NON-MORAL MONEY AND LOVE OF IT
"The love of
money is a root of all kinds of evil" 1 Tim. 6:10
Not money, but the love of it. Money is not a
root of evil. Neither is it a root of good. It is NON-MORAL. It may be the
greatest curse that can come into a human life. It may be the instrument of
untold good. Much depends upon the use of it. Everything depends ultimately
upon the attitude of the soul toward it. Where we have three words in this
statement, "love
of money," the Greek has but one and perhaps the word in our
common speech which best convey the thought is the word "avarice." It is not
covetousness. That is also a root of evil, but it is not the same thing exactly
as avarice! COVETOUSNESS is a desire to gain possession of money, or indeed
anything. AVARICE is love-of-money, for itself. It is often the low motive of
covetousness; but there may be covetousness from other motives. Love of money
is just that, the love of it that hoards and holds. It is indeed a root of all
kinds of evil. It dries up the springs of compassion in the soul. It lowers the
whole standard of morality. It is the inspiration of all the basest things,
even covetousness; for if there may be covetousness without love-of-money,
there is never love-of-money without covetousness. Yet how insidious a peril
this is! It is sometimes created by prosperity and the consequent possession of
money. It is often powerfully present in lives which are devoid of wealth. It
is wholly material, the result of a wrong conception of life, due to forgetfulness
of the fact that "a
man's life consists...not in the abundance of the things which he possesses."
(Luke 12:15) And how have many been taught to gather possessions to make one happy and satisfied but that end never comes through this avenue; just one more dollar, just another possession.
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