C. S. Lewis on Greed

In the The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Eustace was unwillingly transported to Narnia and taken aboard a ship that was on an adventure. As this adventure progressed, Eustace went on an expedition on a mysterious island. He got lost, found a treasure, and he fell asleep on the treasure. C. S. Lewis described the following event when Eustace awoke from his charmed sleep.

He had turned into a dragon while he was asleep. Sleeping on a dragon's hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon. (p. 75, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,)

C. S. Lewis's commentary on Ephesians 4:28.

In the passage where the New Testament says that every one must work, it gives as a reason "in order that he may have something to give to those in need." Charity--giving to the poor--is an essential part of Christian morality: in the frightening parable of the sheep and the goats it seems to be the point on which everything turns. Some people nowadays say that charity ought to be unnecessary and that instead of giving to the poor we ought to be producing a society in which there were no poor to give to. They may be quite right in saying that we ought to produce that kind of society. But if anyone thinks that, as a consequence, you can stop giving in the meantime, then he has parted company with all Christian morality. I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them. I am speaking now of "charities" in the common way. Particular cases of distress among your own relatives, friends, neighbours or employees, which God, as it were, forces upon your notice, may demand much more: even to the crippling and endangering of your own position. For many of us the great obstacle to charity lies not in our luxurious living or desire for money, but in fear--fear of insecurity. This must often be recognised as a temptation. Sometimes our pride also also hinders our charity; we are tempted to spend more that we ought on the showy forms of generosity (tipping, hospitality) and less than we ought on those who really need our help. (p. 67, Mere Christianity)

Here's the verse in Ephesians:

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. (Ephesians 4:28, ESV)

The relationship between Greed and Pride.

That is why I say that Pride is essentially competitive in a way the other vices the other vices are not. ... Greed may drive men into competition if there is not enough to go round; but the proud man, even when he has got more than he can possibly want, will try to get still more just to assert his power. Nearly all those evils in the world which people put down to greed or selfishness are really far more the result of Pride.

Take it with money. Greed will certainly make a man want money, for the sake of a better house, better holidays, better things to eat and drink. But only up to point. What is it that makes a man with 10,000 pounds a year anxious to get 20,000 pounds a year? It is not the greed for more pleasure. 10,000 pounds will give all the luxuries that any man can really enjoy. It is Pride--the wish to be richer than some other rich man, and (still more) the wish for power. For, of course, power is what Pride really enjoys ... (p. 95, Mere Christianity)

C. S. Lewis ends Mere Christianity with this summary of the fundamental principle of the Christian world view.

The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and the death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find him, and with him everything else thrown in.(p. 175)