Rex Trulove
Most people have probably heard the saying, “Money is the root of all evil”. What many people don’t understand, though, is that the saying is misquoted. It is also taken out of context.
The saying is biblical and it is from a letter that the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy. To be fair, the statement isn’t actually misquoted but only part of what Paul wrote is used in the statement. The whole verse has a substantially different meaning.
The saying comes from 1 Timothy 6:10. In the King James Version of the bible, this verse says:
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
The New International Version of the bible puts it nearly the same way:
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.
To understand the difference between what Paul said and ‘money is the root of all evil’, note the first four words of the scripture, “…For the love of…”. In other words, it isn’t the money that is the root of evil, it is the overwhelming desire to amass wealth and material objects that is and causes evil.
This is in keeping with the bible. Both King Solomon and King David were tremendously wealthy, though both were men of God and were favored by God. If money was really evil, these men would have been sinful. In fact, a person could say that they were enormously wealthy because of God’s favor. However, neither man ever focused on getting wealth. It wasn’t a driving force in their lives. Their focus was on the will of God and the money and material things they acquired was a consequence of following God.
Let’s look at the same verse again, this time from the Amplified bible since it makes all of this clearer:
For the love of money [that is, the greedy desire for it and the willingness to gain it unethically] is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves [through and through] with many sorrows.
Note that it is the greedy desire for material wealth and the overwhelming drive for it that Paul is saying causes many sorts of evil, while also harming the person doing it. It should also be recognized that this greedy desire causes many kinds of evil and not actually “all” evil. Obviously, it doesn’t cause all evil.
This makes total sense. If the love of God is the most important thing in our lives, there is no room for greed. Many people invariably try to sit on the fence, but none of us can serve two masters. We are either greedy or we love God. We can’t do both as they are diametrically opposed.
There are many examples of greed in the world today. Politics is notably filled with it. However, having money isn’t at all evil. Wanting to have more than we have isn’t necessarily bad, either. It can be the result of hard work and it is often a motivating factor in working hard. The bible teaches that people should work hard. Nearly everyone strives to have more money than we had yesterday or last week. There is nothing wrong with that. To a true Christian, though, having money and material things is almost coincidental. It is never the goal. The goal is to have a better relationship with God.
If you catch yourself setting a goal to acquire wealth, it is time to reexamine your goals. Focusing on money instead of God nearly always leads toward temptations and poor judgmental decisions, while also leading away from God. Are you serving God or are you serving money?
That is the part regarding being taken out of context. In the previous verse, 1 Timothy 6:9, Paul said:
Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.
Paul is very clearly saying that the part that is evil is the greedy desire and not the wealth itself.
This has tremendous importance as it is one way that the enemy attempts to drive a wedge between God and His children. Next time you hear someone quote, “money is the root of all evil”, you can lovingly correct them. Money isn’t the root of all sorts of evil, the overwhelming love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.
I think I am blessed by God for the money that he has blessed me with I have put into houses for other to live in, when I ask for a blessing I want to help and make someone else life better.
That is a very good thing. Too many people love money so much that they forget about those who are less fortunate.
For my personal perspective, money is considered the basic needs of humans. However, we, humans should still control this tangible thing and not to be ruled on the other way around.
That is exactly right and it is a good way of putting it. Many people really are ruled by money and material possessions.
I hope this article can serve as a reminder for those people who are being controlled by the money. c”,)
I have to agree with what you have shown those that read this
money can be the root of all evil DEPENDING on what it’s USED for
there are a lot of goodness that can be done with money that God
approves of in the user’s hands that HAS the wealth that counts.
If I was to come into a nice sum of money I would do GOOD things
with it & not be greedy, as in I’d share it with shelters for the animals
& the homeless, & the community, that’s what god intended $ is for.
That is what our church does here. Money that comes in is put right back into the community. We do support a number of missionaries, but that is a totally different donation. Any other money that comes in is used to help people in town and in the valley. It sets an example that many people and businesses around here follow.
AMEN that’s gods money that he provides to those that do GOOD with it.
Good point. People have to work and hustle for us to get going and do whatever motivates us to make our life more meaningful. Acquiring wealth could help people who desperately are in need. And being loaded for me is not a crime and not depicts cause and root of all evil neither. I totally agree with you.
Right. Having wealth is not a sin, particularly if the wealthy person helps those who are in need, as the bible teaches. The sin is only the part about setting the acquisition of wealth as a major goal. Unfortunately, too many people do that and usually can’t figure out why they aren’t happy.
It’s possibly that people are simply not contented in nature.
Part of that is where Proverbs 28:27 comes in:
Those who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses.
I can see how it is misinterpreted. The love of money = greed. But we all must have money, it is the love of that money that can be evil.
Exactly true. Although most people could survive on less money than they make, that wouldn’t really be ‘living’ and the bible is also clear that God not only wants us to live, he wants us to live abundantly. So many people today try to make money to the exclusion of everything else, though. I’ve seen a number of polls that asked people to list the top 5 things that they most wished for, personally. In about 90% of those answers, ‘money’ or ‘more money’ was one of the top 5.
Yes, most people are all about things in life, they are missing out. Most of what I enjoy costs nothing.
Somebody I heard speak compiled a list of the five most misread Bible verses. This one was #2.
I can certainly believe that!