For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
This is a very wonderful section of scripture, if you’ve ever struggled with money. With wanting it, with having it, with worrying about others who have none, or those who have an excess. I look around and I see a society obsessed with money, and I imagine this is the community Timothy found himself, and Paul is writing an encouraging letter all about money.
One expected line of thought is the one about the evils of money, and the challenges of those who chase after it. Those people who want to be rich wander away from God, pursuing harmful desires that actually take them further away from God. I believe this happens when we put the love of money above Jesus’ two simple rules. Love God. Love your neighbor. But when we have some, or see someone who has more, we are sometimes compelled to pursue more, at the expense of those simple laws. Love God. Love your neighbor. It is a mighty hard choice, day in and day out. To choose love of God or neighbor over money. But if we can remember those two simple rules, money takes an appropriate back seat.
The other message contained in this reading has to do with the rich, or those who have an abundance. As Paul writes to Timothy, we enter this world with nothing, and leave with nothing, so if we have food and clothing, we have enough.
By this definition, most all of us have more than just the food and clothes we need; we are all rich, or at least should see ourselves as rich. But I know that for most all of us, there are always people who have more. They are the people we see as rich. It’s the relative richness from our own perspective I’m thinking about this morning.
It seems so easy for the have-nots to blame the haves. Or for those with a strong sense of care and duty for our neighbors to demonize those who we consider rich. This troubles me deeply for several reasons. First, if we start from just the clothes and food we need, we are all rich. When we bemoan those who are richer, we are falling prey to relative wealth. I am not the problem because they’re the rich ones, not me.
Second, this section does not ever blame the rich. Paul does caution about the money itself, and what it does to people. But he goes on to say that for those who are rich in this present age, they are to do good, be rich in good works, generous and ready to share.
There is a place and a role in this world for people who are rich. They have money to do the good deeds that many who want to do the good deeds do not have. The rich can fund the deep desires and willing actions to help from those without the financial resources needed. To some this role of financier may look or feel like condescending and toxic charity. I have absolutely seen that, with people who believe their sole job is to give money to the disadvantaged, to those who aren’t as great as they are. O, those poor needy. I can help them.
But I have also see amazing examples of love and charity from incredibly wealthy people. They do marvelous things with their wealth. They fund systems and shelters and staff to do amazing work. They may have millions but that is not sufficient reason to dismiss them. They are not the evil ones. Money has the potential to be evil, because it can woo us into wrong actions. But that can happen to the lower class, middle class and upper class. The wealthy are not the bad ones. What a human does with money is.
Finally, I find this judgement wrong because 1) we’re not supposed to judge and 2) we are commanded to do only two things. Love God. Love our neighbor. That includes our millionaire neighbors. Love them. Encourage them, in love, to follow those two commands. Love God. Love your Neighbor. It’s really simple, which makes it possible. As long as we start with love, not judgement.
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