Las Vegas, Nevada Church
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 Survey of the Letters of Paul:  1 Timothy 6:10  
  
                                                                                                                                                                                    
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1 Timothy 6:10
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.
 
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This section includes verses 9 and 10.

1 Timothy 6:9-10
9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
10 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.

THE PERIL OF THE LOVE OF MONEY
1 Timothy 6:9–10

The paraphrase of the verse:

Those who wish to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many senseless and harmful desires for the forbidden things, desires which swamp men in a sea of ruin and total loss in time and in eternity. For the love of money is a root from which all evils spring; and some, in their reaching out after it, have been sadly led astray, and have transfixed themselves with many pains.

HERE is one of the most misquoted sayings in the Bible. Scripture does not say that money is the root of all evil; it says that the love of money is the root of all evil. This is a truth of which the great classical thinkers were as conscious as the Christian teachers. ‘Love of money’, said the Greek philosopher Democritus, ‘is the metropolis of all evils.’ Seneca speaks of ‘the desire for that which does not belong to us, from which every evil of the mind springs’. ‘The love of money’, said the Cynic teacher Diogenes of Sinope, ‘is the mother of all evils.’ Philo, the Jewish writer, spoke of ‘love of money which is the starting-place of the greatest transgressions of the law’. The Greek writer Athenaeus, who lived in the second century, quotes a saying: ‘The belly’s pleasure is the beginning and root of all evil.’

Money in itself is neither good nor bad, but the love of it may lead to evil. With it, people may selfishly serve their own desires; with it, they may answer the cry of their neighbor's need. With it, they may advance the path of wrongdoing; with it, they may make it easier for other people to live as God meant them to do. Money is not itself an evil, but it is a great responsibility. It has power for good and power for evil. What then are the special dangers involved in the love of money?

(1) The desire for money tends to be a thirst which cannot be satisfied. There was a Roman proverbial saying that wealth is like sea water; far from quenching thirst, it intensifies it. The more we get, the more we want.

(2) The desire for wealth is founded on an illusion. It is founded on the desire for security; but wealth cannot buy security. It cannot buy health, nor real love, and it cannot preserve from sorrow and from death. The security which is founded on material things is doomed to failure.

(3) The desire for money tends to make people selfish. If they are driven by the desire for wealth, it is nothing to them that someone has to lose in order that they may gain. The desire for wealth fixes people’s thoughts upon self, and others become merely means or obstacles in the path to their own enrichment. True, that need not happen; but in fact it often does.

(4) Although the desire for wealth is based on the desire for security, it ends in nothing but anxiety. The more people have to keep, the more they have to lose, and the tendency is for them to be obsessed by the risk of loss. There is an old story about a peasant who performed a great service to a king, who rewarded him with a gift of much money. For a time, the man was thrilled; but the day came when he begged the king to take back his gift, for into his life had entered the hitherto unknown worry that he might lose what he had.

(5) The love of money may easily lead people into wrong ways of getting it, and therefore, in the end, into pain and remorse. That is true even physically. They may so drive their bodies in their passion to get that they ruin their health. They may discover too late what damage their desire has done to others and be saddled with remorse.

To seek to be independent and prudently to provide for the future is a Christian duty, but to make the love of money the driving force of life cannot ever be anything other than the most perilous of sins. ~Barclay commentary

Let us look first at the general commentaries:

What sins will not men be drawn into by the love of money! People may have money, and yet not love it; but if they love it, this will push them on to all evil. Every sort of wickedness and vice, in one way or another, grows from the love of money. We cannot look around without perceiving many proofs of this, especially in a day of outward prosperity, great expenses, and loose profession. ~Matthew Henry Concise commentary

Now from the Matthew Henry volume set commentary

The apostle affirms that the love of money is the root of all evil. What sins will not men be drawn to by the love of money? Particularly this was at the bottom of the apostasy of many from the faith of Christ; while they coveted money, they erred from the faith, they quitted their Christianity, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Observe, [1.] What is the root of all evil; the love of money: people may have money, and yet not love it; but, if they love it inordinately, it will push them on to all evil. [2.] Covetous persons will quit the faith, if that be the way to get money: Which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith. Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, 2 Timothy 4:10. For the world was dearer to him than Christianity. Observe, Those that err from the faith pierce themselves with many sorrows; those that depart from God do but treasure up sorrows for themselves. ~Matthew Henry

Let us take a look at the John Wesley commentary:

Love of money - Commonly called "prudent care" of what a man has. Is the root - The parent of all manner of evils. Which some coveting have erred - Literally, missed the mark. They aimed not at faith, but at something else. And pierced themselves with many sorrows - From a guilty conscience, tormenting passions, desires contrary to reason, religion, and one another. How cruel are worldly men to themselves! ~John Wesley Explanatory Notes

Now to the specific commentaries:

This verse is generally handled in 4 parts:

1] For the love of money is the root of all evil.
2] Which while some coveted after.
3] They have erred from the faith.
4] And pierced themselves through with many sorrows.


1] For the love of money is the root of all evil.
For the love of money is the root of all evil - That is, of all kinds of evil. This is evidently not to be understood as literally true, for there are evils which cannot, be traced to the love of money - the evils growing out of ambition, and intemperance, and debasing lusts, and of the hatred of God and of goodness. The expression here is evidently a popular saying - “all sorts of evils grow out of the love of money.” Similar expressions often occur in the classic writers; see Wetstein, in loc, and numerous examples quoted by Priceaus. Of the truth of this, no one can doubt. No small part of the crimes of the world can be traced to the love of gold. But it deserves to be remarked here, that the apostle does not say that “money is the root of all evil,” or that it is an evil at all. It is the “love” of it which is the source of evil. ~Barnes Notes

The love of money is the root of all evil - Perhaps it would be better to translate παντων των κακων, of all these evils; i.e. the evils enumerated above; for it cannot be true that the love of money is the root of all evil, it certainly was not the root whence the transgression of Adam sprang, but it is the root whence all the evils mentioned in the preceding verse spring. This text has been often very incautiously quoted; for how often do we hear, “The Scripture says, Money is the root of all evil!” No, the Scripture says no such thing. Money is the root of no evil, nor is it an evil of any kind; but the love of it is the root of all the evils mentioned here. ~Adam Clarke

For the love of money is the root of all evil - Of all the evils before mentioned, and of others; not money itself, as silver and gold, which are God's creatures, and his gifts, and may be used to, and answer many good purposes; but the love of it, and not any love of it; for there may be a lawful love of it, and desire after it, so far as it is requisite to the necessaries of life, to answer the calls of Providence, the duties we owe to God and men, to serve the interest of Christ, and do good to fellow creatures and fellow Christians: but it is an immoderate insatiable desire after it, and an inordinate love of it, which is here meant, such as is properly idolatry: as when a man loves it, not only besides, but above God; serves it as if it was God, and places his trust and confidence in it, independent of God, and his providence; such love of it is the source and spring of all iniquity, as above; it was the sin of Judas, and the root of all his iniquity. The phrase is Jewish. So idolatry is said to be עיקר כל עונות, "the root of all iniquities." ~John Gill

2] Which while some coveted after.
Which while some coveted after - That is, some who were professing Christians. The apostle is doubtless referring to persons whose history was known to Timothy, and warning him, and teaching him to warn others, by their example. ~Barnes Notes

While some coveted after - Ορεγομενοι· Insatiably desiring. ~Adam Clarke

Which while some coveted after - in a greedy and insatiable way: ~John Gill

3] They have erred from the faith.
They have erred from the faith - Margin, “been seduced.” The Greek is, they have been led astray from; that is, they have been so deceived as to depart from the faith. The notion of deception or delusion is in the word, and the sense is, that, deceived by the promises held out by the prospect of wealth, they have apostatized from the faith. It is not implied of necessity that they were ever real Christians. They have been led off from truth and duty, and from all the hopes and joys which religion would have imparted. ~Barnes Notes

They have erred from the faith - Απεπλανηθησαν· Have totally erred - have made a most fatal and ruinous departure from the religion of Christ. ~Adam Clarke

They have erred from the faith - the doctrine of faith. Observing that the professors of it are generally poor, they have declined that path, and have not so much as heard the word; and if they have heard and embraced it, yet when persecution arises because of it, they drop their profession of it; or else their minds are so filled with worldly cares, and deceitful riches, that the word is choked, and becomes unprofitable, and by and by, Demas like, they forsake it, having loved this present world. ~John Gill

4] And pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
And pierced themselves through with many sorrows - With such sorrows as remorse, and painful reflections on their folly, and the apprehension of future wrath. Too late they see that they have thrown away the hopes of religion for that which is at best unworthy the pursuit of [salvation/eternal life]; which leads them on to a life of wickedness; which fails of imparting what it promised when its pursuit is successful, and which, in the great majority of instances, disappoints its votaries [adherent of religion] in respect to its attainment. The word rendered “pierced themselves through” - περιέπειραν periepeiran - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, and is a word whose force and emphasis cannot be well expressed in a translation. It is from πείρω peirō, and is made more emphatic by the addition of the preposition περι peri. The word πείρω peirō, means, properly, “to pierce through from one end to another,” and is applied to meat that is “pierced through” by the spit when it is to be roasted (Passow); then it means to pierce through and through. The addition of the preposition περι peri to the word, conveys the idea of doing this “all round;” of piercing everywhere. It was not a single thrust which was made, but they are gashed all round with penetrating wounds. Such is the effect on those who cast off religion for the sake of gold. None can avoid these consequences who do this. Every man is in the hands of a holy and just God, and sooner or later he must feel the effects of his sin and folly. ~Barnes Notes

And pierced themselves through with many sorrows - The word περιεπειραν signifies to be transfixed in every part; and is an allusion to one of those snares, παγιδα, mentioned 1Timothy 6:9, where a hole is dug in the earth, and filled full of sharp stakes, and, being slightly covered over with turf, is not perceived; and whatever steps on it falls in, and is pierced through and through with these sharp stakes, the οδυναις πολλαις, the many torments, mentioned by the apostle. ~Adam Clarke

And pierced themselves through with many sorrows - riches are therefore fitly compared to thorns, which give great trouble and uneasiness, both in getting and keeping them; and oftentimes the reflection upon the unlawful ways and means made use of to obtain them, gives very pungent pain and distress. The apostle seem to allude to the Hebrew word בצע, used for a covetous man, which signifies one that pierces, cuts, and wounds, as such an one does both himself and others. ~John Gill

Let us go now to the Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge:

For the love of money is the root of all evil:
Proverbs 1:19
So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

Ezekiel 22:12
In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.

Micah 3:9-12
9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.
10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

Titus 1:10-11
10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.

Which while some coveted after:
1 Timothy 6:21
Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. The first to Timothy was written from Laodicea, which is the chiefest city of Phrygia Pacatiana.

2 Timothy 4:10
For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

Jude 1:11
Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Revelation 2:14-15 ...to the church at Pergamos
14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

And pierced themselves through with many sorrows:
Psalm 32:10
Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.

Proverbs 1:31
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

2 Peter 2:7-8
7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

We will finish now with some quotes on the inordinate love of money.

A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business. ~Henry Ford

There are people who have money and people who are rich.

If you want to rear financial blessings, you have to sow financially.

A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.

Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants. ~Benjamin Franklin



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