1 Timothy 6:10 “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.”

We are all vaguely aware that we live in a wealthy nation and enjoy a high standard of living. If the annual income for your household averages $20,000 per person, your income is in the top five percent worldwide. If it averages $30,000 per person, you’re in the top one percent. The “average” annual income per person in the world is about $10,000, but half of all the people in the world make less than $1300 per year.

We are vaguely aware of all this, because we don’t feel so rich. Compared to other people we know or see on TV, we seem to have less. Many of us have too much debt. There is always something more we could buy, something nicer, bigger, just beyond reach. Contentment is an elusive goal. Advertisers do their best to make sure you never achieve it. In a country where people have a relatively high income and a lot of stuff, money easily becomes an obsession.

Greed, the excessive desire for money and possessions, the sin that essentially replaces God with things, is a hard sin to identify in ourselves because it involves an attitude more than an activity. It is not the same thing as being wealthy. Some rich people are very generous. They think about their wealth very little. Some poor people are consumed with envy for the lifestyle of the wealthy. They would never share no matter how much they had. They feel driven to accumulate all they can.

Perhaps a simple test for greed is this: Does some non-necessity ever affect your happiness negatively–either because you can’t afford it or you are afraid of losing it? Then it is safe to say we have been touched by greed.

Paul doesn’t use the word greed, but that is the sin he has in mind when he warns Timothy about the dangers of loving money. It perverts religion. It makes some people think that “godliness is a means to financial gain” (1 Timothy 6:5). You hear them preaching on TV.

It leads some to leave their faith behind and fills their lives with all kinds of grief. But there is an alternative way to live. “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6). Those who have godliness and contentment are the real rich people. They know the grace of God that takes care of every need of body and soul. They don’t live their lives with a constant sense that something is missing, that there is a hole in their lives that needs to be filled.

The love of money may be a root of all kinds of evil. But God’s love for us in Christ is a treasure trove that never fails to satisfy. It fills our hearts with his grace. It fills our faith with the joy of forgiveness and life that have no end.