By David ReayTuesday 27 Mar 2018LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 2 minutes
Read 1 Timothy 6:9-10
9 But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. (NLT)
A story has been told of a woman called Rosa Greenhow. She was a spy for the Confederates during the American Civil War. In that capacity, she earned quite a bit of money. As the Union forces closed in on her, she sought to escape by getting onboard a ship and sailing for the UK. The ship was damaged and sunk. Many were rescued, but not Rosa. She sank straight to the bottom, weighed down by the many coins she had sewn in the hems of her dress in an attempt to conceal them from authorities if questioned.
An extreme case of the dangers of ill-gotten wealth. And yet it is so true that we can’t take our wealth with us when we die, but our desire for wealth can have serious consequences. Our text today makes that very clear. Money itself is not bad: it can do us and others a lot of good. But put it too high up on our priorities and it distorts everything else.
It is depressingly sad to see and hear of some who devote their whole lives to wealth accumulation at the expense of healthy relationships and service to others. Wealth accumulation need not create such an issue, but it so often does. It can make us greedy and insensitive to the needs and concerns of others.
Little wonder that the New Testament is so full of warnings about it. In our legitimate concern for other ‘hot-button’ issues, let’s not forget that the lust for wealth is a form of immorality. Like so many other things, wealth in its proper place is a great blessing but get it out of perspective and it becomes a dangerous burden.
Blessings
David Reay