Caulfield Evangelical Methodist Church
- Weekly Pastoral Message -

Weekly Pastoral Message prepared by Rev. Murray Adamthwaite
for Sunday 8th February 1998

From the Pastor: Proverbial Texts III

"Money is the root of all evil" Properly: "The love of money is the root of all (kinds of) evil." 1 Timothy 6:10 Another proverb which rolls off the tongues of many in our community is the one above. You will hear it from some in philosophical resignation when they wish they had more substance than they actually do. Others will utter it in somewhat judgmental tones when they hear of someone else's good fortune or windfall. As can readily be seen, however, it is not money as such, but the love of money which is the root of all evils. Even Christians have fallen for the trap of imagining that mere possession of wealth is an evil to be repudiated. This notion has undergirded the idea of "Christian Socialism", which has taught that it is "the Christian thing to do" to support and lobby for wholesale, State-sponsored redistribution of wealth. But it is based on a fallacy. The Christian estimate of the wealth issue penetrates far more deeply than a mere preference for a political system. The text strikes at the jugular vein of fallen human nature: the obsession with material things and the desire to get more at any expense. There are then, two types of covetous people: the have-nots who desire what is not theirs; and the haves who desperately cling to what is theirs. We see it on one hand in the widespread gambling culture of our country, and on the other in the outlook of even some Christians who enjoy prosperity but give only meanly to the Lord's work. May the Lord deliver us from the love of money, and teach us in all things to be content. (Philemon 4:11)