Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 14 August 2011
By Captain Michael Ramsay
Whenever we leave town, we soon appreciate the fact that driving here in Swift Current can be quite nice actually. A traffic jam is what? 3 Cars long? If I have an appointment somewhere at 11am and I want to get there in plenty of time I leave my office at ten to eleven. It’s not like that everywhere.
I can remember one day in Vancouver. We were urban missionaries there with The Salvation Army prior to our entering Officership. Have you ever had one of those days and one of those ideas that maybe seem good at the time but if you had actually taken time to reflect, you would have done things differently? I remember this one day; there was ourselves and another missionary family that we didn’t really know that well at the time in our car. We were stuck in traffic for a long time – the better part of an hour I imagine and I was getting frustrated. I then notice that the car is just about out of gas and we are coming up on the last gas station for a while and cars are lined up around the block and down the street: all of this with my family and these other missionaries in the vehicle. It is a hot summer day and we don’t have air conditioning and I am slowly starting to boil over both figuratively and literally. We wait in line to get gas; we wait and we wait some more with all the other people and all the other cars in line; slowly, we keep moving one car closer at a time to get to the pumps. Finally it is our turn, after such a long wait and with me now completely run out of patience; this car comes barging in, cuts directly in front of us and the whole line of cars behind us.
Now allegedly, this is what may have happened next: maybe my foot might have slipped off the brake onto the gas and maybe I might have accidentally rammed the back of this car and maybe I might have accidentally pushed it all the way past the pumps out of the station area. Now, providentially, the back of this fellow’s car was already completely smashed in before today. And I say that allegedly all of these things may have happened because of the dozens of witnesses who were also waiting in line at the pump when this man cut us all off and the gas station attendant manning the security cameras, all of them voluntarily swore that none of this ever happened. They even told me that they would testify in court that none of this ever happened and that I never made contact with his vehicle and one missionary fellow who was in my car was quite happy to talk to the man whose car I allegedly struck about the merits of waiting one’s turn while I calmly – calm for the first time in a couple of hours I might add - filled my tank, paid the clerk, and enjoyed a few moments of surprise popularity with the people around before I went on my way wondering what had just happened.
In our text today, Paul is having a similar release to this alleged incident. Paul is boiling over. Paul is adamantly and intentionally ranting against the prosperity heresy (or ‘gospel’ as some people call it) here and those who use the gospel as a means to make money. Paul is quite angry as he spews out a list of what is wrong with people who espouse false doctrine (See the list generated in 1 Timothy 2:1-6:2; cf. also Matthew 7:13, Acts 8:20, Philippians 3:19, 1 Thessalonians 5:3) - especially those who claim that godliness is a means to financial gain.[1] Paul says that these people are not agreeing to sound instruction; these people are conceited; these people understand nothing; these people are just interested in ‘controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions’ (1 Timothy 6:4) and these people are a constant source of friction, Paul says, especially those who ‘have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain’ (1 Timothy 6:5).
Paul goes on. About the idea profiting financially from the gospel he says, Verses 7-9, that:
We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 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.
You know those bumper stickers that say, ‘he who dies with the most toys wins’ – The Apostle Paul would not have had one of those.
Verse 10 records literally in the Greek that ‘the love of money is ___ root of all evil’.[2] For the record, the word for evil here doesn’t necessarily mean moral sin. It can mean anything from an unfavourable event, to something bad, to harm, to illness to wickedness, etc…[3]
Now, before I merge onto the main highway of our talk today - 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “that godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it,” but Verse 10b, “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” - I am going to spend a couple of moments on 1 Timothy 6:10a because 1 Timothy 6:10a is among the most quoted and, as world-renowned Biblical scholar James D.G. Dunn points out, the most misquoted verses in the whole Bible (1 Timothy 6:10; cf. Sirach 27:1).[4] So please indulge me as I ever so quickly follow a rabbit down a very short linguistic rabbit trail.
The KJV (AV) Bible, from which many of us read as we memorized scripture growing up, states that “for the love of money is THE root of ALL evil…” (1 Timothy 6:10a). The NRSV and the NIV Bibles that we have in the sanctuary today, in an attempt to modernize the language and moderate the force of the text, record that “the love of money is A root of ALL KINDS OF evil.” You see the difference? These modern translations seem to go –in my opinion- too far in their revision of the Authorized Version.[5] The text in Greek literally reads that ‘the love of money is __ root [with neither a definite nor an indefinite article prior to the word ‘root’] of ALL evil.’[6] ‘The love of money is __ root of all evil.’ This is actually somewhat important. The love of money (not money itself) is not necessarily the sole root of every evil in the world as the KJV can sometimes be erroneously quoted to suggest. However, neither (as can be read into the NIV) is money so impotent and unimportant as to be just one equal cause among many for some of the problems in our world today. The sin of ‘the love of money’, as the rest of our pericope today points out, is in reality much worse than that. And Paul in his worked up state is using quite emphatic language here. A better translation of 6:10a according to many of the scholars I read in preparation for today is: ‘Root of all evils is the love of money’ (cf. also RSV).[7]
The implication of this (what this means) then is –if anyone is still following me down this little rabbit trail –that anything bad in this world can be caused by a love of money. And if we look in our world today, I think we will find that that is true. Any of the myriad bad things we see happening around us are not necessarily specifically but certainly generally can be readily caused by a love of money: wars, murder, theft, lying, cheating, slander, etc… Any of these things CAN be caused by a love of money: Loving money can cause a lot of problems but even in the midst of Paul’s rant about the evils of the love of money here, 1 Timothy 6:6 assures us that on the other hand, “godliness with contentment is great gain” and remember too from when we looking at the story of Joseph a couple of weeks ago (Genesis 37-50; esp. Genesis 39)[8] that “what God’s prosperity in our lives looks like is when God’s work is being done through us.”[9] Money does not equal prosperity. Money does not equal great gain. What does equal great gain, as our text today (1 Timothy 6:6) shows us, is godliness with contentment but -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, Verse 10b: “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs (cf. TSA doc. 9).”
In the time and the place that Paul is writing here, there obviously are people who are trying to make their fame and fortune off the gospel. Paul is not saying that church leaders should not be paid. Just a few verses earlier, 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul writes quoting Deuteronomy, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain” (Deuteronomy 25:4; cf. 1 Corinthians 9:9) and, quoting Luke, “the worker deserves his wage” (Luke 10:7). Paul is not opposed to people getting paid for doing God’s work. He is concerned that people may be doing God’s work for the purpose of getting paid (cf. Mark 4:19, 10:25; Luke 1:53, 6:24, 12:15-21, 16:19-26; James 5:1-5; Revelation 3:17-18).
I think we see this a lot in the western world, in the first world today. I get more than a little uneasy if I see a minister in a large church who owns an equally large house and has a garage full of toys to go with it. I admit that I get more than a little queasy when I think about Christian authors or Christian musicians who actually become wealthy from doing God’s work of spreading the gospel or from producing music that people are supposed to use for worship purposes. Either the music is produced to worship God or the music is produced to make money. You cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13, cf. 1 Peter 5:2). I have never really bought into the whole idea of CCLI.
I remember also the 1980s when it seemed like every popular Christian televangelist in the USA was getting into problems because of either their finances or their fame. And I get really, really angry so much that I could step on the gas or, like the Apostle Paul, I could spew out a whole tirade of words like those in our text today (esp. 1 Timothy 6:3-5; cf. also Philippians 3:19, 1 Thessalonians 5:3) when I hear people promoting the prosperity heresy. Some people in some churches – probably even in this town – but most notoriously in South Korea and parts of the USA actually claim that if you are serving God faithfully you will be blessed financially and if you aren’t blessed financially then that is because you obviously aren’t following God. This is a horrible lie of the Enemy’s. 1 Timothy 6:9: “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 Verse 10b: “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
But 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it,” We remember the story of Joseph that we were looking at a couple of weeks ago. When and where did it mention he prospered? Was it when he was living at home as the favoured son of a wealthy herdsman (Genesis 37)? NO! Was it when he was riding around in a chariot as 2nd in command of the whole Egyptian Empire (Genesis 40-50)? NO! The scriptures recorded that he prospered in the in-between times when he was in slavery and when he was sitting in prison for a crime he didn’t commit (Genesis 39). That is when the scriptures record that Joseph prospered because God’s prosperity is not material wealth. As Biblical scholar John Sailhamer reminds us, “What God’s prosperity in our lives looks like is when God’s work is being done through us.”[10] The Apostle Paul in our text today, 1Timothy 6:6-7 says, “that godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” The NT church, as recorded in Acts, sold all their possessions and pooled them together for the Glory and the Kingdom of God (Acts 2:42-47). We remember too that the Apostle Paul had a part-time job as a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). He had no time for people whose goal was to make money and who then would use the gospel as a tool to do just that because, 1 Timothy 6:9, “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, Verse 10b: “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
On the other hand, 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” In light of all this I am really thankful that The Salvation Army has a policy that actually forbids our Officers from moonlighting.[11] Did you know that our pay is still considered nothing more than a living allowance? We are not officially employees protected by labour laws and the like. Officers agree at the time of acceptance to training (seminary) that if there is no money available, we will forgo our living allowance and I have spoken to older Officers serving overseas who have done just that.
Did you know too that of the money that an Officer is paid for doing a funeral or any other public service, we are supposed to donate 100% of it back to the corps (local church)? Do you know how much I get paid for writing the book, Praise The Lord For Covenants,[12] and the articles that I write in various journals and papers? Zero. Nothing. As per Army regulations, it all goes back to the ministry. This is a great buffer against the temptations caused by a love of money.
Speaking of this love of money, on the other side of the coin – if you’ll excuse the pun - I can remember being really upset by those televangelist scandals in the 1980s that we briefly mentioned earlier. These scandals gave God and the church a black eye in the eyes of many people at that time. It seemed like so many of the prominent TV evangelists gave into the devil’s temptation to seek wealth, subsequently fell from grace, and in the process presumably and horribly took many innocent people down with them. 1 Timothy 6:10b: “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
In contrast though, 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” A little earlier than these televangelist scandals of the 1980s, I can remember as a teenager being really impressed with a Christian musical group called The Resurrection Band. I don’t know if anyone here has ever heard of them. They are a Chicago band. They were the first hard rock Christian band to ever find popular success. One of their songs reached #6 on the American charts; they had sold out concerts; they had good record sales; even Canadian kids like me who in those days really didn’t care for Christian music at all were listening to them. Do you know what they did with the profits they made? They, like the church did as recorded in the book of Acts, donated 100% of the profits they made to their church community (Acts 2:44-45).[13] They didn’t donate a 10% tithe. They didn’t donate a 50% bonus tithe. They donated 100% back and spent their days working in ministry in their church community. These people could have chosen to be rich but instead they chose to follow God. 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.”
We cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13, cf. 1 Peter 5:2). Remember too the story of the rich young ruler who went away sad because Jesus had asked him to sell all his possessions and follow him (Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31). Our goal as Christians cannot be to make money. Our goal needs to be to see souls saved both for now and eternity our goal needs to be to fulfil the great commission Jesus gave us, as recorded in the book of Matthew to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:16-20). Centuries ago, Agur prayed this historic prayer:
…give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full, and deny thee,
and say, ‘Who is the LORD’…[14]
Luke reminds us in Acts that the early Christians sold everything, gave to the poor, and followed Jesus (Acts 2:42-27)). So today I would encourage us not to be distracted by a love of money - and this includes a want (desire) of money too! You don’t need to be rich to be in love with money. Don’t be distracted by a love of money and don’t let the devil distract you with anything else either that can tempt you to take your eyes off Jesus and of our goal of pointing everyone we know to this great salvation that comes from Christ alone. Today let us confess and throw off all worldly distractions because Verse 10b: “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Instead let us give our all for the Lord for, 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” So let us give our all for Jesus.
Let us pray.
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[1] Cf. James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 828.
[2] Marvin R. Vincent, The First Epistle to Timothy, ‘The Root’ (Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament IV: Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2009), 277; R.C.H Lenski, Interpretation of 1 Timothy, (Interpretation of Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon: Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964), 709.
[3] The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. ‘2556: kakos’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), 45.
[4] James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 828.
[5] Donald Guthrie, Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 127: the Greek throws emphasis on the word root, and parallels could be found to justify the definite article in English (as av, rsv). This makes the expression more sweeping, but the apostle’s mind is so absorbed with the snares of riches that he addresses himself to extreme cases. Certainly for those mentioned in verse 9 the root of all their evils was love of money, but it must not be deduced from this that love of money is the sole root of all evils, for the New Testament does not support this.
[6] R.C.H Lenski, Interpretation of 1 Timothy, (Interpretation of Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon: Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964), 709; Marvin R. Vincent, The First Epistle to Timothy, ‘The Root’ (Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament IV: Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2009), 277.
[7] James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 828; R.C.H Lenski, Interpretation of 1 Timothy, (Interpretation of Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon: Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964), 709; Marvin R. Vincent, The First Epistle to Timothy, ‘The Root’ (Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament IV: Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2009), 277.
[8] Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Genesis 39:2a: Prosperity', Presented to the Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, July 10, 2011. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/07/genesis-392a-prosperity.html
[9] John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/VI. The Account of Jacob (37:1-49:33)/E. Joseph in the House of Potiphar (39:1-23), Book Version: 4.0.2
[10] John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/VI. The Account of Jacob (37:1-49:33)/E. Joseph in the House of Potiphar (39:1-23), Book Version: 4.0.2
[11]The Salvation Army, UNDERTAKINGS ENTERED INTO BY AN OFFICER OF THE SALVATION ARMY AND APPLICANT’S AGREEMENT WITH THE SALVATION ARMY. Cf. Articles 8-12. Available on-line: http://www.uss.salvationarmy.org/uss/www_uss_ebc.nsf/0/4D80BE2B7E53AABA8025738B0068E8AE/$file/C-2%20Application%20for%20SA%20Officership.pdf
[12] Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today'. Vancouver, BC: Credo Press, 2010. (c) The Salvation Army
[13] I never thought that I would cite this source but here it goes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_Band
[14] Agur. Cited in Thomas C. Oden, First and Second Timothy and Titus (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Louisville, Ken., John Knox Press, 1989), 103.
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