LOVE OF MONEY

                                  THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL: LOVE OF MONEY

     First Timothy chapter six, verse ten reads: For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. This corresponds to Hosea 7:11-16. To paraphrase, it is saying that some of God's chosen people have depended upon foreign nations and their gods, in a spiritual sense during the present New Testament age, and are "crusin for a bruisin", having turned their backs on God and ran away from Him. They have lied about Him, after having been redeemed, not calling to Him with their hearts, only with their mouths [Isaiah 29:13]. The key thought to this context is that they have banded together for earthly profits [Hosea 7:14], rebelling against the Almighty, instead of keeping the Lord as the activity's main focus.

     In I Timothy 6:10, love here is from the Greek philarguria, from phileo [to love] and arguros [silver]. Further, this is a variant of philarguros, meaning covetousness, which the tenth commandment forbids believers from possessing, either in our hearts or in our flesh [Revelation 14:12, coinciding with Deuteronomy 27:10, 6:5, and Matthew 5:17,18]. Before proceeding, we need to note a couple of things. Though Christ didn't disanull the moral commandments (being between 300 and 400), he did away with their concreteness, in that works do not save or make righteous. Instead, He enabled us to receive the spirit of the letter [Romans 7:6, II Corinthians 3:6]. The spirit of the letter is this: once converted [John 3:3, Matthew 18:3, Luke 22:31-34, Acts 3:19], we are enabled to receive the heart felt desire to obey the commandments, more naturally [Jeremiah 31:33, Psalm 96:1, Isaiah 43:18-21, Ezekiel 11:19, 18:31, 36:25-27, Romans 2:14]. Not that we become perfect, or unable to sin [Romans 7:14-25], but once His, we have a way to be forgiven [I John 2:1,2, 1:7-10, Ecclesiastes 7:20], and a way to know if we are still His [Hebrews 12:5-17, Romans 8:16, I John 3:14-24].
     Money is from the Greek words argurion, chrema, chalkos, kerma, nomisma, drachmae and shekel, meaning, respectively, silver or silver coin, a thing that one uses (hence wealth, riches), copper or copper coin, a slice (a small coin or change), and that which is established by custom, from nomos ( a custom, law), hence the current coin of a state, currency). In short, money is anything that can be used to purchase something, including not only barter, but our labor as well.
     It is not money which is evil, but the love of it, which essentially and ultimately also falls under the first and second commandments, to have no god but the Almighty and to not bow down to idols. I believe that it falls under those two, at least as much as it falls under the tenth commandment of not to covet, to be jealous. We are not told that it is a sin to have great riches, only that it is easier to fall prey to ungodliness if we are rich [Matthew 13:22, Mark 10:23-27, I Timothy 6:9, 17-19, Hebrews 11:24-27]. At the other end of the spectrum, not having enough sometimes causes people to stray from the faith as well [Proverbs 22:16, 30:7-9].
     Anything that we love, we devote our time and energy to, and though that is not the same as worshipping something per say, neglecting time with the Lord in prayer, study and doing for others is forsaking Him which, essentially, is making obeisance to, or worshipping, another god, such as the people mentioned in Romans were doing [Romans 1:18-32], which is idolatry.
     Since antichrist means 'against Christ' or 'instead of', anything that we put in the place of the Lord is antichrist, including depending upon intellectual means rather than the Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ's representative on earth and in our hearts [Luke 24:49, John 14:16-18,26, 15:26,27, 16:7-14, Psalm 25:5, Isaiah 4:5, Exodus 23:20-25, 13:21,22]. This is not to say that we have to spend every waking hour doing things directly for the Lord and His ministry, for we do need time to relax [I Chronicles 16:15, Ecclesiastes 12:12, Psalm 71:3, Genesis 18:4,5, Exodus 23:12, Deuteronomy 25:19, Proverbs 29:17, Matthew 11:28, 26:40,41,45, Luke 23:56, II Peter 3:2]. Nonetheless, He should always be at the center of our thoughts and activities.
     We oftentimes work overtime or on the Sabbath when we don't really need to, and we are always supposed to keep the Sabbath day holy, abstain from labor, and rest. In retrospect, what is work to one may not be work to another [Exodus 20:8-11, Philippians 2:12], though the Lord grants it to some of His people when a place of employ requires it. But excepting when it is required, how often do we really need to? In order to keep up payments on that newer, fancier car that we didn't actually need? To pay for a big screen television set that replaced the smaller one which was functioning fine? To get a head start on next week's work so as to have more time next weekend? We all know how that works out most of the time [Matthew 6:24-34]. It turns into a never ending cycle.
     We should use wisdom and discretion, to be sure [Proverbs 6:6-11], but we need to do it without putting anything before the Lord. Just as God turned the sun dial back, and made the sun stand still for the better part of a day, He can essentially do the same for us, provided we keep Him first [Isaiah 38:4-8, Habakkuk 3:11, II Kings 20:8-11, Joshua 10:6-14, Acts 8:39,40]. He will probably never again physically make the sun go backwards or stand still, but God, Jehovah, in His Divine Providence, can somehow make an hour, a day or any length of time actually be shorter or longer, without disrupting world time, as well as enable us to make better use of our time.
     Those participating in the barter system use objects other than money to obtain things. If you have ever traded an item for another item, then you have bartered. Money, whether an item, time or money, represents time spent which we put a value upon. Realizing that earthly items, and time, are simply tools with which to get through life materially, helps to keep us from making an earthly object an idol, a false god. Earthly things are to be used as, again, tools, and as a sort of temporary fail-safe [Luke 16:1-12].
     Money, or barter, is part of a system, a worldly system, earthly only. By devoting more time than is meet to making and administering finances, or worshipping money, making it an idol, a god, the system to which it belongs also becomes a god, a false god, an idol. During ancient Roman times, at various periods, the rulers were worshipped as gods, some rulers revelling in it, one being killed directly by God Almighty [Acts 12:21-24], for allowing himself to be thought of as God [Isaiah14:12-16], just as the Assyrian king Sennacherib was struck down for that very thing: failing to give God the glory due Him, and mocking God, knowing full well who God is [Isaiah 36:2,4-10,14,15,18-21, 37:6,7,33-38]. We do not want to worship a government or a system, or it's rulers and administrators.
     Idolatry is, ultimately, blaphemy against God and the Holy Ghost [I Thessalonians 5:19, Hebrews 10:26-30, Matthew 12:31,32, I John 5:16]. Blasphemy is from the Greek blasphemos, defined as: "As to Christ's teaching concerning "blasphemy" against the Holy Spirit, e.g., Matt. 12:32, that anyone, with the evidence of the Lord's power before His eyes, should declare it to be satanic, exhibited a condition of heart beyond Divine illumination and therefore hopeless" [Vine, W.E., Unger, Merrill F., White, William Jr. Pg. 69. Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words with Topical Index. © 1984, 1996]. Doing despite to or lying to the Holy Ghost, or attempting to take on God's attributes as one's own, is also blasphemy of It [Acts 4:31-5:11]. Idolatry, sustained long enough, perhaps on one occasion, depending upon the situation, is equivalent to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

       02/14/2015