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Is Money or the Love of Money the Root of All Evil

By: Corbin M. Wright, Fri Dec 9th, 2005 05:56:48 PM

QUESTION: What is the root of all evil: Money or the Love of Money?

THE RESPONSES COME FROM 3 CHRISTIAN WEBSITES

1) Corbin says: As one becomes poorer and poorer, I believe the person tends to feel that money is really the root of all evil.

2) Sarah says: I believe that lack of Love-Love for God, for fellow man, for the world around us - is the root of all evil, followed by greed - greed for money, power, luxury, whatever. Lack of enough money to buy necessities is pretty bad, especially if you're the person suffering the lack, but the reason for it goes back to the above. If a person has no money to buy food, you can bet someone else has got some.

3) Mary Anne says: In my humble opinion, it's neither. The root of all evil is ignorance. Ignorance breeds fear, fear breeds anger and hatred, jealousy and greed. Money is just a symbol. Money symbolizes the value of our hours awake: Naturally if we spend all our hours awake making horseshoes, we are not tilling the soil necessary to grow the food to support our bodies. Money is the symbol of value we attach to the products of our conscious endeavor. It's not actually a thing, it's an abstraction whose actual value is nuetral, unless we all agree on one value or another. Even then, it's still a figment of our imagination. When we all agree on a value, we are consenting to be bound by a certain delusion about the nature of reality. At that point, I think it can be argued, that a certain brand of "collective insanity" takes hold. The fact of the matter is that we are here, it's All God's stuff, and Private Property, while a pleasant delusion, is still a delusion. Marxist-sounding, I know, but there it is. Jesus was a Communist too, as I recall. It's only ignorance that prevents us from claiming the Kingdom in the here and now. Money has little or nothing to do with it, in my opinion. But it's a great question.

4) John says: To me it would be the love of money. For if one loves money too much one is willing to do all kinds of things to get money. Steal, lie, cheat and even kill to get the money they love. And another thing, it seems the more money one has the more they want which is greed and that's not a nice thing.

5) Gary says: Pretty much agree with every thing that's said so far.

6) Frank says: I believe that the correct translation of the verse is "the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil" Here it is, 1 Timothy 6:9-10, "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

7) David says: I think you are asking a couple of different questions here...One is whether money is the root of all evil and the other is what to do when there is a lack of money which is a backbreaker to many and how to deal with it. I tend to see money as the root of all evil...(all evil is plural--as Frank pointed out)...and I think that lack of money is just part and parcel of a world that runs on it. I work on this in the States and I see the frustration and pain in not having enough money and the barriers it presents to just live with the basics...food, shelter, clothing... I also think that a generation builds upon another generation so that it is even more difficult because this situation turns into the a poverty of spirit and hope...the manifestations of which abound...so that you not only have the outside barrier of the lack of resources, but also the inside barriers of the loss of spirit, dreams and hope.

8) Lawrence says: This is a great question indeed. I am sure that there is an inherent evil in all things, as well, there is an inherent good in all things. Take the subject of money; Money in and of itself is not good or bad, neither is it worth anything. Its value is determined at the time of purchase, at that time its potential for good or evil is also determined. There was a story in the news lately that shows this concept perfectly. A group of women decided to hold a fund raiser for the children that had no hope of receiving a Christmas. These women were prostitutes and ended up raising a lot of money for the children. The way that the money was raised was questionable at the very least. This made some of the locals mark the funds as evil. The funds were donated to a local church for the children. The presiding minister had a hard time deciding whether or not to accept the funds, saying that the money was evil and that it was received in sin, therefore it was not good enough to be used for the children. I believe that when the money gathered was put into the coffers of the church for the good of the children, the money, although gathered in sin, is now indistinguishable from the other monies gathered by other means. All of the money is now good, whether given by the whore or the deacon, the use and the intent is now for a good and therefore the money is good. Now the question that I have is would that money, having been donated by a business man, have also been marked as evil? The business man would likely not be questioned as to whether he lied, or even possibly stretched the truth just a little in the deal in which the money was raised. If he did, would the money not also have been acquired in sin? I believe that we spend too much time judging the intent and values of others, and far too little time evaluating the intent of our deeds and actions. In closing, the answer to the question is NO. There is no evil in money or the love of money. It is in the priorities, uses, and means by which we acquire, spend and use the money that is evil. We must realize that it is by the grace of God that all things are possible and through Him anything acquired can be righteous. God has made many men rich and famous, he has also given them power over others. None of these are evil but the acquisition or the use of these same things without the power or influence of God is evil..

9) Harold says: The love of money is, not money itself. If you love money, you love the world. The worldly system is selfishness. The cause of most of our society disorders is selfishness. Selflessness would cure many of the problems created by selfishness. God is not against money. He can bless us with money. He will, however, not bless us for personal gain, but so that we can bless others.

10) Robert says: I can understand the feeling and concern about poverty increasing. Even in the US, the percentage difference in the salary of CEOs and the average worker has increased tremendously in the last couple of decades. More and more of the middle class is becoming the lower class. But I personally agree that the love of money is really the evil. It's saying that money is much more important than other aspects of life, such as helping others. Although I can understand the minister's hesitation in accepting money raised by prostitution. It is also interesting to note here that during the time of Jesus, you were usually believed to be rich because you were blessed by God. I further think that people tend to believe that money is evil when it's someone else's money.

11) Steven says: Neither money nor the love of money is evil, provided it is used for developing God's Kingdom. The danger is the rich person will be consumed with the material things of earth rather than heaven. And if the poor were the ones who had money to feed their families would they think money is evil? It's really situationally dependent.

12) Corbin says: A respondee suggested to me that if you wanted a rich boss to work harder, you should pay him more money, whereas if you wanted a poor worker to work harder, you should pay him less money.

About the author: Corbin Melvin Wright was born in New York City in 1931, grew up on Long Island, graduated from Roanoke College in Virginia with a BA in Political Science, and from New York Theological Seminary with a Masters in Religious Education. He worked as an accountant in NYC for 21 yrs. and as an English teacher and Christian counselor in Argentina for 23 years. He was married twice, widowed once, & has no children, E-mail address (corbinwr@yahoo.com).

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