Q3. Love of Money

[Old Jerry]

The love for money grows when we covet things that we don’t have and can’t afford. There seems to always be some schemes out there that claim to get us rich quick. The way to escape this trap is to be content with what we have.

[hanks]

Q3. (1 TIMOTHY 6:7-10) 
How does love for money grow? How does it become a trap? How do you escape this deceptive trap? 
We mistakenly seek the power and status that we think riches will bring, so, not content with all that God has provided there is a great desire to be rich. But we know that the love of money is a root sin (6:10); that is to say, it lies beneath the surface and nourishes any number of other sins. Such sins may include theft, fraud, perjury, gambling, speculation, and even murder. This desire to be rich leads us into being tempted to resort to these dishonest means to achieve our goal, and this then leads to: temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires that plunge us into ruin and destruction. We have to confront our love of money and remove it by the roots every time we see it spring up in another area of our life, if not we can be sucked into the desire to make more and more money. This desire starts to grow, and becomes stronger and stronger, leading us into a snare or trap which we are unable to escape from. We might have set an initial target and promise to stop once this has been reached, but we cannot stop - this desire grows as we desire for more and more. Before we realize it, this desire can completely control and destroy our lives. Things can spiral out of control ultimately ending in our total ruin and destruction. The reason the pursuit of riches deceives is that money does not last, and it never brings true happiness. It has been said: “Money will buy a bed but not sleep; books but not brains; food but not appetite; finery but not beauty; a house but not a home; medicine but not health; luxuries but not culture; amusements but not happiness; religion but not salvation; a passport to everywhere but heaven.” To escape this deceptive trap, we should first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Mat 6:33), and God will make sure we have all we need for life. There is nothing we can take with us into eternity. Why then do we strive after temporal things that cannot bring us lasting satisfaction? We should realize that money will not bring true happiness; it can’t reconcile us to God, because it doesn’t deal with our sinful self-will that alienates us from God and others. Only Christ through His death on the cross can forgive our sins. Only Christ can deal the deathblow to our love of self as we enthrone Jesus as our rightful Lord. “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self” (Luke 9:25)?