For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
1 Timothy 6:10
The warning here is clear: Chasing after wealth because the stuff of this world is your first and highest love will ultimately lure you to pain and heartache. The love of money grows all sorts of bad things from its greedy root. It can lead us away from the truth and ultimately lead us to experience great pain.
It is not wrong to make money or to have resources. It is very wrong to love money like you should love Jesus! This is the problem. It becomes the worship of wealth. Prosperity is an idol and net worth is viewed as the god that provides. And in my experience many poor people bitterly buy into this thinking. It keeps casinos full and lotteries brimming with high jackpots. The painful sting of “One day I will hit it big” is never rewarded as daily bread dollars are wasted on the false promise of a wealth that never arrives.
The image of being pierced with pain is vivid... like a fish that swallowed the hook with the bait, the love of money painfully controls the person deceived by it until it is too late. The warning is not to fall for this deceit. Kingdom mindsets see our resources as a means to expanding gospel good news and faithful good works in the world. That will save us from craving wealth, loving money, and getting hooked by the false lure of easy living by wealth.
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