Leaving the Idolatry of Money (Day 21)

Now godliness with contentment is great gain... But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 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. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith… 

I Timothy 6:7-12

When Paul warned Timothy about the love of money, in the passage at the start of today's Reflection, he gave him advice that holds good for Christians in every generation: to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love and the other qualities that comprise a Christian lifestyle. To ‘fight the good fight of faith’. And doing so, be the sorts of people who can be effective witnesses for Christ and worthy of reward in heaven.

There is something inherently incompatible with a love of money and the qualities necessary for a Christian lifestyle. There is no middle ground, no ‘neutral space’ in which to try to serve both God and money because, as Jesus said, we will end up loving one and despising the other (see Matthew 6:24 & Luke 16:13). The word Jesus used for love means a deliberate assent of the will as a matter of duty and necessity. The root of all evil needs to be rooted out if we are to be free from loving money ‘as a matter of necessity’ in our money-orientated society, in order to love God and our neighbours as Jesus described. That is what it means to ‘fight the good fight of faith’.

The Christian life is described in many ways, including a hard pilgrimage and a race. And warfare. But it is not the sort of warfare between nations, ethnic groups, businesses rivals, work colleagues, neighbours or within families. Neither is it a war of words. Nothing in the metaphor suggests that the war is won by argument.

In his second letter to the Christians at Corinth, Paul wrote, ‘For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.’ (2 Corinthians 10:3-6).

Paul wrote this because the advice he had given in his first letter had been criticised. In his defence, he referred to general principles of spiritual warfare. Victories are not won not by physical violence but at a spiritual level, by destroying arguments and lofty opinions. This is done more by deed than word because words alone are as dead as faith without works.

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Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.  

Handling money and dealing with debt can be complicated and neither the author nor anyone else involved in the production of these Reflections is responsible for any action you take, or fail to take, based on what is written here.