t committed your life to them. You can walk away. So you’re expressing “I have committed to you” when you haven’t. What is it called when you express something that’s not true? A lie! That’s why sex outside of marriage is a lie.

It’s not the cigarette companies any more exploiting customers for their profit. It’s us exploiting people for our pleasure, our own needs. Just as wicked, just as harmful. Social greed is an injustice that needs to stop. Wait for marriage.

When did life get complicated?

Think about it. Look back on your life. When did it get complicated? Have the broken relationships, the people you’ve slept with and are no longer in relationship with – have those added joy to your life, or have they added pain?

We see “Sex is Salvation” constantly all over the media. But it’s false advertising. Sex outside of marriage just adds immeasurable pain to our lives, stealing piece after piece of our heart. No one rolls into January 1 thinking, “I can’t  wait for 3 more broken relationships this year!”

The Good News

The good news is Jesus restores your heart when you repent. Repenting literally means “turning around and going the other direction.” It means changing lifestyles. It means committing to wait for marriage from this point forward. It means trusting God and doing it his way. And God will honor that.

So how about you? Are you ready to commit to doing it God’s way and letting him restore your heart? Tell us your story in the comments. And please share on social media if this post would help someone else.