Beware of the Money You Love

The Bible says a lot about money. We Christians would do well to pay attention to it, and those who renounce faith can also glean valuable wisdom from literature that is thousands of years old. The Bible is not a handbook on handling money, but it has principles and themes that can be applied to how we manage it. 

Over the next four weeks, we will look at four Biblical Principles of Money. This is not an exhaustive look at everything the Bible says about money, nor is it properly weighted. But it will be both cautionary and encouraging. Even if you’re not a Christian, I encourage you to listen. Surely there are lessons to be learned from ancient wisdom. 

The four principles are:

1. Beware of the Money You Love
2. Be Wise with the Money You Manage
3. Be Generous with the Money You Have
4. Be Prosperous with the Money You Make

Let’s look at the first one.

Beware of the Money You Love

The Root of All Evil

“Money is the root of all evil!” 

You’ve probably heard it. Perhaps in a church, online, or from your uncle or grandma. Some story about greed and financial corruption will air, and someone will sign, “Well, it just goes to show that money is the root of all evil.” 

Is it? Is that what the Bible teaches? The passage this is pulled from is 1 Timothy 6:6-10. The Apostle Paul writes:

“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 People 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.

The True Root

Let’s distinguish between what the Bible says and what we often hear.

First, it is a root of all kinds of evil, not all evil. Indeed, money can be found in lots of crime and evil in the world, but not all. 

Second, it is a root, not the root, of all kinds of evil. Money is at the core of many crimes, from dealing drugs to armed robbery, embezzlement, and stealing time at work. But so is greed for power, lust for people, and many other corrupted desires. Money is a root, not the root. 

Third, and most critically, money is not the root of evil. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

Money is amoral. It is neither good nor bad. Having money makes you neither good nor bad. 

Rich people aren’t more special or evil because they are rich, and people in humble circumstances aren’t more spiritual or bad because they are not rich. Some people got rich by doing evil deeds. Many did not. Some people stay poor because of evil deeds. Many do not. Money is amoral.

The warning is against the love of money. Beware of the money you love! 

Contentment

What does the Bible say? 

“Gain as much money as possible, for this is great!” “More money is great gain!” “Ambition and desire for money is great gain!”

Hardly. 

“Godliness with contentment is great gain.” 

Without contentment, no amount of money will ever be enough. 

J. D. Rockefeller, who died in the early 1900s, was one of the wealthiest people who ever lived. The richest person today, depending on when you check, is Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, with net worths of around $200 billion. Some estimates put J.D. Rockefeller’s wealth in today’s dollars at over $340 billion. It’s an unfathomable amount of money. 

Someone famously asked him, “Mr. Rockefeller, how much money is enough? How much more do you need?”

His infamous response? “Just a million dollars more.”

$340 billion. And he needed “just a million dollars more.” 

Without contentment, no amount of money will ever be enough.

You Can’t Take it With You

Paul goes on. “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” 

There are no uHauls behind hearses. No matter how much money you make or how many possessions you accumulate, you can’t take any of it with you. Estate Planning exists because it all stays.

It doesn’t matter how much money you make when you meet your maker. It doesn’t matter how much money you have when you stand before the one who has it all. He’s not impressed. 

The Bare Necessities

“If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”

It is possible and profoundly preferable to be content with the bare necessities. Think about what that would look and feel like in your own life. What if we were content with just food and clothing? No amount of money or lack thereof would make us more or less happy! We would be content no matter what!

Does being content with the bare necessities mean we can’t pursue more? No! It means we don’t stake our contentment on having more. When you love money, you need more of it to be content. And you will never have enough. But if you are content with next to nothing, you will always be content because your happiness is not dependent on your money. 

But why should we be content with only the essentials? Why shouldn’t we love money? Why must we beware of the money we love? 

Ruin and Destruction

“People 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.”

How often do we see this? People who love money and pursue it at all costs only to find ruin and destruction. 

When you love money, you are tempted to do all kinds of things to get it. 

Some are foolish desires. You play the lottery. You “invest” money you shouldn’t into Bitcoin and other cryptos you don’t understand. You gamble or give money to your buddy’s start-up. It ends in financial ruin.

Some are harmful desires. You rob your employer by fudging timecards or numbers and get fired. You underpay and mistreat employees to boost short-term profits, and your business goes under. You cheat, backstab, and step on fingers and faces to climb the corporate ladder and burn the relationships around you. It ends in financial destruction. 

When you love money, you do things to get it that are foolish or harmful, and that will eventually plunge you into ruin and destruction. Many people pursuing their love of money are doing foolish and harmful things and appear to be getting away with it. But what goes around comes around, even if it is a long elliptical orbit. 

Wander from the Way

The Apostle Paul’s final warning after his declaration that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil is less about evil and more about natural consequences. Some do evil in their pursuit of the money they love. But then there is another set.

“Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Some of us l haven’t done anything foolish or harmful in our pursuit of money. We’ve simply… wandered. 

We’ve wandered from our faith. We had a great relationship with Jesus at one point and were active with our church community. But lately, we’ve been focused on our careers. We’ve gotten some promotions, and we’re making good money! If we could make a little more, then we’d be content. But in the meantime, it’s stressful, and we’re putting in a lot of hours to get it all done. Our faith is on the back burner, and we’ll get back to it eventually. We just need to make a little more money. Just a million dollars more. We’ve wandered from our faith. 

We’ve wandered from our families. The pursuit of riches, powered by the love of money, has caused us to ignore our vows to our spouses and responsibilities to our kids. We’re doing good work! Our business is thriving! We surpass the highest ethical standards, not just avoiding harmful or foolish activities. We’re building our business right and ethically earning every dollar we make. We’re doing well by doing good. And all the while, we’ve wandered from our family, and our relationships at home are strained to the point of breaking. 

“Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Lost faith. Broken marriages. Tenuous relationships. We don’t need to do anything illegal, unethical, or foolish to love money. Even doing everything right, the love of money can pierce us with many griefs. 

Beware of the Money You Love

Beware of the money you love. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. The pursuit of it tempts some into foolish and harmful desires and others into wandering from the faith. But godliness with contentment is great gain. 

If you love money, you will never have enough. When you are content with what you have, you will always have enough. 

Does this mean we can’t or shouldn’t have lots of money? No. In fact, the Bible teaches us to be wise with the money we manage. You must have money to be wise with it. We will cover that in three weeks.

Does this mean we can’t or shouldn’t earn lots of money? No. The Bible teaches us to be prosperous with the money we make. We’ll cover that in two weeks.

It means we should be content with what we have and keep money in perspective. One of the best ways to beware of the money you love is to be generous with the money you have. We’ll cover that next week. 

This article is educational only and is not intended to be investment, legal, or tax advice or recommendations, whether direct or incidental. Again, this is not investment advice. Consult your financial, tax, and legal professionals for specific advice related to your specific situation. Never take investment advice from someone who doesn’t know you and your specific situation. All opinions expressed in this article are those of the people expressing them. Any performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be directly invested in.