The Love of Money

“Let your way of life be without the love of money, and be content with such things as you have, for He has said, "Not at all will I leave you, not at all will I forsake you, never!" (Hebrews 13:5)

This is an interesting Scripture. The Lord’s presence is associated with a life that is not centered on the love of money and being content. First notice that this is a command. The Scripture doesn’t say it would be better to have a lifestyle not based on the love of money. Neither does it say that life would be better if it wasn’t based on the love of money. It clearly says, “Let your way of life be...” meaning in any way and manner let it be without the love of money. Paul in his first letter to Timothy was very adamant about steering away from the love of money. “For the love of money is a root of all evils, of which some having lusted after, they were seduced from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1Timothy 6:10) This is quite an indictment against the love of money. I have heard people say that money is a necessary evil. Money is not evil. It’s the way to make transactions to obtain our needs. This phrase may have come about in a misunderstanding of Scripture.

What is the love of money? Solomon gives us a glimpse of why the love of money is evil. “He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, and he who loves abundance not with gain. This is also vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 5:10) It’s vanity. And it leads to a lack of satisfaction that craves more and more. But Jesus said it better. “No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24) If you love money, where is your love for the Lord who teaches us to be content with what we have and to give of the abundance that we have? Money can become your god and a way of life that will lead you to do whatever, even sin, to obtain it. We have to make a choice, to love the Lord our God or to love mammon, the god of money and anything that we placed before God.

Another part of our Scripture is to be content. God will give us the desires of our heart. He loves blessing us. He has one criteria. He blesses us with everything that is good for us. Our vanity always wants things that are not good for us, things that will lead us astray and away from Him. God’s wisdom and omniscience will not grant us things that He knows are not good for us. He is always concerned about our well-being, our joy, our peace and eternal life. Some of the things we want would ruin us in some way. I will give you an example:

Decades ago, there was a young girl who was madly in love with this guy. He wasn’t that interested in her, but she moaned and cried over this guy. Finally, she and her mother got in agreement that they were going to pray this young man into loving her. Well, he did come around and they got married. But the marriage was not a happy one and ended in divorce. She could have been spared the misery of an unhappy marriage and a divorce if she’d just let God find her the perfect husband.

Sometimes, if we insist, God will give us what we pray for. And we regret it later. Let God have His way in your lives. Spare yourself from yourself. God knows better. Once we understand and believe this, it will better for us

In the last part of our Scripture, the Lord reassures us that He will never leave us. How is this related to being content with what we have and having a lifestyle that doesn’t love money? It means that the Lord is always there to meet our needs physically, emotionally and spiritually. We may ask for what we need and for the desires of our hearts, but He is with us to see to it that we don’t have something that will ruin our lives with Him, that will harm our peace and joy and endanger our eternity. How great is that?

Ultimately, it comes down to trusting the Lord that if something is good for us physically, emotionally and spiritually, He will give it to us. I thank God that He protects me from me. We must be willing to allow Him to give us what is good for us. Allow the Lord to make decisions for us. Allow the Lord to lead us and guide us to places that will be a blessing and where we will be protected. In the end it’s about trusting God’s wisdom and omniscience.