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MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL? 1 Timothy 6:6-10 I invite you to open your Bible to 1 Timothy 6:6-10. As we conclude our series, Is That Really in the Bible, we’re going to ask that question of the well- worn statement, “Money is the root of all evil.” Is it? Well, money’s a big deal. Money is an inanimate object, but you’d think it was an animate one. Nobody says, “BMW’s talk.” Nobody says, “Bass boats talk.” But a lot of folks say this: “Money talks.” No one says, “Time is a 5-carat diamond,” or “Time is a conference championship.” But people do say, “Time is money.” Money’s a big deal. Money drives the plot of well-known movies like Wall Street, Slumdog Millionaire, Fun with Dick and Jane, Casino, and Jerry Maguire. You remember Jerry Maguire? Jerry is a sports agent whose tag line is, “Show me the money.” Money drives a lot of movies. And money drives a lot of popular songs. The Beatles sang, “Money: that’s what I want.” The Steve Miller Band sang, “Come on, take the money and run.” Shania Twain sang, “Ka-ching!” Willie Nelson sang, “If you’ve got the money honey, I’ve got the time.” Pink Floyd sang, “Money, so they say, is the root of all evil today.” And then there are these lyrics from an O’Jays song: For the love of money People will steal from their mother For the love of money People will rob their own brother For the love of money People can't even walk the street Because they never know who in the world they're gonna beat For that lean, mean, mean green Almighty dollar, money I know money is the root of all evil Do funny things to some people Give me a nickel, brother, can you spare a dime Money can drive some people out of their minds Pink Floyd said it and the O’Jays said it too: “Money is the root of all evil.” They’re not the first ones to say it. It’s a common phrase in our culture. And many people believe it. But is this phrase in the Bible? Hear the word of the Lord … (read the text). I So does the Bible say, “Money is the root of all evil”? No. The Bible says this: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Money is not the root of all evil. Money is neutral. Money is simply the way society’s barter for goods and services. Money can be used for purposes good and bad. Money can send a missionary to the Czech Republic to share the good news, and money can be used to contract a murder. Money can be used to help a homeless person find shelter, and money can be used to enrich a local gambling institution. Money can be used to feed the hungry, and money can be used to bribe an official. Money can be used to help meet our basic needs, and money can be squandered in a relentless competition to keep up with the Joneses. Money is neutral. It has no moral value in and of itself. Having money is not a sin; being poor does not make one a saint. It’s not about the money. It’s about what we do with the money we have—be it a lot or a little or just enough. The Bible talks a lot about money because that’s where we live, and everybody’s got to have some just to get along in this world. You can read all about it in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. And nobody says more about money than Jesus. Jesus doesn’t talk about it like so many TV preachers do. Jesus is not a fund-raiser. Just ahead of our text, Paul tells Timothy in v. 5 to beware of those false teachers, those religious hucksters, who think that “godliness is a means of gain.” Too many of God’s so called pastors and preachers are in it for the money. Maybe you’ve caught the furor that’s been in the news lately about 33-year-old Pastor Steven Furtick of the 12,000 member Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. He’s just built a 16,000 square foot house.1 Some folks, even in his own church, think that might be just a bit much for anybody, especially a pastor. I wonder if it’s stuff like that Paul is 1http://www.mediaite.com/tv/pastor-defends-controversial-16000-sq-foot-house-everything-we-have- comes-from-god/ talking about when he writes of those who believe “godliness is a means of gain.” That was true in Timothy’s day; it’s true in ours. But these charlatans didn’t get that idea from Jesus. That’s not the way Jesus talks about money. He doesn’t tell you that if you give Him your ten dollars, He’ll give you a hundred dollars. Jesus mostly talks about our attitude toward money and how we use our money. So while the Bible talks about money a lot, neither Old Testament nor New Testament, neither Jesus nor Paul, ever suggest that “money is the root of all evil.” This is what the Bible says, this is what Paul says right here in v. 10 of our text, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” Now this general concept that it’s the love of money rather than just money that leads to evil is not completely original with Paul. This idea already had some traction in Greek culture—a culture Timothy’s church in Ephesus knew quite well. About 400 years before Paul wrote that line an eccentric Greek philosopher named Diogenes said this: “The love of money is the mother- city of all evils.”2 Perhaps Paul, no doubt familiar with Greek philosophy, was familiar with this quote. But even then, Paul doesn’t parrot Diogenes. Paul’s Greek here is precise. It’s clear that Paul, unlike Diogenes, doesn’t consider the love of money the root of all evil. There’s no definite article in the Greek text. Love of money is not the root of all evil, it’s a root. And it’s not a root of all evil either. Paul writes that it’s a root of all kinds of evil. Evil takes many forms and has many roots. The love of money is just one of those roots. But it is a root. As someone once put it, the love of money is not a stone but a root. Roots are living things. If left unchecked, roots grow and spread and deepen. I like to keep a good yard. And when I get weeds in it, I’ve got two choices. I can mow them down—which looks okay for about three days. Or I can spray them with stuff that kills not just what I see but also kills the underground root I can’t see. Cut the weed; it grows back. Kill the root; bye-bye weed. If we want to get rid of this love-of-money weed, we’ve got to get rid of the root. II 2http://www.hermitary.com/articles/diogenes.html This is serious stuff. “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” It’s a root that bears some pretty foul-smelling and nasty-tasting fruit. We’re not talking apples and pears and oranges and bananas here. We’re talking fruit with names like these: stealing and lying and cheating and murder and stinginess and greed and coveting and envy and materialism and betrayal and even family strife when the lawyer reads the will. Some fruit, huh? Nobody’s buying that fruit at Kroger, nobody’s going to order it in a smoothie, and nobody’s going to put a bowl of that fruit on their dining room table. The love of money is not the root of all evil, but it most surely is a root of all kinds of evil. Oh, and I failed to mention the bitterest fruit of all that grows off this love-of-money weed: the love of money can destroy your life. Look at v. 9: “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.” And as if that’s not bad enough, Paul writes at the end of v. 10, “It is through this craving that some have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” Ouch! And self-inflicted wounds at that. Money isn’t the culprit here, but our love of money is—“Money, money, money: want it, gotta have it, gonna get it, gonna keep it, gonna get more and more and more. I love it. I worship it. The pursuit and acquisition of it is the core of my life. I love money!” And it’s not just rich people who are rooted with a love of money. And this love-of-money root can put us in a place of grave spiritual peril. It could keep you out of the kingdom of God. And what Paul states in proposition, the gospels illustrate in a story. Matthew, Mark, and Luke provide the composite picture of a man who approaches Jesus with a question: he is young (Mt.

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