Not Money - It's the Love of Money That's the Root of Evil
I'm excited to keep going in this series, because today I want to clear up a verse that gets misquoted constantly — and show you what it actually takes to not be deceived by money.
It's Not Money - It's the Love of Money
“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.”
1 Timothy 6:10 (NKJV)
Notice the key word people skip past — love. Not money itself. I know a man whose net worth is in the tens of millions, and he's never once used deceit to acquire what he has. He built it by putting the Word into practice, and he still has the heart of a servant.
I heard about the time he noticed a grieving widow at a regular restaurant, sensed something was wrong, and ended up quietly paying off her house, her car, and a year of her electric bill. That's a man money never got its hooks into.
A Wrong Relationship with Money Is a Wrong Relationship, Period
Here's a way to think about it. If I were married and fell in love with another woman, I'd have entered a wrong relationship — not because love itself is wrong, but because my affection was never meant to land there.
The same is true with money. Plenty of people insist, "I don't love money, I just understand it," while money quietly functions as their lord — the thing they actually trust to keep them secure. And I've seen more people caught in that trap who don't have any money than people who do. You don't need a fortune to be deceived by one.
Turning Down Half a Million Dollars for One Reason
A while back, I was offered a security position paying half a million dollars a year, with housing and food covered — enough to get completely out of debt in twelve months. My wife could have quit her job. It was tempting, and it pulled on me the way real temptation does.
But the position meant being on call around the clock, with no room left for ministry. So the real question wasn't about the money at all — it was who I was actually going to serve.
I turned it down, even after they came back with more. There is no amount of money worth stepping outside what God has called you to do.
True Stewardship Was Never About the Money
People love to frame stewardship purely in financial terms — the cheaper option is always framed as the wiser one. But real stewardship isn't measured by what you saved or gained. It's measured by whether what you did lined up with what God told you to do.
A financially efficient decision that ignores His direction isn't good stewardship — it's just a good deal. If you want the Word to have full course in your life, deal honestly with your relationship with money. Let your security rest in the promise of God, not in what's sitting in an account.
Fight To Win.
