1 Timothy 6:10 –
For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
This is another one of those great chapters that applies so much to today’s society. Initially it warns about false teachers and specifically ones who “quibble” over words. I find I do that often, but more to gain understanding on the meaning and not to undermine someone’s beliefs. I think it’s sad that today you have two Christian churches in England killing one and other in the name of Jesus. You go to the heart of each belief and Jesus died on the cross, was risen and provides the path to salvation. Everything else is really just “quibbling” over specifics.
We get into my favorite subject and that’s money, which really spooks me when I read about how God views people with my mindset. Paul devotes much of this chapter to people who are well off or have the desire for money. Verses 9, 10, 17, 18 and 19 all focus on peoples desires for money. This verse is one of those that I need to “quibble” on the words. This is one of those verses that gets quoted all the time, and depending on the “translation” you sometimes remove the word “kinds”. This implies either money is the root of ALL evil or all KINDS of evil.
Again not to “quibble”, but to clarify, the love of money is the core of so many transgressions that it could almost cover all sins. But we all know this not to be true in ALL cases, Adam was not effected by any form of currency exchange so his sin did not have money as the “root”. The other word people “quibble” about is “love”, many drop that word also so it’s just “money being the root of all evil.”
King David is my example to squash both misconceptions, since he had money and sinned because of lust. David was richer than any of us could imagine, with palaces, gold and every desire one could have. God blessed him even more, until he sinned with Bathsheba. The root of that sin was lust and not money; I mean he gained nothing monetarily going after her. One could argue his love of money and stuff caused him to look at her as more stuff to fulfill that desire, but it was really not the “root” of the evil. Not to get lost in the “translations”, but the key is not making money your god! Verses 17-19 help guide the rich to ensure this doesn’t happen.