A recent news story detailed how a multi-millionaire is on trial for insurance fraud. Reportedly, the woman’s house caught on fire, and after the firefighters came and put out the flames, she accused them of stealing millions of dollars of jewelry. She is now on trial for insurance fraud. Isn’t that a nice love story?
Perhaps you are now asking, “where is the love?”
I can’t help but think such stories are examples of the type of love of money that the Apostle Paul warned about in 1 Timothy, chapter 6
“Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:10
How can someone come to love money so much that they pierce themselves with many griefs?
In an attempt to answer this question, we should look closer at the verse (and those that proceed it). I have highlighted the words below which we will examine more closely:
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
So, what is the trap and how does one get caught in it? First, we must see that having a lot of money is very tempting to humanity. The idea of being rich holds great promise for pleasure, power, freedom, independence and being masters of our own existence. Every human heart is subject to such temptation. Even believers. So, when we gaze long and hard on all that money can offer, we can get trapped. Trapped in a vice of wanting more and more, and doing what is necessary to get the promised rewards. We can fall so deeply in love with money that while pursuing it, we can find ourselves filled by harmful desires that when pursued, plunge us into ruin and destruction.
Imagine it this way. Say that money catches your eye. You see it as harmless and amoral, because it is just a means to an end. If you want to pay bills, you need money. If you want to buy a car, you need money. If you want to eat, you need money. So, it becomes a necessity. However, as you strive with life and all its demands, you consider how hard it is, and how nice it would be if things were just easier. Still, you are not in love with money, but you do see its power. Then a shift comes. The more you consider all that it has to offer, the more you value it. It seems so good, and the answer to so much of life’s problems and it becomes something that you would really like to have more of. Love blooms, and then the root starts to grow. The root of evil. The root that is nourished by ideas of how you could obtain more money than what seems possible given your circumstances and abilities. Tragically, the love of money then grows so strong that you will stop at no lengths to obtain more and more of it, even when you have plenty. The temptation was there, the trap was waiting, and the more you gave your heart to money, the more you set yourself up to be caught in its snare. Now your trapped in your life of ruin.
To be clear, wanting money is not a problem. Wanting to earn a good amount of money is not a problem. Loving money, that is a problem. It is a matter of the heart. It is a matter of contentment. It is not about a dollar figure, it is a matter of how your heart is configured. In the beginning of those verses, Paul wrote, 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” Paul is telling us about what can really satisfy the heart, and that is a deep relationship with God and a life devoted to Him. It is a life that is filled with thankfulness that we possess the basic necessities. It is a life that is in love with God and sees him as the true provider of what we have, and trusts him to give us what we need. It is a life that is content resting in the provision of God and the life He has called us to.
The problem begins when we don’t love God and trust in His provision, and we start looking past Him to our own selves and how we can become our own self-sustaining gods. The problem reaches fruition when we become so in love with money, that we give ourselves over to many kinds of evil to deify ourselves and get what we want. Then we are trapped and ruined. Paul is clear, a person can “wander from the faith” and be pierced with many griefs because they have enthroned money.
So, brothers and sisters, we are exhorted by such a passage to guard our hearts. We are not immune. We need to ask God to keep us far from such affections for money. We can’t love both it and Him. Money will either be something that we give thanks to God for, because He has graciously given us some, or it will be something we love, to the exclusion of God. Once again, we must choose, and give an account for our answer.
Will money own us, or will we own money?
Rob