ONE ROOT OF MANY EVILS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.

1 Timothy 6:10

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In 2013, a woman who had accrued tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, married a fire fighter and then arranged his murder six months later so she could collect his $100,000 life insurance payout.

In late 2004, a woman who had lost her first husband, becoming wealthy from the inheritance, fell in love with a man she worked with. She quickly added him to her will and six months later, he pushed her off a cliff while on a camping trip and subsequently gained what she had. Later it was discovered that he had engaged in three extramarital affairs in the six months he was married and then proposed to another woman three weeks after murdering his first wife.

In both these instances, the perpetrator’s complete focus on gaining riches at the expense of their spouse’s life violated God’s direct order not to murder. Further, their love of money was greater than the love the Lord commands one person to have for another, and additionally in this instance, within a marriage.

Now, not everyone sins by murdering to gain money. There are other transgressions associated with it such as robbery, theft, prostitution, drug dealing, fraud, counterfeiting, and identity theft to name a few. With this, we turn to our scripture verse from 1 Timothy 6, one that many people are familiar with. Paul writes:

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. v. 10

As we have seen in our study of chapter 6 to date, Paul invests a lot of time on the matter of money.

He first addressed false teachers who were trying to profit off of godliness. Then he touched on the need to be satisfied with what God provides as a remedy for falling into greed and a sinful pursuit of money. Finally, we saw in yesterday’s message where the incessant quest for accumulating treasures on earth was nothing short of folly. All this was a run up to his words in verse 10, associating money as being the root of all kinds of evil and being a dedicated servant of Jesus, Paul was all too aware of the dreadful selling out of the Savior of the world by one of His trusted, hand-selected disciples.

You remember the account of Judas, right?

He was one of the Twelve, the inner circle of followers who traveled with Jesus throughout His ministry work. Ironically, he was the treasurer of the group and the signs of trouble regarding his love of money began to show long before he betrayed Jesus.

For here’s what we read about Judas in the Gospel of John as he reacts to Mary anointing Jesus with expensive perfume:

Judas said...

“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.”

He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. John 12:5-6

So Judas stole from Jesus and his eleven disciple brothers. His love of money was greater than his love for any of them and this would have been bad enough but Judas took his greed to a whole new level as we read in Matthew’s Gospel:

Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand Him over. Matthew 26:14-16

That opportunity presented itself in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went to pray. As we continue in Matthew 26, we see where Judas went there with a contingent of men organized by the chief priests and elders:

While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed Him.

Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.”

Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested Him. Vv. 47-50

Jesus would be crucified and dead in less than 24 hours.

Thirty pieces of silver.

That’s all it took for Judas to betray God’s one and only Son, the Savior of the world.

The love of money was the root of his evil act, an act that caused him to wander from his faith and as we see in chapter 27 of Matthew, he was indeed pierced with a grief that he couldn’t bear.

Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans how to have Jesus executed. So they bound Him, led Him away and handed Him over to Pilate the governor.

When Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.”

“What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”

So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. Vv. 1-5

Convicted about his sin and “seized with remorse”, Judas tried to stop what he started but it was too late. His love of money was exploited by the chief priests and elders who used him to get what they wanted, the eradication of Jesus. And although dishonesty defined the Jewish religious leaders who would do or say anything to try and get rid of Jesus, their words to Judas were spot on:

“That’s your responsibility.”

You may remember that they didn’t go to Judas. Rather, he was the one who approached them and started the evil betrayal process that was rooted in his love of money, a process that ruined his life.

Friends, we had better pay attention to this chapter of 1 Timothy what God’s word is saying to us regarding the love of money. For if we do, we can truly be satisfied with what the Lord has provided and focus our life’s devotion and heart’s affection on Him and Him alone instead of the things of the world.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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