Verse of the Day Devotion: 1 Timothy 6:10 

“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” – 1 Timothy 6:10

Money is not the root of all sorts of evil, it is the love of it that is the issue.  Money in and of itself is not a bad thing.  In today’s culture, we could not survive without some money, for it does require funds to purchase food, clothing and shelter.  However, when our desire for money goes beyond our needs, this is when we could enter dangerous territory, that being greed and ultimately avarice.

Question.  What did Christ say were the two greatest commands?  “Jesus answered, ‘The foremost is, Hear, O Israel!  The Lord our God is one Lord; and you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, you will love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.’” Mark 12:29-31.  This is where our love should be focused; to God and to people.

Those who have a love for money and longing for as much as they can get, covet it.  And the enemy can take that and tempt us to increase our love for it until money becomes more important than other people, and ultimately could lead to being more important than God.  And one of the tools he uses is comparison.  We compare what we have with what others have, or we compare what we do not have with what others have.  It is very easy to fall into this if our focus is things, and ultimately money.  The writer of Hebrews put it this way.  “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5 Comparison of what we have will often lead to discontentment.  We begin to feel that what God has provided for us is not enough, we want more.”  At this point, our wants become our needs even though we do not really need them.  “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19. If He does not supply something to us, then do we really need it?  Paul alludes to No as the answer.

If we have more than we need, then our focus can be on those who do not.  Often, the way God supplies the needs of others is through the treasures of another.  We should think of money as a tool we can use to do the work of God here.  There was a Christian music performer who chose to give 90% of his money to others and live off the remaining 10%.  He brought in way more than he needed and he made the decision to meet the needs of others as his needs were met.  Is there a way we can take our excess and bless others who absolutely need it?  Let’s examine our situation and see where God leads us.  Not only will we be blessing others, but we will be blessed as well by the Father, and the knowledge that someone else is now in a better place.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries, Inc.