Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of
Trinity Sermons. Have you ever played a game
of telephone, where you start out with a message,
and they tell that to one person, and they tell
that to the next person, and then the next person,
and by the end, the message sounds nothing at
all like where you started? I think that's kind
of what happened with the verse that we're talking
about today. Money is the root of all evil. At
least, that's what we think the Bible says. But
in reality, the Bible says something a little
bit different. So Rob's going to unpack that
for us and help us to uncover some of the biblical
truth that is behind this verse and how it applies
to our lives today. So let's listen in. But godliness
with contentment is great gain, for we brought
nothing into the world, and we can take nothing
out of it. But if we have food and clothing,
we will be content with that. Those who want
to get rich fall into temptation and a trap,
and into many foolish and harmful desires that
plunge people into ruin and destruction. For
the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Some people eager for money have wandered from
the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
The word of the Lord. So to open up today, what
I would like to do is just ask you guys all an
honest question. Here's the question. Would more
money make your life easier? Would more money
make your life easier? Hands up if the answer
is yes. More money would make my life easier.
Okay. Hands up if the answer is no. More money
would not make my life easier. Okay, so now that
I got you thinking about that, I wanted to let
you know that we've decided to do something a
little fun this morning, just to bless you. We
have taken three $100 bills, and we have taped
them under various seats in the sanctuary here.
And if you're online, unfortunately you can't
participate in this, but I want to just give
you a few moments to check under your seat. and
see if you might be one of the lucky ones. Go
ahead. I'll wait. Okay, some of you are looking.
Actually, more of you are looking than I thought
were going to look. Others of you are not looking,
and you're saying, there's no way that Rob did
that. You know, he's Dutch, and there's no way
that... Tightwad is going to give away $300 on
a Sunday morning. And that's absolutely true.
We would never, never do that. And it might,
I mean, it would be fun if we did, but we're
not going to do that. But that question actually
leads into the statement that we want to look
at today, which, you know, many people think
it comes from the Bible. They believe this phrase
is in the Bible. They quote it as if it's from
the Bible. And that is this, money is the root
of all evil. How many of you have heard that
phrase? before. Yes, money is the root of all
evil. I mean, I was just doing a little looking
around. I found this tip jar that someone had
written. Money is the root of all evil, so cleanse
yourself here. In other words, get rid of that
evil money and just tip your waitress or something
like that. Or I found this for the mathematicians
that are here. You can get t -shirts with this
on it. So I don't know if you understand. you
know, I don't fully understand all of it, but
money equals the root, right? And that is a sigma,
which means the sum of all evil. So money is
the root of all evil. And if you're not a mathematician,
then you'll probably at least understand this
bumper sticker that I came across that says,
if money is the root of all evil, why do churches
beg for it? Burn. Boom. Oh, man. I feel so. Actually,
though, jokes on them. Jokes on all those waitresses
and mathematicians and people who drive around
with bumper stickers. Because the truth is that
even though they may believe the Bible says or
God says that money is the root of all evil,
today we're going to realize that actually the
Bible doesn't say that. It's actually a major
misquote and a major misunderstanding. So, ha!
Joke's on you, guy, right? And let's just start
by acknowledging a couple things before we get
going, and that is that money is a big part of
your life. If you are living and you are breathing
on this planet, then you cannot avoid... The
experience of having to work with money. It's
just part of the human experience. And it has
been that way for about 4 ,000 years since a
bunch of people in a town called Lydia in present
-day Turkey started using little silver coins
and little copper coins to pay for goods and
services, right? That's where money came from.
And everybody uses money. Now, I actually, I
asked ChatGPT, I said, okay, does everybody use
money? Give me an example of somebody who might
not use money. And it gave me this example. It
said, maybe if you were a Dutch farmer living
in an off -grid house who bartered with goats.
then maybe you wouldn't use money. You would
just be paying for things with goats. Here, I'll
give you two goats for a wheel of cheese or something
like that. But for most of us, and for all of
us, I would say, money is actually a reality
for us that we cannot avoid. That's why and the
reasons why we have to deal with money. But the
other reason we have to deal with money is that
money is actually also a very big part of the
Bible. I think I read this week that there's
something like... 500 pieces of scripture that
deal with faith and maybe another 500 that have
something to do with prayer. But there's like
2 ,300 pieces of scripture that have to do with
money, wealth, and possessions. And believe me,
I read every single one of those 2 ,300 this
week to get ready for today's sermon. Jesus also
talked an incredible amount about money. In Matthew
and Mark and Luke, something like one out of
every six... verses has something to do with
money, wealth, and possessions. And 11 out of
Jesus's 39 parables have something to do with
money, wealth, and possessions. This guy named
Randy Alcorn, he said that Jesus talked more
about money than about heaven and hell combined.
But, okay, so the Bible talks about it, but does
the Bible say that money is the root of all evil?
And you might come to the conclusion that, yes,
money is evil if you read through some of the
stories that concern money in the Bible. So,
for example, Joseph's brothers sold Joseph into
slavery for 20 pieces of silver. Evil. Eli's
sons stole offerings from the temple. That's
evil. Ahab killed a guy to steal his vineyard.
Evil. Ananias and Sapphira, they lied about their
charitable givings. You know, that's evil. One
of Paul's friends, Demas, abandoned him and left
him because of pursuit of money. That's evil,
right? And Judas, of course. Judas, the ultimate
tragedy, betrayed Jesus himself for 30 pieces
of silver. So, boom. Evil. Money is evil. With
all that negative press, it would be very easy
for you to come to the conclusion that, yes,
money is the root of all evil. And it has led
certain people to adopt a posture and even a
lifestyle, something that we might call the poverty
gospel. By the way, if you want to follow along
with some of the things I'm going to be teaching
this morning, we handed out these little teaching
notes, so I invite you to follow along. But yes,
Some people believe in what you might call the
poverty gospel. And this is the poverty gospel.
Since money is the root of all evil, then it
is just important to avoid money altogether.
The poverty gospel says this. If I am a godly
person, then I will be a poor person. Because
being poor is more spiritual than being rich.
And poverty is holier than wealth. And some...
Christians have actually taken a vow of poverty.
A vow of poverty is the serious commitment that
is sometimes made by monks or nuns or other saints,
people like you, to give up their personal wealth,
to give up money and live simply. Has anybody
here taken a vow of poverty? No? No, me neither.
Me neither. Although if you looked at my bank
account, you might think that I had. But actually,
it's not because I took a vow of poverty. It's
just because I had too many kids. That's what
happened. But if you think of people like St.
Francis, think of people like Mother Teresa,
they equated holiness. and spiritual growth with
poverty. And you can't really blame them because,
you know, even Jesus said things like, go and
sell your possessions, give to the poor, and
then you'll have treasure in heaven. Or it is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than it is for a rich person to enter
the kingdom of God. So it is better to be poor,
right? Saint Jerome, this fourth century church
leader, he was fiercely against wealth. And he
said that either a rich person is unjust, or
he's inherited his wealth from somebody who is
unjust. In his mouth, in his mind, wealth was
evil. Money was the root of all evil. Or how
about this guy? John Wesley, this is some serious,
serious words here. If any of you have a desire
to escape the damnation of hell, give away all
you can. Otherwise, you can have no more hope
of your salvation than Judas Iscariot. Yikes.
That's like a 18th century mic drop moment. Put
another way, I think what he would say is if
the Amazon, delivery van shows up at your house
more than once a week, then you're going to hell,
according to John Wesley. Why? Because, because
rich equals bad and poor equals holy. That is
the poverty gospel. Now, some people have said,
wait a second, wait a second. Doesn't the Bible
actually say that God gives us wealth? And you're
absolutely right. The Bible does say that. So
wait, there's a problem here. If we read in Deuteronomy,
it says, remember the Lord your God, for it's
he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.
So if God's the one that gives us the ability
to produce wealth, then that means that producing
wealth must be a good thing. And the more wealth
I can produce must be an even more good thing.
And in fact, the more I have, the gooder it is
and the gooder I am. And so this thinking led
to another kind of mindset, which is called the
prosperity gospel, which says, if I'm a godly
person, then I'll be a rich person. If I do what
God wants, God will do what I want. If I go to
church on a Sunday morning, there very well may
be a $100 bill taped underneath of my pew, right?
Because God gives... stuff to people who do what
God wants. It's like God becomes this divine
vending machine, right? You put in your prayers,
click. You put in your Bible reading, click,
and you go, beep, beep, and out comes, you know,
a beach house, right? Or you put in your church
attendance, and you put in your, you know, volunteer
hours at church, and beep, beep, out comes, you
know, a car with leather seats, or out comes
a granite countertops, or out comes, you know,
European vacations or whatever the case may be.
The idea is that if we, you know, God is not
just my savior, he's my stockbroker in a way.
That is the prosperity gospel. But like the poverty
gospel, it's got a major problem too. And the
biggest problem with the prosperity gospel is
Jesus. Darn it, you know, Jesus always getting
in the way of our fun. But the problem is, is
that Jesus Jesus himself was the most godly,
righteous, and upstanding person the world has
ever seen, and yet he was poor. Jesus had no
place to lay his head. Jesus did not have any,
you know, private jets or RSPs or anything like
that. And most of the people who followed Jesus,
they didn't get, you know, mansions and yachts.
They got imprisoned and beaten and martyred.
So the poverty, so this is, it's confusing, but
the poverty gospel says, if I'm godly, I'll be
poor, and if you're not poor, you're not godly.
And the prosperity gospel says, if I'm godly,
I'll be rich, and if I'm not rich, then I must
not be godly. But both are dangerous misunderstandings,
right? Obviously, the prosperity gospel is, it's
just, you know, greed covered up in a veneer
of religion. And the poverty gospel, it is really
dangerous to idealize poverty, right? You ask
a poor person how spiritual it feels to be poor,
and I'm sure they'll give you a piece of their
mind, right? These are both misguided. And so
I think that actually Dallas Willard gets it
just about right when he says this. He says,
riches are not holy, and riches are not evil.
They are creations. we are to use for God. In
other words, money is morally neutral. It's just
a thing. And like all sorts of things, depending
on how you use it, it can either be a blessing
or can be a curse. Now, all that preamble leads
us to the point where we can finally now go into
the Bible and we can look at that verse. that
people think is in the Bible, but isn't really
in the Bible, but kind of is in the Bible, because
it's a misquote of the Bible. You guys know,
by the way, that you can make the Bible say anything
you want if you misquote it. So, for example,
I could make the Bible say that there is no God,
right? Psalm 14, verse 1, says there is no God.
But, but... If I read the whole verse, it changes
everything. It says, the fool has said in his
heart, there is no God. So if you don't read
all of it, you'll read it wrong. The same is
true for this verse from 1 Timothy 6 .10. Money
is the root of all evil. But again, if we don't
read all of it, we read it wrong. And when we
read all of it, we read what it really says is
the love of money. is a root of all kinds of
evil. And those extra words in there make a huge
difference to the meaning. First of all, first
of all, it's the love of money. It's not money
itself that's the problem. Money, again, it's
just a tool. It can be used for good or for harm.
It's like a hammer. You can build a house with
it or you can smash your thumb with it. The Bible
never... condemns people who have money. In fact,
a lot of famous people in the Bible, faithful
people in the Bible like Abraham or Job or Joseph
of Arimathea, the guy who gave the tomb where
Jesus ended up being laid to rest. They were
all wealthy people. The question was not, do
you have money? It was whether you loved that
money or you didn't love it. And you might not
have money, but it's still the same question.
Do you love money or do you not love money? So
again, the issue was not so much how much you
have, it was how much you love whatever you have.
So the danger really wasn't in your wallet. The
danger was in your heart. I heard one person
say, It comes down to this. It's like, which
is your favorite app on your phone? Is it the
banking app or is it the Bible app, right? The
love of money is the problem. It's not money
itself. And it's a root of evil, but not the
root of evil. This is an indefinite article,
not the definite article. And think about it.
If money were the root, Then somehow every sin
would trace itself back to some kind of bank
transaction or something like that. Like, why
did Cain kill Abel? It must have had something
to do with money. Maybe they wouldn't split the
bill or something like that. But no. As we learned
in Lent, there's actually many, many roots to
evil. There's things like pride and envy and
lust and anger, right? Money is not behind every
sin. It is behind many sins, but it is not behind
every sin. And then thirdly, it leads to all
kinds of evil, but it does not lead to all evil,
right? The love of money. It creates this whole
smorgasbord of evil in the world, no doubt. Lying
and cheating, betrayal, bribery, Judas, you know,
betraying Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Yes,
it's a root of evil, a root of evil. But not
every evil, not every evil comes from money.
Not every evil springs from money. So in short,
the misquote makes it sound like money is evil
in and of itself. But the context, as we've just
seen, the context really, really matters. This
is a Bible scholar by the name of D .A. Carson.
And he said that, he has this great quote, and
he says that a text without a context becomes
a pretext for a proof text. So in other words,
If you don't read all the verse, then you're
going to read it wrong. Now in the same way,
if you don't read all the verses around the verse,
you also could read it wrong. So as we end today,
I just want to look at four of the verses around
this verse to see what the Bible really says
about money. here in 1 Timothy 6. First, if we
read 1 Timothy 6, 7, one of the verses around
the verse. We're reminded that all of us need
to loosen our grip on money. Because Paul says,
we brought nothing into the world and we can
take nothing out of the world. You can't hold
on to your money forever. It is temporary. It
comes, it goes, and you cannot take it with you.
Now, the pharaohs of Egypt, they didn't understand
this. When they were buried, they were buried
with treasure chests and money and chariots and
statues. And they were even buried with like
food and snacks and stuff like that. as if they
thought that somehow these tombs were divine
storage lockers and they were going to be able
to take all this stuff into the next life with
them. But all those pharaohs are dead and gone
and all those things they were buried with, they're
still around somewhere in a museum or somebody's
basement or something like that. Our risk today
is not that we go and build pyramids, but that
we... build portfolios for ourselves, that we
have this sense that we have to hold on to this
and that we can take this with us right to the
very end and maybe somehow even into eternity.
That's how we act. I don't think we think that
way, but I think it is how we act. And it just
doesn't work that way. You can't take it with
you. I've done a lot of funerals, and I have
yet to see a hearse pulling a U -Haul, right?
You can't take it with you. So we have to loosen
our grip on money. That's one of the things Paul
wants us to learn here. But if we read around
to another verse, we come to 1 Timothy 6, 6,
which tells us how important it is for us to
learn contentment when it comes to money. Godliness
with contentment is great gain. Let's go back
to some math equations. In worldly math, wealth
plus stuff, possessions, equals success. But
according to Paul and according to the Bible,
it's godliness, and when I say godliness, I mean
your spiritual life, your character, plus contentment,
which means I'm happy with what I have, I feel
like I have enough. That is the biblical definition
of success. That is the biblical definition of
great success. And then, in addition to this,
Paul goes on to say what I think is probably
one of the hardest verses in the whole Bible
to say. And I don't know, maybe we can say it
together. I don't know. It's a difficult one
to say. But why don't we say 1 Timothy 6, 6 together?
But if we have food and clothing. We will be
content with that. That's hard. I think what
we want to say, if we have food and clothing
and an iPhone, I'll be content with that. Or
food and clothing and Netflix, I'll be content
with that. Or food and clothing and whatever,
I'll be content with that. It is really hard
to just put ourselves in a place where we say,
I have what I need. food and clothing, and I
can be content with that. By saying this, Paul
is trying to teach us that the richest people
are not those who have the most. The richest
people are those who need the least. And I think
we all know this because you can go and visit
friends' houses and they have a lot less than
you and yet they're very content. Or let's go
even further. You can go visit other countries
besides Canada where they have a lot, lot less
than us in Canada. They have dirt floors and
no indoor plumbing and maybe even no electricity
or hot water. And again, we're not trying to
glorify poverty. There's nothing great about
being poor. But they too can be... content. Because
godliness plus contentment equals great gain.
If we have food and if we have clothing, we can
be content with that. And discontentment can
actually make somebody who is rich feel poor.
Whereas the flip side of that coin is contentment
can make somebody who is poor feel rich. It's
not about how much you have. It's about how much
you think you need but don't have. And that's
why Paul says you've got to loosen your grip,
and secondly, you've got to learn contentment.
Now, let's look at two more of these verses around
the verse. We already looked at those two. Now,
the third thing we're reminded is how important
it is for us to love God over money. Now, we
didn't read this this morning, but a little later,
Paul says this. Command those who are rich in
the present world not to be arrogant or to put
their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain,
but to put their hope in God. Paul is saying,
what do you love the most? What do you put your
hope in the most? Is it God or money? When you
don't have a lot of God in your life, when you
don't have a lot of Jesus in your life, money
looks pretty good. But when you have God and
when you have Jesus filling your heart, then
money actually gets pushed to the side and it
loses its power over you. Money says to you,
it says, you gotta have me, right? You gotta
love me. But when our hearts are full, we say,
money, I have you, yes, but I don't love you.
Or we say, money, I have you, but I don't have
to have you. Or we can say, money, yes, I have
you, but you don't have me. Because with God,
I already have what I have to have. And what
I have to have is the assurance of knowing that
I'm a child of God and that I'm loved by God.
If you love money over God, you're never going
to have enough. But if you love God over money,
you'll always have more than enough. Love God
over money. Do you guys see how much you learn
about these verses when you read the verses around
the verse? Loosen your grip. Learn contentment.
Love God over money. And finally, one last verse
from 1 Timothy 6 .18. Okay? We learn to leverage
our riches for others. Let's read this. Command
those who are rich in the present world. to be
rich in good deeds, and to be generous. Now,
I want to tell you, for years, when I read pieces
of scripture like this, I didn't pay any attention
to it, because it was obviously written to people
who were rich. And I never thought I was rich,
so what does this have to do with me? In fact,
I can remember as a boy asking my father, I was
like, Dad, are we rich? And he said, no, no,
no, no, no, we're not rich, we're not rich. Those
people over there are rich. You know, Mr. Mellenbacher
across the street, you know, he's rich, but we're
not rich. And if I'm honest, I can probably also
remember a time when our own girls have sat down
on my lap at some point when they were little,
and they've said, Dad, are we rich? think my
response was probably the same. Most dads would
probably give the same answer. They would be
like, no, no, no, no, no, we're not rich, right?
Somebody else is not rich. And so I never paid
any attention to verses that were written to
people who were rich, because of course, I'm
not rich. Rich is always somebody else. But I've
learned since then, and now I realize that I
am rich. In fact, I dare say most of us In a
global context, we're super rich. The average
person even here today is carrying around hundreds
if not thousands of dollars of technology in
their pocket, which would be years worth of wages
for other people in different parts of our planet.
I read that if you own your own vehicle, that
puts you in the top 9 % wealthiest people. We're
blessed. We are rich. But I don't say that so
that we have to apologize for our blessings.
We say that so that we maximize our blessings
from God. Paul says, those of you who are rich,
and that's me, and that's you, be rich. Be rich
in good deeds and be generous. Be willing to
share with others. The most important moments
of your life will be moments not where you acquired
something, not when you consumed something, not
when you earned something. Those aren't the moments
you remember. Those aren't the emotional moments.
The emotional moments you remember are the moments
when you gave things away, when you were generous
to others. I have never hung a flat screen TV
on the wall of my house and then stood back with
a tear in my eye and looked at it and said, oh,
it's so beautiful. I'm so touched. I'm so moved.
by this TV. No, the real emotional stuff happens
when we've been able to give ourselves away to
others and to be generous to them. Those are
the moments that matter. Those are the ones where
the emotions kick in. And it got me thinking,
this June, actually, six or eight of us from
Trinity are going to go back to... Honduras,
back to Nueva Frontera. We're going to go back
to visit some of the sponsored children we have
down there, back to see some of the impact we're
making down there. And we're going to go back
to see what further impact we can make. You're
going to hear more about this in the coming weeks.
But I want to say that in the last two years,
Trinity Streetsville has given upwards of $150
,000, whether it's in child sponsorship or other
appeals, to this community. And all the while,
you've been incredibly generous, supporting Trinity
itself. But those are the memorable moments.
The moments where you say, I got to do that.
I got to make a difference there. I got to be
part of that. And that's what happens when rich
people like you and me, we act rich. And we be
rich in good deeds and generosity. We loosen
our grip. We learn contentment. We love God over
money. And we leverage our riches for others.
So yeah, the love of money is a root of all kinds
of evil. But the practice of generosity is a
root of all kinds of good, whether it's healing
or justice or joy or love. It's not about the
poverty gospel. It's not about the prosperity
gospel. It's about the gospel, the good news
that Jesus is enough. And when he's enough, then
we are free. We're free to give and we're free
to serve and we're free to live with open hands
and generous hearts. That's what the Bible really
says. So thanks be to God. Amen. Thank you for
listening to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.
This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville
in Mississauga, Ontario on May 4th, 2025.