The Love of Money
By R.J. Rushdoony
In I Timothy 6:10, St. Paul writes, "The love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred (or, been seduced) from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." In understanding what Paul tells us, we must avoid two errors. First, Paul does not say that money is the root of all evil, but rather that the love thereof is. Second, we must not neglect to understand why the love of money is so singled out as "the root of all evil." After all, according to Genesis 3:1-5, original sin, the root of all evil, is man's desire to be his own god and to determine good and evil, law and morality, for himself. How is this related to the love of money?
Notice that St. Paul does not say that the love of wealth is the root of all evil. Wealth has had a variety of definitions. A man strong in faith is wealthy, because he has riches too many men lack. Again, in much of history, wealth has been defined in terms of a strong family and clan. In some cultures, a man without a family cannot find work and is regarded as an outlaw because he has no family to vouch for him or to make good on any wrong he commits; a man who leaves his family is in such a society an outlaw.
The same is true of friends. For some cultures, a network of friends is wealth and security; they will help or defend you, as you will them. The strength of feudalism was the fact that it was a network of obligations, duties, and ties. Men were not alone.
In the material sphere, the major form of wealth in history has been land. Land provides both a home and a source of potential food. A landed man over the centuries was a free man. (Our tax structure has put an end to that, and this has been done deliberately.) It was once true that "A man's home is his castle," and a man's land was immune to trespass. In my lifetime, more than a few Western ranchers held that they had a right to shoot a trespasser. Their thinking had ancient roots.
St. Paul speaks against none of these forms of wealth. They are, in fact, thoroughly Biblical in character. Why did he single out money?
Money has a curious history. True money is cold or silver, whereas base currencies and paper money represent the statist counterfeiting of money. Rome had a long history of debasing its coinage.
Why was money so dangerously evil in Paul's sight'? The root of all evil is man's will to be his own god and his own determiner of reality, of good, evil, everything. The love of money has the same deluding power: it distorts or destroys reality. In the past two years, one well-known churchman tried to tell me I had no right to an opinion, and he told me how much he was worth, and he asked, "And how much did you make last year?" This man has been seduced from the faith by his love of money: he is now being stripped of his money, is pierced by much trouble, but he lacks godly sorrow. The love of money destroys a man's awareness of reality. Virtue, friends, family, and all other forms of wealth are despised in favor of money.
Moreover, it is interesting that, as material wealth has shifted towards money in the thinking of people, it has shifted from true money, gold and silver, to counterfeit coins and paper money. There is a reason for this. Paper money gives man the opportunity to play god, to "create" wealth by printing paper currencies, and to supplant God's reality with man's new order.
But paper money self-destructs. It winds up destroying its creators and users and the false social order they have created. The essence of sin, the will to be god, means a radical distortion and falsification of realty. It creates an inflationary social order in which man substitutes his own paper-created assets for true and enduring wealth.
The older forms of wealth meant a network of duties and obligations. It meant an awareness that we are all dependent on one another and on the land: "the king himself is served (or, prospered) by the field" (Eccl. 5:9).
Money as wealth, or paper money as wealth, not only is subject to the whims of a planning society and inflation, but it also strips a man progressively of all true forms of wealth unless he is a strong man in the faith and mindful earnestly of the social obligations of his wealth.
One of our very fine Chalcedon friends was an heir to an estate, 300 years in the family, with a village and many farmers. Two deaths, one after another, led to the loss of it because of death taxes. The people on the estate saw with grief their transition from a closely knit and caring family government to a socialist state. It was a disaster and a grief.
How do we change all this? It means a strong faith in Christ as our Savior and Governor, and in God's law-word as our charter of freedom. It means that wealth has a new definition for us, and it begins with our faith.
How rich are you?
In I Timothy 6:10, St. Paul writes, "The love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred (or, been seduced) from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." In understanding what Paul tells us, we must avoid two errors. First, Paul does not say that money is the root of all evil, but rather that the love thereof is. Second, we must not neglect to understand why the love of money is so singled out as "the root of all evil." After all, according to Genesis 3:1-5, original sin, the root of all evil, is man's desire to be his own god and to determine good and evil, law and morality, for himself. How is this related to the love of money?
Notice that St. Paul does not say that the love of wealth is the root of all evil. Wealth has had a variety of definitions. A man strong in faith is wealthy, because he has riches too many men lack. Again, in much of history, wealth has been defined in terms of a strong family and clan. In some cultures, a man without a family cannot find work and is regarded as an outlaw because he has no family to vouch for him or to make good on any wrong he commits; a man who leaves his family is in such a society an outlaw.
The same is true of friends. For some cultures, a network of friends is wealth and security; they will help or defend you, as you will them. The strength of feudalism was the fact that it was a network of obligations, duties, and ties. Men were not alone.
In the material sphere, the major form of wealth in history has been land. Land provides both a home and a source of potential food. A landed man over the centuries was a free man. (Our tax structure has put an end to that, and this has been done deliberately.) It was once true that "A man's home is his castle," and a man's land was immune to trespass. In my lifetime, more than a few Western ranchers held that they had a right to shoot a trespasser. Their thinking had ancient roots.
St. Paul speaks against none of these forms of wealth. They are, in fact, thoroughly Biblical in character. Why did he single out money?
Money has a curious history. True money is cold or silver, whereas base currencies and paper money represent the statist counterfeiting of money. Rome had a long history of debasing its coinage.
Why was money so dangerously evil in Paul's sight'? The root of all evil is man's will to be his own god and his own determiner of reality, of good, evil, everything. The love of money has the same deluding power: it distorts or destroys reality. In the past two years, one well-known churchman tried to tell me I had no right to an opinion, and he told me how much he was worth, and he asked, "And how much did you make last year?" This man has been seduced from the faith by his love of money: he is now being stripped of his money, is pierced by much trouble, but he lacks godly sorrow. The love of money destroys a man's awareness of reality. Virtue, friends, family, and all other forms of wealth are despised in favor of money.
Moreover, it is interesting that, as material wealth has shifted towards money in the thinking of people, it has shifted from true money, gold and silver, to counterfeit coins and paper money. There is a reason for this. Paper money gives man the opportunity to play god, to "create" wealth by printing paper currencies, and to supplant God's reality with man's new order.
But paper money self-destructs. It winds up destroying its creators and users and the false social order they have created. The essence of sin, the will to be god, means a radical distortion and falsification of realty. It creates an inflationary social order in which man substitutes his own paper-created assets for true and enduring wealth.
The older forms of wealth meant a network of duties and obligations. It meant an awareness that we are all dependent on one another and on the land: "the king himself is served (or, prospered) by the field" (Eccl. 5:9).
Money as wealth, or paper money as wealth, not only is subject to the whims of a planning society and inflation, but it also strips a man progressively of all true forms of wealth unless he is a strong man in the faith and mindful earnestly of the social obligations of his wealth.
One of our very fine Chalcedon friends was an heir to an estate, 300 years in the family, with a village and many farmers. Two deaths, one after another, led to the loss of it because of death taxes. The people on the estate saw with grief their transition from a closely knit and caring family government to a socialist state. It was a disaster and a grief.
How do we change all this? It means a strong faith in Christ as our Savior and Governor, and in God's law-word as our charter of freedom. It means that wealth has a new definition for us, and it begins with our faith.
How rich are you?
