The Peril of the Love of Money.1 Timothy 6:9-10.
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Dear Ambassadors of the King of Kings,
We return yet again to the theme of false teaching. This time it is an outgrowth of the teaching on godly contentment in the preceding passage. The opposite is the lust for riches and the love of money. With so many preachers telling us that we ought to be rich, Paul might as well have been writing to the twenty-first-century church.
Snare (v. 9). Obsession with wealth is a trap. It causes people to make poor judgments about life, people, and God. Apparently, as Paul states, the lust for riches is accompanied by other “senseless and harmful desires.”The issue is not wealth itself but the obsession with riches. We must always be on our toes about material things. Focus on them can derail one from the faith and onto a path of “ruin and destruction.”
Stab (v. 10). Often one hears people say that money is evil. That is a misrepresentation of scripture. It is the love of money that is a problem, not money itself. Inanimate objects like money are amoral – neither good nor bad. It our attitude towards them that matters. The love of money causes all manner of evil – lying, theft, murder, corruption, and a host of others. This then leads to one straying from the faith and, contrary to the expectation, pain and suffering, as though one had been pierced with a lance or sword. Many preachers today exploit our love of money. Let us beware. The outcome is pain. Later, Paul tells us how to be free from the love of money.
Your Loving Pastor Chris.