1 Timothy 6:9-10
“But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 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.”
There are many misunderstandings about God’s perception of riches and money. God knows that we must have money to live, but he also knows the dangers money can cause. Therefore, he cautions the young Timothy to be careful about how he focuses on money. There are several lessons we learn from the verses above.
First, God is not saying that being rich is a sin. If being rich was a sin, many people God used in the Scriptures would be bad examples to follow. Many of the great patriarchs in the Old Testament were wealthy. God just says they that will be rich, or they that their focus is on being rich, leads to sin.
Second, God is not saying that money is evil. Money in itself is not evil, but it is loving money that moves you to become an evil person. When you love money, you will do anything to get it, including hurting others along the way.
Third, God is not saying that you cannot serve God and be rich. When you read the New Testament, you find that there were some who were wealthy, and yet they served God. You can be wealthy and serve God IF you keep your focus right.
Fourth, God is saying that a focus on being rich leads to foolish and hurtful lusts. The reason the focus on being rich leads to foolish and hurtful loss is because you will involve yourself in many schemes that will take your money and will hurt your ability to pay your bills. Many have gone after get-rich-quick schemes, which has hurt their ability to pay their bills. If you want to avoid foolish and hurtful lusts, stop focusing on being rich.
Fifth, God is saying that loving money leads to evil. Loving money is looking at every person as a commodity to use to get money no matter what you must do to them to get it. When you love money, you will use people to get money instead of using money to serve God and helping people.
Sixth, God is saying that loving money takes you away from the faith. You will notice that those who loved money erred from the faith. When your whole desire is to make money, you won’t care how much church you miss, how much Bible you read, or how many souls you led to Christ, because those become secondary to making money. Those who love money are willing to compromise what they believe and miss their duties of spiritual service for the sake of getting rich, and that is wrong!
Seventh, God is saying that loving money leads to many sorrows. The love of money and the focus on being rich has led many to regret and sorrow, and a great mess they had to clean up. Many have destroyed relationships, marriages, and their testimony for Christ, all for the sake of being rich.
The answer to this is to keep faith as your focus and learn that money is a tool to help you to propagate the faith to the lost world. If you will keep serving God as your primary focus and never allow yourself to miss or quit anything you were doing for serving God, you will then be able to keep a proper perspective on riches and your faith in God.
