Money itself is not evil. But loving money is the source of much evil.
Money is not the root of all evil.
Many people think that being poor is a virtue because the Bible says that money is evil.
But that’s not what the Bible says. It’s close to what the Bible says. But close only counts in horse shoes, hand grenades and nuclear weapons. When we’re talking about the Bible, “close” often completely twists the meaning.
Here is the actual verse that people are referring to.
As you can see, money is not the root of all evil. The Bible actually says that the love of money is the root of all evil.
Money is Neutral
Like many things, money itself is neither good nor evil. It is neutral.
What people do with money can be good or it can be evil, although much that is done with money doesn’t fall on either extreme.
As human beings we have this natural tendency to want to avoid personal responsibility by blaming the objects that people use to do bad things when the real issue is in our own hearts.
For example, many people see strictly limiting access to guns as a good thing. However the truth is that guns don’t murder people. People murder people, and guns are one of the weapons they use to commit those murders.
Eliminating guns would not eliminate murder. People were being murdered in the middle ages long before guns even existed. Even if we were able to find a way to go back to the middle ages before guns existed, people will still find ways to commit murder without guns.
As with guns and murder, the issue of money and evil is really about the human heart. It’s not about the object.
In Context
We see that even better when we put that verse back in the context of the what Paul was writing to Timothy.
That word “desire” in verse 9 is talking about a longing or a craving to be rich. Paul is talking about priorities here.
Proper Priorities
We will quickly get into trouble when we prioritize getting rich above other things in our lives. And that’s what the Bible means when it says the love of money is the root of all evil.
It should be obvious that when we prioritize acquiring money above God we’ll get into trouble. In fact, when we prioritize anything above God there will be problems for us. The way Jesus explained it is that when we prioritize God first everything else will be provided for us.
So then, putting the pursuit of riches above other things will cause problems for us too. That’s exactly what Paul is saying in 1 Timothy.
Removing the Love of Money
So if money itself is not the issue, how do we remove the love of money from our lives?
The answer is simple, though often times it may not be very easy. Here’s how we do it.
To remove the love of money from our lives simply make the choice to always prioritize relationships with other people over financial gain.
Even though it is a simple thing, it won’t always be easy to choose relationships over financial gain. However God honors that choice.
For example, if you remember in Genesis 13 Abraham and Lot had both grown so wealthy that the land they were on wasn’t able to support the herds of both of them. Their employees were starting to get into fights about the limited resources that were available.
Abraham decided that the best answer was for him and Lot to part ways. And even though Abraham had the right to choose the best land for himself because he was Lot’s uncle he deferred to Lot and let him choose which way to go. Lot selfishly chose the more desirable land and headed off in that direction.
Abraham chose his relationship with Lot over the financial gain of the best resources. Contrast that with Lot who chose to prioritize his own financial gain and in the process ended up on Sodom.
In the end Abraham was blessed by God and grew far wealthier than he was when he and Lot parted ways. However Lot didn’t fare so well. He lost everything when he barely escaped the destruction of Sodom with his life.
We will do well to make Abraham’s choice and prioritize relationships over financial gain. By doing so we will remove the love of money from our lives.
For years I’ve been in pursuit of money – both for myself and my clients. As it turns out, I’ve generally done a much better job at making other people money than myself, but I’ve done better than most to make money.
Having said that, in the last several months I’ve come to conclude that this focus on money and a few other things, have completely limited my real joy, my real peace, my real relationship with God. When you are taught that money is a sign of success, that money is the measuring stick, then you are taught that money is a shortcut to a lot of things. I’ve had to unlearn a lot of those lessons to realize that I’m truly rich when I’m spending time with my children, or giving my time to help someone, or sharing from my heart.
I’m still interested in making money, even more money, only now I want to use the money to do meaningful and purposeful things in my life and others. Money made purely for me has just turned out to be no fun at all. Now to figure out how to do more of that and less of what I’ve always done!
Great post Chris.