1 Timothy 6:9-10 9But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all evils, which some who have desired have been misled from the faith and pierced themselves with many woes.
Paul returns to warning Timothy about those who seek to use religion as a means to get rich. The principles Paul gives in these verses are broader than the problems in Ephesus and have a timeless application to them. Wealth can be a blessing or a curse. Wealth can provide helpful funds for many ministries and mission outreach as long as it is the response of a dedicated heart. Paul highlights the problem of wealth providing an opportunity to fall into temptation. The enticement for “more” appeals to our depraved selfish nature. In Romans 7:7-11, Paul chose coveting as his primary illustration of the problem of sin and the flesh. At the root of temptation is an appeal to put ourselves above God. In the case of riches, the “ourselves” in the previous statement often focuses on “stuff.”
Wanting more “stuff” opens us up to foolish and harmful desires because we no longer have Jesus as Lord of our lives. We have compromised our allegiance by looking to things of this world for purpose, meaning, and value. The stuff of the world because a trap that we do not see at first, like the snares used to catch wild animals. These desires plunge (bythizousin) people into ruin and destruction. They plunge in over their head, sink, and eventually drown under the stress to keep their wealth due to the breakdown of the things they worked hard to get, a drop in the stock market, theft, destructive storm, or high taxes–many things chip away at wealth.
Worse than a loss of the stuff is what happens to a person’s heart in the pursuit of riches. Paul explains why (for [gar]) the love of money is so dangerous and must be avoided. Common sense and experience tell us that when people get money, and if they live for themselves are our enslaved by sin, they will end up doing all kinds of evil things. The word root comes first in the Greek sentence and emphasizes the basal nature of the evil. There is no article with the word, so it is best to keep the say generic and broad with the translation of “a root.” Money itself is not the problem but can become a source of evil.
Loving money (philargyria) feeds our selfishness and results from our selfishness. Our love should be to God and others and not money (Matthew 6:24; 22:37-40). How we use whatever money we have (a lot or little) depends on our motives and goals. Do we use our money to glorify God or to build our own empire of comfort and pleasure? Using wealth to make life comfortable is not wrong or evil, but we must always put God and God’s kingdom first. The tithe in the Old Testament was God’s primary teaching tool for Israel in this regard and is still an important habit for believers today. Giving money to a ministry is not a guarantee that we do not love of money. This is a heart issue.
Paul returns to application at the end of verse 10 and expresses the danger of loving money and stuff. Some could include the opponents in Ephesus but is broad enough to apply to anyone facing the temptation of riches. The verb have been led astray is passive, meaning that these people have been deceived and enticed. That does not mean the “some people” are innocent since the last clause states that they pierced themselves. They had a part in their demise and destruction by stabbing themselves in the heart. They have turned their back from the faith, referring to the gospel of Jesus, and gone their own way. The final outcome of pursuing wealth are woes or grief and sadness. We may think that we are not rich. Money, possessions, and wealth are all relative. We can be poor in the eyes of our economic context but still love money.
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