Money is the Root of All Evil | The Bible Doesn't Say That | Trinity Sermons

Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of

Trinity Sermons. Have you ever played a game

of telephone, where you start out with a message,

and they tell that to one person, and they tell

that to the next person, and then the next person,

and by the end, the message sounds nothing at

all like where you started? I think that's kind

of what happened with the verse that we're talking

about today. Money is the root of all evil. At

least, that's what we think the Bible says. But

in reality, the Bible says something a little

bit different. So Rob's going to unpack that

for us and help us to uncover some of the biblical

truth that is behind this verse and how it applies

to our lives today. So let's listen in. But godliness

with contentment is great gain, for we brought

nothing into the world, and we can take nothing

out of it. But if we have food and clothing,

we will be content with that. Those who want

to get rich fall into temptation and a trap,

and into many foolish and harmful desires that

plunge people into ruin and destruction. For

the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

Some people eager for money have wandered from

the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

The word of the Lord. So to open up today, what

I would like to do is just ask you guys all an

honest question. Here's the question. Would more

money make your life easier? Would more money

make your life easier? Hands up if the answer

is yes. More money would make my life easier.

Okay. Hands up if the answer is no. More money

would not make my life easier. Okay, so now that

I got you thinking about that, I wanted to let

you know that we've decided to do something a

little fun this morning, just to bless you. We

have taken three $100 bills, and we have taped

them under various seats in the sanctuary here.

And if you're online, unfortunately you can't

participate in this, but I want to just give

you a few moments to check under your seat. and

see if you might be one of the lucky ones. Go

ahead. I'll wait. Okay, some of you are looking.

Actually, more of you are looking than I thought

were going to look. Others of you are not looking,

and you're saying, there's no way that Rob did

that. You know, he's Dutch, and there's no way

that... Tightwad is going to give away $300 on

a Sunday morning. And that's absolutely true.

We would never, never do that. And it might,

I mean, it would be fun if we did, but we're

not going to do that. But that question actually

leads into the statement that we want to look

at today, which, you know, many people think

it comes from the Bible. They believe this phrase

is in the Bible. They quote it as if it's from

the Bible. And that is this, money is the root

of all evil. How many of you have heard that

phrase? before. Yes, money is the root of all

evil. I mean, I was just doing a little looking

around. I found this tip jar that someone had

written. Money is the root of all evil, so cleanse

yourself here. In other words, get rid of that

evil money and just tip your waitress or something

like that. Or I found this for the mathematicians

that are here. You can get t -shirts with this

on it. So I don't know if you understand. you

know, I don't fully understand all of it, but

money equals the root, right? And that is a sigma,

which means the sum of all evil. So money is

the root of all evil. And if you're not a mathematician,

then you'll probably at least understand this

bumper sticker that I came across that says,

if money is the root of all evil, why do churches

beg for it? Burn. Boom. Oh, man. I feel so. Actually,

though, jokes on them. Jokes on all those waitresses

and mathematicians and people who drive around

with bumper stickers. Because the truth is that

even though they may believe the Bible says or

God says that money is the root of all evil,

today we're going to realize that actually the

Bible doesn't say that. It's actually a major

misquote and a major misunderstanding. So, ha!

Joke's on you, guy, right? And let's just start

by acknowledging a couple things before we get

going, and that is that money is a big part of

your life. If you are living and you are breathing

on this planet, then you cannot avoid... The

experience of having to work with money. It's

just part of the human experience. And it has

been that way for about 4 ,000 years since a

bunch of people in a town called Lydia in present

-day Turkey started using little silver coins

and little copper coins to pay for goods and

services, right? That's where money came from.

And everybody uses money. Now, I actually, I

asked ChatGPT, I said, okay, does everybody use

money? Give me an example of somebody who might

not use money. And it gave me this example. It

said, maybe if you were a Dutch farmer living

in an off -grid house who bartered with goats.

then maybe you wouldn't use money. You would

just be paying for things with goats. Here, I'll

give you two goats for a wheel of cheese or something

like that. But for most of us, and for all of

us, I would say, money is actually a reality

for us that we cannot avoid. That's why and the

reasons why we have to deal with money. But the

other reason we have to deal with money is that

money is actually also a very big part of the

Bible. I think I read this week that there's

something like... 500 pieces of scripture that

deal with faith and maybe another 500 that have

something to do with prayer. But there's like

2 ,300 pieces of scripture that have to do with

money, wealth, and possessions. And believe me,

I read every single one of those 2 ,300 this

week to get ready for today's sermon. Jesus also

talked an incredible amount about money. In Matthew

and Mark and Luke, something like one out of

every six... verses has something to do with

money, wealth, and possessions. And 11 out of

Jesus's 39 parables have something to do with

money, wealth, and possessions. This guy named

Randy Alcorn, he said that Jesus talked more

about money than about heaven and hell combined.

But, okay, so the Bible talks about it, but does

the Bible say that money is the root of all evil?

And you might come to the conclusion that, yes,

money is evil if you read through some of the

stories that concern money in the Bible. So,

for example, Joseph's brothers sold Joseph into

slavery for 20 pieces of silver. Evil. Eli's

sons stole offerings from the temple. That's

evil. Ahab killed a guy to steal his vineyard.

Evil. Ananias and Sapphira, they lied about their

charitable givings. You know, that's evil. One

of Paul's friends, Demas, abandoned him and left

him because of pursuit of money. That's evil,

right? And Judas, of course. Judas, the ultimate

tragedy, betrayed Jesus himself for 30 pieces

of silver. So, boom. Evil. Money is evil. With

all that negative press, it would be very easy

for you to come to the conclusion that, yes,

money is the root of all evil. And it has led

certain people to adopt a posture and even a

lifestyle, something that we might call the poverty

gospel. By the way, if you want to follow along

with some of the things I'm going to be teaching

this morning, we handed out these little teaching

notes, so I invite you to follow along. But yes,

Some people believe in what you might call the

poverty gospel. And this is the poverty gospel.

Since money is the root of all evil, then it

is just important to avoid money altogether.

The poverty gospel says this. If I am a godly

person, then I will be a poor person. Because

being poor is more spiritual than being rich.

And poverty is holier than wealth. And some...

Christians have actually taken a vow of poverty.

A vow of poverty is the serious commitment that

is sometimes made by monks or nuns or other saints,

people like you, to give up their personal wealth,

to give up money and live simply. Has anybody

here taken a vow of poverty? No? No, me neither.

Me neither. Although if you looked at my bank

account, you might think that I had. But actually,

it's not because I took a vow of poverty. It's

just because I had too many kids. That's what

happened. But if you think of people like St.

Francis, think of people like Mother Teresa,

they equated holiness. and spiritual growth with

poverty. And you can't really blame them because,

you know, even Jesus said things like, go and

sell your possessions, give to the poor, and

then you'll have treasure in heaven. Or it is

easier for a camel to go through the eye of a

needle than it is for a rich person to enter

the kingdom of God. So it is better to be poor,

right? Saint Jerome, this fourth century church

leader, he was fiercely against wealth. And he

said that either a rich person is unjust, or

he's inherited his wealth from somebody who is

unjust. In his mouth, in his mind, wealth was

evil. Money was the root of all evil. Or how

about this guy? John Wesley, this is some serious,

serious words here. If any of you have a desire

to escape the damnation of hell, give away all

you can. Otherwise, you can have no more hope

of your salvation than Judas Iscariot. Yikes.

That's like a 18th century mic drop moment. Put

another way, I think what he would say is if

the Amazon, delivery van shows up at your house

more than once a week, then you're going to hell,

according to John Wesley. Why? Because, because

rich equals bad and poor equals holy. That is

the poverty gospel. Now, some people have said,

wait a second, wait a second. Doesn't the Bible

actually say that God gives us wealth? And you're

absolutely right. The Bible does say that. So

wait, there's a problem here. If we read in Deuteronomy,

it says, remember the Lord your God, for it's

he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.

So if God's the one that gives us the ability

to produce wealth, then that means that producing

wealth must be a good thing. And the more wealth

I can produce must be an even more good thing.

And in fact, the more I have, the gooder it is

and the gooder I am. And so this thinking led

to another kind of mindset, which is called the

prosperity gospel, which says, if I'm a godly

person, then I'll be a rich person. If I do what

God wants, God will do what I want. If I go to

church on a Sunday morning, there very well may

be a $100 bill taped underneath of my pew, right?

Because God gives... stuff to people who do what

God wants. It's like God becomes this divine

vending machine, right? You put in your prayers,

click. You put in your Bible reading, click,

and you go, beep, beep, and out comes, you know,

a beach house, right? Or you put in your church

attendance, and you put in your, you know, volunteer

hours at church, and beep, beep, out comes, you

know, a car with leather seats, or out comes

a granite countertops, or out comes, you know,

European vacations or whatever the case may be.

The idea is that if we, you know, God is not

just my savior, he's my stockbroker in a way.

That is the prosperity gospel. But like the poverty

gospel, it's got a major problem too. And the

biggest problem with the prosperity gospel is

Jesus. Darn it, you know, Jesus always getting

in the way of our fun. But the problem is, is

that Jesus Jesus himself was the most godly,

righteous, and upstanding person the world has

ever seen, and yet he was poor. Jesus had no

place to lay his head. Jesus did not have any,

you know, private jets or RSPs or anything like

that. And most of the people who followed Jesus,

they didn't get, you know, mansions and yachts.

They got imprisoned and beaten and martyred.

So the poverty, so this is, it's confusing, but

the poverty gospel says, if I'm godly, I'll be

poor, and if you're not poor, you're not godly.

And the prosperity gospel says, if I'm godly,

I'll be rich, and if I'm not rich, then I must

not be godly. But both are dangerous misunderstandings,

right? Obviously, the prosperity gospel is, it's

just, you know, greed covered up in a veneer

of religion. And the poverty gospel, it is really

dangerous to idealize poverty, right? You ask

a poor person how spiritual it feels to be poor,

and I'm sure they'll give you a piece of their

mind, right? These are both misguided. And so

I think that actually Dallas Willard gets it

just about right when he says this. He says,

riches are not holy, and riches are not evil.

They are creations. we are to use for God. In

other words, money is morally neutral. It's just

a thing. And like all sorts of things, depending

on how you use it, it can either be a blessing

or can be a curse. Now, all that preamble leads

us to the point where we can finally now go into

the Bible and we can look at that verse. that

people think is in the Bible, but isn't really

in the Bible, but kind of is in the Bible, because

it's a misquote of the Bible. You guys know,

by the way, that you can make the Bible say anything

you want if you misquote it. So, for example,

I could make the Bible say that there is no God,

right? Psalm 14, verse 1, says there is no God.

Psalms 14:1

But, but... If I read the whole verse, it changes

everything. It says, the fool has said in his

heart, there is no God. So if you don't read

all of it, you'll read it wrong. The same is

true for this verse from 1 Timothy 6 .10. Money

is the root of all evil. But again, if we don't

read all of it, we read it wrong. And when we

read all of it, we read what it really says is

the love of money. is a root of all kinds of

evil. And those extra words in there make a huge

difference to the meaning. First of all, first

of all, it's the love of money. It's not money

itself that's the problem. Money, again, it's

just a tool. It can be used for good or for harm.

It's like a hammer. You can build a house with

it or you can smash your thumb with it. The Bible

never... condemns people who have money. In fact,

a lot of famous people in the Bible, faithful

people in the Bible like Abraham or Job or Joseph

of Arimathea, the guy who gave the tomb where

Jesus ended up being laid to rest. They were

all wealthy people. The question was not, do

you have money? It was whether you loved that

money or you didn't love it. And you might not

have money, but it's still the same question.

Do you love money or do you not love money? So

again, the issue was not so much how much you

have, it was how much you love whatever you have.

So the danger really wasn't in your wallet. The

danger was in your heart. I heard one person

say, It comes down to this. It's like, which

is your favorite app on your phone? Is it the

banking app or is it the Bible app, right? The

love of money is the problem. It's not money

itself. And it's a root of evil, but not the

root of evil. This is an indefinite article,

not the definite article. And think about it.

If money were the root, Then somehow every sin

would trace itself back to some kind of bank

transaction or something like that. Like, why

did Cain kill Abel? It must have had something

to do with money. Maybe they wouldn't split the

bill or something like that. But no. As we learned

in Lent, there's actually many, many roots to

evil. There's things like pride and envy and

lust and anger, right? Money is not behind every

sin. It is behind many sins, but it is not behind

every sin. And then thirdly, it leads to all

kinds of evil, but it does not lead to all evil,

right? The love of money. It creates this whole

smorgasbord of evil in the world, no doubt. Lying

and cheating, betrayal, bribery, Judas, you know,

betraying Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Yes,

it's a root of evil, a root of evil. But not

every evil, not every evil comes from money.

Not every evil springs from money. So in short,

the misquote makes it sound like money is evil

in and of itself. But the context, as we've just

seen, the context really, really matters. This

is a Bible scholar by the name of D .A. Carson.

And he said that, he has this great quote, and

he says that a text without a context becomes

a pretext for a proof text. So in other words,

If you don't read all the verse, then you're

going to read it wrong. Now in the same way,

if you don't read all the verses around the verse,

you also could read it wrong. So as we end today,

I just want to look at four of the verses around

this verse to see what the Bible really says

about money. here in 1 Timothy 6. First, if we

read 1 Timothy 6, 7, one of the verses around

the verse. We're reminded that all of us need

to loosen our grip on money. Because Paul says,

we brought nothing into the world and we can

take nothing out of the world. You can't hold

on to your money forever. It is temporary. It

comes, it goes, and you cannot take it with you.

Now, the pharaohs of Egypt, they didn't understand

this. When they were buried, they were buried

with treasure chests and money and chariots and

statues. And they were even buried with like

food and snacks and stuff like that. as if they

thought that somehow these tombs were divine

storage lockers and they were going to be able

to take all this stuff into the next life with

them. But all those pharaohs are dead and gone

and all those things they were buried with, they're

still around somewhere in a museum or somebody's

basement or something like that. Our risk today

is not that we go and build pyramids, but that

we... build portfolios for ourselves, that we

have this sense that we have to hold on to this

and that we can take this with us right to the

very end and maybe somehow even into eternity.

That's how we act. I don't think we think that

way, but I think it is how we act. And it just

doesn't work that way. You can't take it with

you. I've done a lot of funerals, and I have

yet to see a hearse pulling a U -Haul, right?

You can't take it with you. So we have to loosen

our grip on money. That's one of the things Paul

wants us to learn here. But if we read around

to another verse, we come to 1 Timothy 6, 6,

which tells us how important it is for us to

learn contentment when it comes to money. Godliness

with contentment is great gain. Let's go back

to some math equations. In worldly math, wealth

plus stuff, possessions, equals success. But

according to Paul and according to the Bible,

it's godliness, and when I say godliness, I mean

your spiritual life, your character, plus contentment,

which means I'm happy with what I have, I feel

like I have enough. That is the biblical definition

of success. That is the biblical definition of

great success. And then, in addition to this,

Paul goes on to say what I think is probably

one of the hardest verses in the whole Bible

to say. And I don't know, maybe we can say it

together. I don't know. It's a difficult one

to say. But why don't we say 1 Timothy 6, 6 together?

But if we have food and clothing. We will be

content with that. That's hard. I think what

we want to say, if we have food and clothing

and an iPhone, I'll be content with that. Or

food and clothing and Netflix, I'll be content

with that. Or food and clothing and whatever,

I'll be content with that. It is really hard

to just put ourselves in a place where we say,

I have what I need. food and clothing, and I

can be content with that. By saying this, Paul

is trying to teach us that the richest people

are not those who have the most. The richest

people are those who need the least. And I think

we all know this because you can go and visit

friends' houses and they have a lot less than

you and yet they're very content. Or let's go

even further. You can go visit other countries

besides Canada where they have a lot, lot less

than us in Canada. They have dirt floors and

no indoor plumbing and maybe even no electricity

or hot water. And again, we're not trying to

glorify poverty. There's nothing great about

being poor. But they too can be... content. Because

godliness plus contentment equals great gain.

If we have food and if we have clothing, we can

be content with that. And discontentment can

actually make somebody who is rich feel poor.

Whereas the flip side of that coin is contentment

can make somebody who is poor feel rich. It's

not about how much you have. It's about how much

you think you need but don't have. And that's

why Paul says you've got to loosen your grip,

and secondly, you've got to learn contentment.

Now, let's look at two more of these verses around

the verse. We already looked at those two. Now,

the third thing we're reminded is how important

it is for us to love God over money. Now, we

didn't read this this morning, but a little later,

Paul says this. Command those who are rich in

the present world not to be arrogant or to put

their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain,

but to put their hope in God. Paul is saying,

what do you love the most? What do you put your

hope in the most? Is it God or money? When you

don't have a lot of God in your life, when you

don't have a lot of Jesus in your life, money

looks pretty good. But when you have God and

when you have Jesus filling your heart, then

money actually gets pushed to the side and it

loses its power over you. Money says to you,

it says, you gotta have me, right? You gotta

love me. But when our hearts are full, we say,

money, I have you, yes, but I don't love you.

Or we say, money, I have you, but I don't have

to have you. Or we can say, money, yes, I have

you, but you don't have me. Because with God,

I already have what I have to have. And what

I have to have is the assurance of knowing that

I'm a child of God and that I'm loved by God.

If you love money over God, you're never going

to have enough. But if you love God over money,

you'll always have more than enough. Love God

over money. Do you guys see how much you learn

about these verses when you read the verses around

the verse? Loosen your grip. Learn contentment.

Love God over money. And finally, one last verse

from 1 Timothy 6 .18. Okay? We learn to leverage

our riches for others. Let's read this. Command

those who are rich in the present world. to be

rich in good deeds, and to be generous. Now,

I want to tell you, for years, when I read pieces

of scripture like this, I didn't pay any attention

to it, because it was obviously written to people

who were rich. And I never thought I was rich,

so what does this have to do with me? In fact,

I can remember as a boy asking my father, I was

like, Dad, are we rich? And he said, no, no,

no, no, no, we're not rich, we're not rich. Those

people over there are rich. You know, Mr. Mellenbacher

across the street, you know, he's rich, but we're

not rich. And if I'm honest, I can probably also

remember a time when our own girls have sat down

on my lap at some point when they were little,

and they've said, Dad, are we rich? think my

response was probably the same. Most dads would

probably give the same answer. They would be

like, no, no, no, no, no, we're not rich, right?

Somebody else is not rich. And so I never paid

any attention to verses that were written to

people who were rich, because of course, I'm

not rich. Rich is always somebody else. But I've

learned since then, and now I realize that I

am rich. In fact, I dare say most of us In a

global context, we're super rich. The average

person even here today is carrying around hundreds

if not thousands of dollars of technology in

their pocket, which would be years worth of wages

for other people in different parts of our planet.

I read that if you own your own vehicle, that

puts you in the top 9 % wealthiest people. We're

blessed. We are rich. But I don't say that so

that we have to apologize for our blessings.

We say that so that we maximize our blessings

from God. Paul says, those of you who are rich,

and that's me, and that's you, be rich. Be rich

in good deeds and be generous. Be willing to

share with others. The most important moments

of your life will be moments not where you acquired

something, not when you consumed something, not

when you earned something. Those aren't the moments

you remember. Those aren't the emotional moments.

The emotional moments you remember are the moments

when you gave things away, when you were generous

to others. I have never hung a flat screen TV

on the wall of my house and then stood back with

a tear in my eye and looked at it and said, oh,

it's so beautiful. I'm so touched. I'm so moved.

by this TV. No, the real emotional stuff happens

when we've been able to give ourselves away to

others and to be generous to them. Those are

the moments that matter. Those are the ones where

the emotions kick in. And it got me thinking,

this June, actually, six or eight of us from

Trinity are going to go back to... Honduras,

back to Nueva Frontera. We're going to go back

to visit some of the sponsored children we have

down there, back to see some of the impact we're

making down there. And we're going to go back

to see what further impact we can make. You're

going to hear more about this in the coming weeks.

But I want to say that in the last two years,

Trinity Streetsville has given upwards of $150

,000, whether it's in child sponsorship or other

appeals, to this community. And all the while,

you've been incredibly generous, supporting Trinity

itself. But those are the memorable moments.

The moments where you say, I got to do that.

I got to make a difference there. I got to be

part of that. And that's what happens when rich

people like you and me, we act rich. And we be

rich in good deeds and generosity. We loosen

our grip. We learn contentment. We love God over

money. And we leverage our riches for others.

So yeah, the love of money is a root of all kinds

of evil. But the practice of generosity is a

root of all kinds of good, whether it's healing

or justice or joy or love. It's not about the

poverty gospel. It's not about the prosperity

gospel. It's about the gospel, the good news

that Jesus is enough. And when he's enough, then

we are free. We're free to give and we're free

to serve and we're free to live with open hands

and generous hearts. That's what the Bible really

says. So thanks be to God. Amen. Thank you for

listening to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.

This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville

in Mississauga, Ontario on May 4th, 2025.