It was Shakespeare’s Hamlet who, in a fit of angst about whether or not to kill his father’s murderer, said: ‘there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so’.
By the same token we could say a gun isn’t in itself a good or a bad thing. A gun can be used to protect people or it can be used to threaten and to kill them. That’s not a defence of the Second Amendment, but it is true I think. Place a gun well away from human beings and it will do neither good nor harm. Sex can lead to the creation of life and can be an expression of the deepest love, but it can also be the way to destroy lives through rape and abuse. To misquote Hamlet there is nothing either good or bad but human beings can make it so.
Money is the root of all evil, people often say, thinking they are quoting Scripture. This is not what Scripture says – the quote is a misrepresentation of the passage in 1 Timothy, a letter written by Paul to the younger man. The passage reads: ‘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 love of money is the root of all evil. That is, making money what we value most, making it our passion, our reason, our god – will lead us to evil. Putting money on a pedestal is wrong, and seeking to gain money above all else and at whatever cost to others is what is evil. Money is not evil – it can’t be – but loving it could be. And often is.
Jesus himself reminds us of this in the Gospels in a reading often heard on Ash Wednesday, when Christians reflect on and redirect their priorities before entering the season of Lent. He tells his followers to consider what matters most to them. What do you treasure he says? Because that is where your heart will be. And he reminds them, and us, that if we treasure ‘stuff’ we will in the end lose it anyway, and, with it, ourselves. You literally can’t take it with you, as they say. But if our treasure is God, and love of God and God’s people, that treasure will outlive life itself. Jesus goes on in the same passage to say you can’t serve two masters – money and God – because ‘Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. Pick a lane.
It is about priorities – what we love intrinsically and what we see as having value for its own sake. Money is not good or bad in itself, and there is no reference in the Bible so far as I know suggesting money is evil. It has instrumental value – it can be used to help or hinder, to make our own lives and the lives of others better or worse. Jesus spoke of how it would be easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle (a gate in Jerusalem) than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. What did he mean? The rich will often (not always) but often struggle to submit to the priorities of the Kingdom. Wealth gives you a false sense of invincibility, a sense that you don’t need God. Maybe that is why poorer communities and countries tend to be more religious – who knows? To money we could add any kind of resources or talents we are blessed with. How are we using them? What are they for? Are we turning them to good use? Are they in themselves becoming where our heart is, what we love best, or do we sit lightly to them and put them to a greater service.
The first book of the New Testament coming after the Gospels is the Book called the Acts of the Apostles known often simply as ‘Acts’. This book, written by Saint Luke, is what it says on the tin – it’s full of activity and tells the story of the very early church and how it organised itself and spread.
It begins with the recalled experience of the Resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus. They choose lots for the disciple who would replace Judas, and then the Holy Spirit, the Comforter Jesus promised, comes down on them at Pentecost, The Spirit of God quite literally inspires them to begin what we call the Church – the community of believers.
That first day Peter will baptises 3,000 new believers – and so a community is formed – a community that grew and grew as ‘the Lord added to their number daily’. We are told those first communities were devoted to fellowship and to learning, to prayer, to breaking bread together. Luke also tells us how ‘all the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need’.
They had everything in common; they sold property and possessions; the rich took care of the poor and no-one went without. This is how the first Christians lived and loved – that would be so frowned on today, dismissed as dangerous socialism – be considered a cult, a commune, not for ‘normal’ people. Sharing everything! God forbid.
Even before Jesus died, during his own ministry on earth, wealthy women helped to provide for him and the disciples as they went about their mission.
It had to be so. Even Jesus had to eat. But they didn’t have to feed him. They chose to – they chose to put their resources to the building up of the Kingdom. They knew where their treasure lay, and it wasn’t in the first century equivalent of a bank vault.
Now you’ll think, well, if they hadn’t been rich, they wouldn’t have been able to do that. You’re right. Though I think we should be careful of seeing anything in Scripture as a paradigm for capitalism. I repeat money is not bad, nor is having quite a lot of it. Indeed, throughout Christian history, there have been different approaches to money and its use, and all have some merit.
Paul admonishes those who do not provide for their own family and relatives and this passage, also in 1 Timothy, is often used to cite the view that our first (and only) obligation is to our own. Trouble is it often stops there and when it does, we are again again in the sphere of Christian nationalism! I’m not sure Paul meant it to be taken this way and there is so much in Scripture that mitigates against this quite literally self-centred view of charity. Better I think to consider home the place where we learn charity and then take it out into the world – as John the Baptist put it, if you have two coats give one to whoever has none. He didn’t say it had to be a blood relative!
Some Christians justify personal and corporate wealth creation on the grounds that without it, there is no chance to do all the good things that money can enable. Some will argue that if we give away too much – and so make ourselves poor – we become part of the problem, rather than part of the the solution.
This is how the first Christians lived and loved – That would be so frowned on today, dismissed as dangerous socialism – be considered a cult, a commune, not for ‘normal’ people.
Others have taken a more radical approach – St Francis, for example, gave up his great wealth, and since forever, nuns and monks have taken vows of poverty as well as of chastity and obedience.
There is value in both and all of these approaches – all that we can be sure of is that God has a special place in God’s heart for the poor and dispossessed and we, as followers of Jesus, can do no other than to share that priority. The use we put our income to should reflect those priorities as they indeed do already do for so many Christians who give time, talents and money freely and often at some personal cost. I recommend the story of the Widow’s Mite – a poor woman who gave so little (two small coins) but still gave all she had, and how Jesus praised her for that sacrificial giving. He compared it favourably to the rich man at the temple who made a show of giving a great deal, but wouldn’t miss what he donated.
There are so many stories about wealth and income in Scripture. Once Jesus was asked by a rich young man how he might be sure of his place in heaven. He tells the young guy to give up his wealth and then to follow him – the man walks away dejected; . he can’t quite bring himself to do that. The problem isn’t the money he has or the wealth he possesses, but that they have come to define him. They are his treasure, his very identity . And so he misses the real richness of a new life in Christ. Money is not evil, but loving it is pretty tragic.
Luke 21:1-4 NIV – The Widow’s Offering – As Jesus – Bible Gateway
Thank you for reading – I look forward to hearing your thoughts!