1 Timothy 6:3-19 The love of money

PUT UP OPENING SLIDE

Di heng zi moi, Josan Todays sermon is all about money, and in particular I am going to focus on the right relationship that we as Christians should have with money. Because clearly money can be a contentious issue and there is a wide range of opinions among Christians about what this relationship should be exactly. But before we do anything else, let us pray Now our text for this morning is 1 Timothy 6:3-19. (READ if not already read out) I am going to be referring to this text quite a lot, so you will need to have your bibles open
SLIDE 2: 1 TIMOTHY 6:10

Now our reading today is one of the key texts in the Bible concerning money And contained within it is arguably the most well-known verses in the Bible In fact this verse is so famous that it is probably one of the most well-known sayings in all literature in all time And yet despite this, nine times out of ten people get this verse completely wrong And we find this phrase in verse 10. And there, of course, it says that money is the root of all evil But it doesnt say that at all, does it? What it really says is that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. So what people think it says get it wrong on three counts: Firstly, the text talks about the love of money and not money Secondly, the text says that the love of money is a root, not the root Thirdly, the text says that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil and not all evil That is a big difference and this introduces the first section of my talk today, which is about The love of money that leads to ruin Now a lot of preachers are very keen to point out these differences and from this they go on to say as John Stott does, that money itself is not evil per se rather money is just a neutral thing and that it is just ones attitude to money that is the problem. But after a lot of reflection on this issue, I would want to say that there is, after all, something much more dangerous about money than most people might want to admit and that there is something close to the truth in both of the statements I mentioned In fact I would want to combine the two and say something like this: That the orientation of the love of money is the root of all evil

Now I am not trying to rewrite scripture here heaven forbid but what I am trying to do is get to the meaning of what our attitude towards money should be and my version of the statement I believe encapsulates the biblical teaching on the very real dangers of money. And I believe the context of Pauls saying takes us to this position.
SLIDE 3: THE LOVE OF MONEY THAT LEADS TO RUIN

The thing is, Paul is not writing a letter specifically about money. Rather, this saying comes in the context of Paul warning Timothy about the dangers of false teachers. Now we are not told exactly what these false teachers were trying to teach but what we are told in verse 5 is that they: have been robbed of the truth and they thought that godliness is a means to financial gain And from this and from the book of Timothy as a whole and other letters we can extrapolate that these teachers were preaching a very materialistic and worldly version of Christianity that was not Christianity at all. They were teaching such things as this: That the resurrection of believers had somehow already happened That the object of faith, therefore, was to receive material blessings now That these teachers had the special knowledge needed for believers to receive this blessing And no doubt that it was only right for these teachers to be paid and supported for the special teaching they had to share. In short, what these false teachers were bringing was a kind of first-century version of the prosperity gospel that we so often come across today. And Paul correctly identified that what lay behind this kind of teaching was a love of money. We get this kind of a gospel sometimes in such television programmes as The Hour of Power, where one can often hear testimonies as to how God has blessed someone by turning around a business or by providing a successful career or by bringing prosperity and wealth Now the assumption behind this sort of teaching is that It is Gods desire for a Christian to receive prosperity in this life because he loves you that to receive such blessings is one of the fruits of the Christian faith that wanting this is a legitimate desire of the Christian heart and that to receive such blessings are somehow a Christian right just waiting to be appropriated and that by not receiving them you are missing out on what God has for you And you might be asking yourself, well, what is wrong with that?? Well I will come to that in a minute Sometimes prosperity teaching is more blatant and obvious than that MASTER PROPHET E BERNARD JORDON EXAMPLE Somehow I got onto the personal mailing list of a Christian prophet in the States called Master Prophet E Bernard Jordon. He sounded like a Christian to begin with and described himself as
the voice of God in the earth called to bring man back into right relationship with Him and to bring direction, clarity, and definition to His people.

Then his true colours came out

David, picture this... imagine your life changing for the better with dramatic speed... Im talking about your life going from... Rags to riches... Last in line to first in line. The very bottom to the very top... Now wouldnt that be amazing if you could get all of this from out of a simple box? Heres what you should do right now... Believe the prophet because youre about to prosper. Become rich instantly once you see how much is in this box. However there was a catch All I had to do, said the prophet, was Sow a seed of $52.00, so I can release this box to you.

Cheap at half the price Now this is an extreme example, but prosperity ideas can often infuse our thinking without us really being aware of it We associate wealth and position as somehow being a blessing from God rather than a product of our own ambition and I believe Pastor Yeung drew attention to this last week. We eagerly desire good jobs for ourselves and our children and pray that God would bless us in this regard Our primary focus in life can be our career path and choosing a job with a good pension We want to live in a nice house and be financially secure

And again you might be asking, well, what is wrong with these things What is wrong with wanting a well paid job, good career, a successful business and so on? And the answer to this question is probably nothing and quite possibly everything!! Now what do I mean by that? The problem with money is twofold: Firstly, I firmly believe that money is not a neutral commodity It is, in fact, highly dangerous stuff So dangerous, in fact, that Jesus sometimes referred to it as Mammon. Now when Jesus uses the word Mammon for money, what he is doing is giving money a personification, as if it was alive Thus, for example, Jesus says in Matthew 6:24 that: You cannot serve both God and Mammon The reason I believe that Jesus used this word is that he understood the power of money understood it as a spiritual power a false god a false deity This is more than just a metaphor Now it is true that money is just a thing, a token of exchange, a bit of paper and so on but at the same time money can exert such a hold over someone that it acts like a demonic power and it can become the vehicle for demonic influence Let me give an example of what I mean

BATTERY PACK ILLUSTRATION Just this week I experienced just a small temptation in relation to money I had bought a battery pack to charge my phone on EBay And on Monday it arrived But after charging it up, when I tried to charge my phone with it there was no power output And so I wrote an email to the company complaining about the product and asking them what they were going to do about it And they wrote back to me offering me a refund apologizing for any inconvenience, and not to trouble to return the item. This was good service I thought. But then when I tried the battery pack again, I realized that I had not operated the switch correctly, which needed holding down for a few seconds to start off the charging process, and the battery worked fine. But then the temptation started Now it just so happened that the battery inside the unit was loose when I got it, and I had to open it up and secure it with a bit of packing and so I reasoned with myself that I deserved some recompense for my trouble and that I should take the refund after all my trouble I deserved it!! And so for some time I struggled whether to keep the refund or not. Now how silly was this, because we were only talking about 8 US dollars here, but for 8 dollars I was tempted to be more than economical with the truth. In fact if you think about it, I was tempted to break Commandments numbers 1,2, 8, 9, and 10 of the Ten Commandments all for 8 dollars and I shall leave you to work out which ones they are 5 of the Ten Commandments all for 8 dollars please dont tell me that money isnt under any demonic influence because it is!! Needless to say, I e-mailed the company to say that the problem was all mine and that there was no need for any refund This is just a small example, but it illustrates perfectly the danger and power of money And you can probably think of your own stories where the same might be true Another example would be the disciple Judas. He was only the disciple in charge of the moneybag during Jesus ministry, and he was the only disciple who betrayed him all for 30 pieces of silver And of course where more money is involved then greater is the potential danger for demonic powers to exert their controlling influence through it Money is power and money is control, and these things are the very lifeblood of demonic influence In other words, money is potentially dangerous stuff and both Jesus and Paul warn us against falling under its power and getting to close to it And this leads onto the second problem with money and this is all to do with our orientation towards it. Paul warns us not to love it Jesus commands us not to serve it And the reason why they say these things is that any wrongful orientation towards money is a manifestation of perhaps the greatest sin of all that of idolatry.

The love of money is the idolatry of mammon And the reason why this orientation is so bad is that (1) This is the exact opposite of the orientation of Kingdom of God (2) It is earthbound as opposed to heaven bound (3) It is same orientation as Satan who from heaven looked down to control the earth (4) Its the worship of a false god of a material god (5) And it is precisely the same orientation as the fall in Eden in putting self and material desire before obedience to God and faith and trust in him. The love of money by virtue of its orientation is akin to the ultimate sinful dynamic by nature it represents the greatest danger to faith and this is why the Bible is so strong in denouncing it. As Paul warns in verse 9: People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. And it is not a question of balance either The Bible does not allow us the luxury of loving money and loving God half each for Jesus makes it crystal clear: You cannot serve both God and Mammon But this begs the question as to how this might apply to our own situation. How do we know if we have fallen under the spell of a love of money or not? And equally important, how might we avoid doing so if we havent? And this takes me to the second section of my talk today The attachment to money that leads to double happiness
SLIDE 4: THE ATTACHMENT TO MONEY THAT LEADS TO DOUBLE HAPPINESS.

The key to making sure that we dont fall into the trap of the love of money is to make sure that we have the right attachment to it and once again this is a matter of orientation this time a godly orientation And in our text today, Paul instructs Timothy concerning this godly orientation. And we get this in verses 11-12
11

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Now what we have here is the key to financial happiness. Paul instructs Timothy to do the exact opposite to the false teachers who had a love of money: Instead of an earthbound orientation towards material things, Timothy was instructed instead to focus upon God Instead of concentrating on acquiring money and possessions, Timothy was instructed to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness And instead of a fixation on the here and now, Timothy was instructed to take hold of eternal life This is the same orientation is that expressed in Matthew 6:33 when Jesus says: Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness

This then is the key to not falling into the trap of the love of money instead of seeking after riches, money and wealth, we are instead to orientate ourselves towards God and seek first his kingdom and his righteousness This is the right attachment to money that we should cultivate We cannot serve both God and money God doesnt allow us this luxury and so we have to choose one or the other. So to be a Christian one has no choice but to choose to serve God and not money And so what we find is this: that the right sort of attachment to money is to have no real attachment to money at all!! Now this might sound ridiculous to some people, but the bible is very clear on this point Christians are to seek God rather than seeking money and wealth This is the orientation of the Kingdom of God It is the orientation of the Sermon on the Mount It is the orientation of the Lords Prayer It is the orientation of the Ten Commandments In Luke 18 there is told the story of a rich young ruler who came to Jesus.
18 19

A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother. " 21 "All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said. 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! This is all very challenging. And I wonder how each of us might respond if Jesus asked us to do the same thing? Now the issue for this young man was his attachment to his great wealth and consequently his lack of the right orientation towards God. This was his issue it might not be your issue Nevertheless, we are all called to the same orientation and if we dont yield to this orientation then we are in trouble *** But there is another side to this whole subject area, and I suppose this must be the good news after having given you what to some might seem like the bad news For the other side of the coin is this that when we do yield to this orientation, God does not leave us destitute, or expect us to live in poverty or command us to have no material possessions, or not to have a career, or a house and so on No quite the contrary our God is not an impoverished God, he has made an abundant world, and he is well able to bless us richly with the things that we need

 but his provision to us will only come in the context of us placing our hope and trust in him. This is the paradox of the Kingdom of God and is the secret of double happiness! And we see this paradox in verse 17 of our text:
17

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. In Matthew 6: 31-33 it says the same thing: So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. The truth is that when you orientate yourself towards God and seek his Kingdom first, then Gods promise to believers is that he will bless you with material provision to fit your material needs (Notice I use the word need and not want) This is Gods promise to us and I have never known him to let anybody down in this regard. I can testify personally to Gods provision in this area. TESTIMONY When I became a Christian I was in business in England and had several shops. It was a successful business with a turnover of over half a million pounds. But very early on I felt Gods calling on my life, and I responded by deciding that I would do nothing but my calling. And so God blessed me by bringing a recession and letting me go bankrupt. But this was the best thing that could of happened to me. For this freed me up to do my calling which I have been pursuing this to this day. And I have stuck to this calling. And what this has involved is spending several years developing a prophetic understanding of history and the contemporary world and at the moment I am writing a book on this subject. But this is not the sort of thing for which one gets paid yet God has steered me very firmly in pursuing this calling and not to pursue a career just for the sake of earning money. In time my work will yield something but not now. But when I look at my life I can see Gods absolute faithfulness in his supply of everything that I need to pursue this path. I am not in debt, I want for nothing, I live in pleasant circumstances and I have a nice family. I am blessed and feel it immensely. That is my story and I am sure there are many others here who can testify to Gods wonderful provision as well For the truth is God is faithful, and to those who orientate their lives towards him rather than money and gain, he will richly supply from the treasures of his grace. But there is another benefit that comes through this orientation towards God rather than money and this is why I mention double happiness The first benefit is Gods provision, but the second benefit is that of eternal wealth in the life to come.

And with this we come to my final section this morning The investment of money that leads to eternal wealth
SLIDE 5: THE INVESTMENT OF MONEY THAT LEADS TO ETERNAL WEALTH

Now there are three things I would like to say under this heading: Firstly, it is clear from our text that an orientation towards God rather than money is also an orientation towards eternal life. In verse 7 the folly of loving money is underlined by a reminder of our mortality In verse 12 Timothy in the context of being instructed to fight the good fight is also extolled to take hold of the eternal life to which he is called. And in verse 19 Paul reminds us that an orientation towards God in this life is but a preparation for the life that is to come. The Christians outlook by nature is one that is oriented towards the life that is to come Secondly, such being the case, then this has an enormous bearing on our attitude towards money For this helps us to keep everything in perspective especially when we are being tempted in the love of money department The reminder of our mortality in verse 7 is very relevant here For there Paul reminds us what lovers of money always forget, that we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it So what good is it then to die rich and unsaved? What good is it to die with 100 million dollars if that is all you have when you die? An American financier called Jay Gould died with this amount, and the last thing he is reported to have said was that he was the most miserable devil in the world. There is no point in making money or position the main object in your life if (1) this can only be enjoyed for a few years, and (2) pursuing or serving these things pose a threat to your faith in God or your eternal future Rather, we should focus on following God and serving him, and then be content with what God supplies in the context of this orientation As it says in verse 6: godliness with contentment is great gain We should be content with what God supplies in this life, remembering our eternal future, and following God with an undivided heart, because this will keep us on the straight and narrow as far as the dangers of money are concerned. Moreover, and lastly, this is also the path to eternal wealth. Jesus in Matthew 6:19-21 says this
19

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

If we seek Gods Kingdom rather than working for wealth and position in this life, then Gods promise is that he will build up for us treasures in heaven, where we can enjoy them forever. Now what these treasures are, I dont know so dont ask me but I am quite sure they will not disappoint us whereas seeking to build up wealth here on earth is virtually a meaningless exercise There is another thing too, and it comes in verses 18 and 19 where Paul is talking to Timothy concerning those who are rich
18 19

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. Here Paul is urging Timothy to encourage his congregation into the art of giving And the reason for this is that giving is probably the best way to counteract the love of money. It is also the best way for someone to test their heart to see whether their orientation is facing the right way or not Although in these verses Paul in this instance is talking about the rich a reading of the whole Bible makes it absolutely clear that giving applies to everybody because a love of money can affect the poor just as much as it already lays at the door of the rich And while the Bible does not specify the amount we should each give, traditionally the figure of a tithe has been recognized as being 10% of income but of course one can give much more than this if one wishes And I would say that 10% should be a minimum. And I say this because I believe 10% is large enough to be painful and therefore large enough to be a test for your heart to see which way your heart is pointing. A rejection of giving of this sort may well be an indication of love of money issues And nor does the Bible specify exactly who the money should go to, but I would say that our giving should be directed to the church as a whole for its ministry and especially it should be given to the poor. God loves it when his people are generous to the poor and those in need. He loves this sort of giving a lot What our reading shows us today is this: That Christians are called to reject utterly the love of money or devoting our life to accrue wealth in this life. This is the orientation of the fall and is idolatry. Such a life can only lead to ruin and destruction. Rather we are called to orientate our lives towards God alone, serving him and fulfilling his calling upon our lives. We are also called to be a generous and a giving people, for this is the best antidote to the love of money If we do these things then the promises of God are clear Not only will he honour us in this life with the material things that we need for now But he will also prepare a store of riches for us in the life that is to come

This is how we are to orientate our lives Paul instructions to Timothy in verses 14 to 16 are appropiate for us too [We] are to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

10