Given recent headlines, one might be forgiven for thinking this article is about COVID-19. Yet this title is a direct quote from 1 Timothy 6:
1 Timothy 6:9-10 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10For 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.
Now Paul is not saying MONEY is the danger. The Bible has many affirming things to say about money and capitalist thinking. This warning is for anyone who WANTS to get rich. The LOVE of money is (i) a temptation, (ii) a trap, (iii) foolish, (iv) harmful, (v) plunges one into ruin and destruction, (vi) the root of all kinds of evil, and (vii) pierces one with many griefs. WOW WOW WOW!
So how does greed do this? Well Paul’s language has connotations of addiction. An addict builds up a tolerance to their substance of choice, leading them to need more of it to have the same effect. For example, a heavy drinker can down 5-10 beers with little effect. It is the same with money. When we start to earn more, we spend it on luxuries. We KNOW they’re luxuries because we could live without them before. Yet very soon those luxuries become necessities.
We then justify our greed by comparing ourselves to those who own more than us. If those in the west find ourselves thinking (i) I’m not spending that much on myself, or (ii) I’m kind of strapped at the moment, then we’ve become an addict.
The way out of this hole is (a) recall how much Jesus gave us on the cross, then (b) compare that with how little it will cost us to give a little more (e.g. tithe to church, give to the poor, etc). Very rarely do people regret being a little more generous.
