𝘐𝘴 money is the root of all evil?

1 Timothy 6.9-10.

This is rather well-known out-of-context scripture. So well known in fact, your average Christian already knows it’s taken out of context, and many a pagan likewise knows better. It’s the common proverb “Money is the root of all evil,” and it’s a misquote of something Paul wrote to Timothy:

1 Timothy 6.10 KJV

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.

It’s the love of money. Not money itself. Money is morally neutral. But loving money—especially when people love it more than God, their neighbors, their own lives and health and reputation and integrity—certainly produces evil.

Now yeah, many a Christian (especially when they’re really kinda Mammonist) read the King James Version and balk: “All evil? I don’t think every evil in the world is based on the love of money. I can think of a few evils which had nothing to do with money. Like adultery; that’s more about loving nooky.” So as a result we got other translations of the bible which won’t say all.

1 Timothy 6.10 NKJV

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Notice the words “kind of” have to be grayed out (or, in other editions, in italics) because they were added to the text. The original Greek has ῥίζα γὰρ πάντων τῶν κακῶν ἐστιν ἡ φιλαργυρία/rídza gar pánton ton kakón estin i filargyría, “For the root of all the evil is money-love.”

So no, Paul didn’t say money-love is the root of many kinds of evil. He flat-out wrote it’s the root of all the evil. He didn’t make exceptions. Present-day translators are the ones inserting the exceptions into the text, and putting words in Paul’s mouth which he didn’t say. The New King James is hardly the only one.

AMPLIFIED. For the love of money [that is, the greedy desire for it and the willingness to gain it unethically] is a root of all sorts of evil…

CSV, NRSV. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…

ESV. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.

GOOD NEWS. For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil.

ISV, NIV, WEB For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

NASB. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil…

NLT For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

Bad translators! You translate what Paul actually meant, not in a way which disguises any potential bible difficulties. No doughnut for you.

But you can kinda see why they’re trying to adjust Paul to suit their thinking, even though that’s in no way a legitimate way to translate scripture.

Okay, but let’s deal with the possible difficulty. Why would Paul say money-love is the root of all the evil in the world? Adam and Eve, fr’instance. Money wasn’t even invented yet when they ate the fruit of the forbidden tree and sinned. Their evil didn’t stem from money-love. And we know Paul was totally aware of their story, yet that’s what he wrote to Timothy. So… what’s going on here?

Filargyría and covetousness.

The Greek word φιλαργυρία/filargyría is a compound of the words φίλος/fílos, “love,” and ἄργυρος/árgyros, “silver”—or since they used silver coins for money back then, “money.” Hence it’s usually translated “the love of money” or “money-love.” And a money-lover, like the Pharisees whom Jesus debated with, Lk 16.14 would be a φιλάργυρος/filárgyros.

Thing is, when you look for that word filárgyros in the KJV, you’re not gonna find it’s been translated “lover of money.” Both times it’s translated “covetous.” Lk 16.14, 2Ti 3.2 Because that’s what it meant to ancient Greek-speakers. You know how English compound words can change from the meanings of their root words? Happens in Greek too. And ancient Greek writers like Sophocles, Plato, or Xenophon, used it to mean “avaricious, greedy, covetous.” Not literally lovers of silver, although more than likely they definitely loved silver.

So is Paul actually saying the love of money is the root of all evil, or does he properly mean to say covetousness is the root of all evil? Because covetousness… is actually dead-on.

Why did Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the forbidden tree? Because they coveted it.

Genesis 3.6 KJV

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

They coveted; they wanted what they ought not have. They took it anyway. They stole it from God, then lied to God about it and blamed others for the taking of it. Covetousness is at the root of the first sin, and you’ll find covetousness is kinda at the root of every other sin.

“The love of money” may be the literal translation of filargyría, but it’s the wrong interpretation. We need to go with what the ancients meant by that word—covetousness—and you’ll notice the rest of the 1 Timothy passage makes total sense when we do that.

1 Timothy 6.9-10 KWL

9Those who desire to be wealthy

fall into temptation, into a trap,

into many senseless, harmful desires.

Whatever sinks people into ruin and destruction,

10for the root of all evil is covetousness.

Some of those who long for wealth

are led astray from the faith

and spear themselves with many griefs.

As for the money-lovers…

Money-love is a form of greed and covetousness, so there’s gonna be a lot of overlap between the things we shouldn’t covet, and the love of money. The greedy are likewise gonna fall into temptation, traps, senseless behavior, ruin, and destruction. Not because money-love is the root of all evil, but because the greed behind money-love is.

Those who insist money-love is only the root of many kinds of evil, are trying to dodge everything else Paul has to say about how money-love is gonna lead to the very same destructive behavior, and actual destruction, as covetousness. They’re often frantically trying to avoid all the very real problems, and responsibility for those problems, their Mammonism leads to.

But verses 9-10 are just as much about them. They wanna be rich. They’re not always rich yet; they don’t always have any good plan to get rich. But they certainly covet riches. And I’ve known plenty of people who dabble in get-rich schemes, or play the state lottery and visit the casinos, or tinker with cryptocurrency and investments and stocks, ’cause they’re hoping to amass a comfortable pile. Kinda like the dragons in fairy tales, sleeping on their caverns full of gold: Something they can rest easy on.

They also want all the comforts which they expect will come with a big pile of money. A large house, an expensive car, an impressive multimedia system, all the video games they can eat, vacations in every expensive destination, nice clothes and shoes and jewelry and gadgets.

They’re also eager to defend why they’re so materialistic. It’s not that they love money, they claim—they swear! Money’s just a tool. There’s nothing wrong with using tools for a greater purpose. “It’s not that I love money: I’m just trying to be a responsible steward with what God gave me.” As all of us should be.

But okay, let’s take that claim at face value. So… how’s your family’s devotional life going? How much have you spent on growing closer to God? Any missions trips planned? Any useful bible dictionaries and commentaries and devotional books on your bookshelf? Any prayer props? How are the ministries, to both your church and to the needy, that you support financially? Have you used your home and car to help anyone lately? Your phone? Your pantry? Have you given of any of the abundant time God’s given you? Have you been a good stewardship of these resources?

Hope so. But for most folks, they never thought of their resources. They think of their money—and they don’t give a red cent more than a tenth of their net income. If that. And only to their churches; never to charities. Never to the homeless guys sitting outside Walmart asking for spare change; those guys will only spend it on gin.

Properly, “stewardship” has to do with all the resources we have. Not just the money.

How Christians tend to define stewardship, only addresses the money. We imagine it’s about getting our financial house in order: We sort out our budgets, pay down our debts, and generally get ourselves free of want and worry. Only once that’s done can we minister: Me and mine first, then others. Then generosity. Then storing up treasures in heaven.

The problem with this scenario is how it takes us forever to get our houses in order. There always seem to be unexpected expenses! And there never seems to be enough of a surplus at the end of each paycheck, so we can never really afford to minister with any generosity. Heck, the only reason so many Christians bother to give to our churches, is our churches like to claim, “Your tithe comes before anything else in your budget; off the top of your paycheck.” If we didn’t put that contribution first, we’d never bother to make it.

The way most Christians practice “stewardship,” turns it into pure hypocrisy. We use it to make our stinginess sound sacred.

Learn to not love money.

Human nature hasn’t changed between Paul’s day and ours. Quite a few Ephesians used the church to network—to create business contacts, to attract customers who figured a merchant who acted religious was less likely to cheat them. (How many times have we Christians been burned by that myth?)

Then as now, there’s also been people who believe when God blesses, he does it financially. He doesn’t bless us with fruit of the Spirit—not with greater love, patience, peace, kindness, and all that jazz—but with better stuff. Larger income. Bigger harvests. Nicer possessions. We presume God’ll act like other humans and give us a monetary bonus. Prosperity gospel preachers teach little else.

Others claim God wants every last Christian debt-free, mortgage-free, credit-card-free, and freed from every form of economic bondage. And largely it’s true: The economic system in God’s Law was rigged to get everyone out of debt on regular intervals, so no one could be indebted forever. But capitalism doesn’t work that way at all, and lenders try their darnedest to indebt everybody. Christian financial counselors encourage us to avoid debt… but not always so we can use our newfound freedom to further God’s kingdom. Usually it’s so we can be comfortable.

One thing you oughta notice—I sure do!—is how many get-rich schemes, multi-level marketing campaigns, and even Ponzi schemes, run by folks who claim to be Christian. Part of their pitch is they started their businesses to enrich themselves, and now they wish to enrich fellow believers—so why don’t you fellow believers get on board? After all, they’re Christians, so you can trust ’em. Sell their products! Sell their vitamins, their jewelry, their long-distance service, their cleaning supplies, their books, and make a bunch of money! And supposedly this’ll grow God’s kingdom… in some kind of trickle-down way. We’ll have more money to tithe, right? That grows the kingdom, kinda.

None of this stuff is what Paul taught. Time for the next paragraph of 1 Timothy:

1 Timothy 6.11-12 KWL

11You, oh man of God: Flee these things!

Pursue justice, piety, faith,

love, endurance, gentleness.

12Strive in the good contest, of faith.

Grab hold of life in the age to come.

It’s why you’re called,

and why you profess a good confession before many witnesses.

There are far more noble things to pursue than wealth. Do that instead.

People who can’t be content with what they have, who gotta have more, are gonna get wrecked. Not necessarily bankrupt or dead; here we’re talking about gaining the whole world at the expense of our souls. Mk 8.36 It’s about getting rich—and ignoring how hard it is for the rich to enter God’s kingdom. Jesus said it’s easier to put a camel through a needle, Mk 10.25 and the most powerful meat grinder on the market might be able to do it, but no guarantees.

Y’see, for the wealth-seeker, for the money-lover, material gain will always take priority over spiritual gain. It’s okay for them to put aside Jesus for the sake of money: They promise—they swear to God!—they’ll do so much for Jesus once they finally have the money. It’s okay for them to defraud their friends, because they’ll do so much to make up for it once they have the money. It’s okay for them to set aside family and friends and church, because once they’re comfortable, they’ll have time. These are some of the many lies we tell ourselves when our priorities are askew. Some of them used to be on my own lips.

Yeah, it’s the love of money at the root of such evil. Now let’s be honest with whether we’ve fallen into this evil. And endeavor to put God before Mammon wherever we discover things have gone otherwise.