Redeeming Wealth
Redeeming Wealth
“But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 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. 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 6:6–10, ESV)
Emotions And Sin
In my previous post, I mentioned that emotions are at the heart of all our sin. We sin because we love the wrong things. Rather than loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourself, we put other things in their place. When we love things more than we should—more than God—we take God’s good gifts and make them into something destructive. Rather than leading to life, they lead to death.
Wealth As A Gift
This passage is building off of that concept. Money and wealth are good gifts from God. He pours out blessing and wealth on his people. God not only gives us what we need but gives us abundance so that we have more than we need.
This isn’t some prosperity gospel—which has distorted this truth and made it destructive. This is biblical truth. God blesses people with the gift of wealth, and like all his other gifts, he gives it—and apportions is—according to his grace. We don’t earn this gift either. If we run a successful business that generates lots of wealth, we may think we have earned that wealth, but underneath everything is God’s undeserved grace.
The Love of Money
However, like all of God’s good gifts, wealth can be turned into something that brings destruction when we love it more than we should. That’s why our passage says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” (1 Timothy 6:10). When we love God’s good gift more than we love God, it becomes the root of all kinds of evil. Sin takes hold of the gift and brings destruction. So, it isn’t the money that's the problem; it’s the love of that money.
It says something similar in the previous verse: “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.” (1 Timothy 6:9). Again, it’s not the wealth that brings us into temptation, it’s the DESIRE to be wealthy that leads to destruction. It’s the disordered love of money and gain of wealth that brings about destruction and death.
Redeeming Wealth
This passage gives us insight into how we can redeem God’s good gift of wealth. It says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain…” (1 Timothy 6:6) and later says “But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” (1 Timothy 6:8). The answer to redeeming wealth is to be content with what you have. Rather than loving and pursuing wealth like an addict pursuing his next fix, we are to be content with what God has given us.
Another way of saying this is that we should love God more than his gift of wealth. When we love God more than his gift of wealth, we trust that he has given us everything we need and we thank Him for what he has given us. We trust him.
If the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, our contentment in God’s provision is the root of all kinds of righteousness. The first step in redeeming wealth is to be content with what God has given you.
The next step will come on Wednesday…