We all know that greed and the love of money are dangerous for us. We learned this lesson as children watching “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”
Who can forget the greedy, hyper-competitive, spoiled-rotten, incredibly annoying Violet Beauregarde? She was a championship gum chewer, driven to win at all costs. Does anyone remember what happened to Violet?
As adults we read about, hear about, and even witness first-hand people ruined by money. The most striking stories are the rags-to-riches-to-rags kind.
Maybe some of you remember a man named Bud Post, who won over 16 million dollars in the 1988 Pennsylvania Lottery (which, by the way, would be worth about $45M today).
His problems included a brother who tried to hire a contract murderer to kill him and his sixth wife; a landlady turned lover who forced him to give her one third of the jackpot; and a conviction and jail sentence, after he fired a shotgun at a man trying to collect a debt at his deteriorating dream house in northwestern Pennsylvania.
He ultimately went bankrupt, auctioned off the remainder of his annual payments, and ended up with about a million dollars free and clear, which he immediately spent, returning him to bankruptcy again. After that he lived off of work disability checks until he died in 2006.
In 1993, just five years after winning the lottery, Post was famously quoted as saying, “Everybody dreams of winning money, but nobody realizes the nightmares that come out of the woodwork, or the problems.” He also once said, “I was much happier when I was broke.”
Jesus taught often about money, and made it crystal clear how dangerous the love of money can be for us.
Matthew 6:19-21 (ESV)
19 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
So when we love money, bad stuff can happen to us. Violet gets rolled off screen by Oompa Loompas to who-knows-what terrible fate. The lottery winner spirals into a miserable existence. Moths and rust destroy all that we have, and what they miss gets stolen by thieves. In other words, we can lose it all anyway.
But what we’re going to find out from Paul, in the last chapter of 1 Timothy, is that the situation is actually far worse than that. The love of money is not only bad for us, but it is truly mutually exclusive with living a life of faith. Just a few verses later in Matthew Chapter 6 Jesus makes this very point.
Matthew 6:24 (ESV)
24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
We absolutely must choose what our lives are all about: Fortune, or Faith. One, or the other. We cannot choose both.
The theologian Haddon Robinson once put it this way: “Money has a way of binding us to what is physical and temporal, and blinding us to what is spiritual and eternal.” That is the core of the choice each one of us must make. Will you live for the physical and temporal, that is, fortune, or for the spiritual and eternal, that is, faith?
We’re going to cover the last chapter of 1 Timothy, Chapter 6. Recall this book, this letter from Paul to his mentee and the shepherd of the troubled church in Ephesus, Timothy, is all about Guarding What Matters.
In this chapter Paul appeals to Timothy that the most important thing for him to guard is faith, his personal faith, and the gospel message that was entrusted to him.
This is a message for you and me today also. The most important thing for us to guard is faith, our personal faith, and the gospel message that was entrusted to each of us. God works through us to share His good news with the world.
And if we’re not careful, we can allow our pursuit of fortune to cause us to wander from our faith, not only leading us to spiral into misery, but robbing countless others in this world who need to experience God’s love first hand and hear the gospel message to find meaning, freedom, and salvation in their lives.
Consequences of living for the physical and the temporal
Let’s pick up reading Chapter 6 at verse 3.
1 Timothy 6:3-10 (ESV)
3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
False teachers were clearly a problem in the first-century church in Ephesus. Paul has repeatedly warned Timothy about false teachers, and given him guidance on how to deal with them, throughout the letter. Until now, however, Paul hasn’t said much about what motivates these false teachers. Here he zeros in on a certain key motivation: their belief that godliness is a means of gain.
What false teachers in our church today look like the false teachers Paul warned Timothy about? What are they teaching which “does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ?”
There is a strong movement in the Christian church today, often called the “prosperity gospel,” though there are many other names for it, like: the “name it and claim it” gospel, the “blab it and grab it” gospel, the “health and wealth” gospel, and “positive confession theology.” Simply put, this teaching holds that God guarantees all believers will attain physical health, material wealth, and personal happiness based on what they do in their lives. Unfortunately this gospel has a number of fundamental disagreements with accurate Biblical teaching.
This is a challenging and subtle topic. It’s hard to disagree with this kind of teaching. After all, when a person becomes a believer, when they understand for the first time that God is not some scary, cosmic policeman waiting to zap you with a lightning bolt when you make a mistake, when they first take a sip of the freedom and closeness to God’s personal love for them, it’s easy to take this feeling too far, and start to imagine that God must want them to be happy and wealthy in every way, according to their standards.
And I personally believe God does want us to be healthy and to prosper, but according to His definition of health and prosperity for my life. However, when I start to believe that I am entitled to health and prosperity on my terms, that I deserve my definition of health and prosperity, I have a problem. Because of sin, I don’t deserve anything but death. Everything God gives me comes from His love and mercy.
That’s why it’s wrong to pursue wealth, to go after it, to grasp it. That’s why the false teachers who say we can chase after godliness as a means to gain wealth are wrong. It’s backwards.
I love how Paul plays with the words in verse 6: “godliness with contentment IS great gain.” Ironically, he says, godliness WILL lead to gain, just not the kind you think you want (i.e., fortune). Why is the word “contentment” so important here? Being content with what you have is exactly the opposite of being driven to pursue, to go after, to grasp, what you don’t have.
The climax of Paul’s warning in this section is one of most often misquoted verses in the Bible, verse 10, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” How often have you heard someone say, “Money is the root of all evil?”
Money itself is not evil. And not all evil is caused by money. We must not be confused by this verse. There is no spiritual virtue associated with poverty, and there is no inherent wickedness associated with wealth. Wealth is not a sin. It is not a problem when we possess wealth. It is a problem when wealth possesses us. When we love money. When we choose fortune over faith.
This brings up another interesting question. What about all those billionaires out there? Did you know there are almost 1,000 billionaires in our country, and over 4,000 worldwide? The vast majority of these people are not Christians, and a good percentage of them are pretty rotten. Why aren’t they all spiraling into misery like the poor lottery winner? Isn’t that what the Bible says should happen to them? Well, Paul is not addressing those people here. This message is not about or for those people. There will always be people who achieve great wealth, some “good,” and some, pretty evil. Don’t worry about them. God has it all figured out.
This message is about and for Christians, and how their faith is impacted when they choose to pursue fortune over faith. In verse 10 Paul says, “It is through this craving [for money] that some have wandered away from the faith.
Which brings us to Paul’s charge to Timothy, and to us, when we are tempted to choose fortune over faith.
Discussion
- Paul says the false teachers imagine “godliness is a means of gain.” Where does that assumption show up in ordinary Christian talk, not just on television?
- Verse 6 answers verse 5 with one word: contentment. Why does that word undo the whole argument?
- “It is not a problem when we possess wealth. It is a problem when wealth possesses us.” How would you know which one is true of you?
- Verse 10 says some “wandered away.” Wandering is slow. What does the first step of that wandering look like?
The far better alternative: living for the spiritual and the eternal
Let’s keep reading through verse 16.
1 Timothy 6:11-16 (ESV)
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, 14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will display at the proper time, he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
You can see Paul draws a direct and intentional contrast (“But as for you”) between the false teachers driven by greed and Timothy (and by extension, us). The gist of his message is that our focus should be on an awareness of accountability to God and the reality of eternal life.
Paul describes how Timothy should live his life with some very active and forceful verbs. What are some of these, and what do they mean to you?
If you disagree with the prosperity gospel, advocates of that teaching might accuse you of being passive, just sitting around and waiting for God to take care of you. But Paul makes it clear here that the right way to live as a Christian is anything but passive. In fact the words he uses make it sound like we are living in a war zone, on a battle field. And we are!
Sometimes we have no choice but to flee from the enemy, so we can live to fight another day. And sometimes we’re called to fight right here, right now, where we are. At all times we’re called to pursue, to go after, to grasp, what? not money, but the currency of the spiritual realm, the things which have value in the spiritual realm, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Chase after these things, with the same intensity of greed that a worldly person chases after money!
That’s what the Christian life looks like. That’s what it looks like to choose faith over fortune.
Then suddenly, Paul returns to the topic of the compatibility of faith and fortune. It’s as if he’s anticipating a question from Timothy.
Discussion
- Paul’s verbs are flee, pursue, fight, take hold. Which of the four is hardest for you, and why that one?
- He tells Timothy to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. What would chasing one of those “with the same intensity of greed” actually look like this week?
- Verse 12 says Timothy “made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” What does it do to your faith when other people have heard you say it out loud?
Can you live for the spiritual and eternal if you have fortune?
Ephesus was a wealthy city, and the Ephesian church probably had many wealthy members. Paul’s intention was not to alienate all these people, to make them feel like they had no place in the church just because they had money. Let’s read what he says.
1 Timothy 6:17-19 (ESV)
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
Before you tune out these verses, assuming they pertain only to “wealthy” people, keep in mind that a family with a household income of about $50,000 per year or more is wealthier than 99% of the families around the world. That means that the vast majority of Americans ARE wealthy, by the world’s standards. So we should all pay close attention to what Paul is saying here.
And what is he saying? It’s all about our hearts. No, we should not be greedy and pursue fortune, as we’ve already discussed in depth. Instead, our mindset should be humble not haughty. We should set our hopes on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. And we should be generous, ready to share. When we do so, we will be following Jesus’ command in Matthew 6:20, “laying up for ourselves treasures in Heaven.” This is how we “take hold of that which is truly life.”
Finally, Paul leaves Timothy with this charge…
Discussion
- Paul does not tell the rich to stop being rich. He tells them not to be haughty and not to set their hopes on riches. Why does he go after the posture rather than the money?
- “God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.” How does that line sit next to everything Paul just said about the danger of wealth?
- Verse 19 calls generosity “storing up treasure.” In what sense is giving something away a way of storing it up?
Guarding your faith matters!
Let’s read the last two verses of the chapter.
1 Timothy 6:20-21 (ESV)
20 O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” 21 for by professing it some have swerved from the faith.
Grace be with you.
I love how some translations of the Bible stick with the theme of money and fortune here, telling Timothy to guard the “deposit” entrusted to him.
What do you think this “deposit” is?
The most important thing for us to guard is faith, our personal faith, and the gospel message that was entrusted to each of us. God works through us to share His good news with the world. And if we’re not careful, we can allow our pursuit of fortune to cause us to wander from our faith, not only leading us to spiral into misery, but robbing countless others in this world who need to experience God’s love first hand and hear the gospel message to find meaning, find freedom, and find salvation in their lives.
No matter what we tell ourselves, the Bible is clear that fortune and faith are mutually incompatible. We must choose to pursue one or the other, not both. So which is it going to be? When you find yourself facing decisions this week, not only the big ones but even the little, everyday ones, consider which path is putting your desire for fortune first, and which is putting your faith first.
Discussion
- Paul calls it a “deposit,” something handed to you to keep safe for someone else. Who is it being kept for?
- Verse 21 says some “swerved.” Swerving is sudden, wandering is slow. Paul uses both in one chapter. Which one do you think is the greater danger?
- Name one small, everyday decision coming this week where fortune and faith point different directions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the prosperity gospel?
The prosperity gospel is a teaching that claims God guarantees all believers will attain physical health, material wealth, and personal happiness based on what they do. Paul warns against this in 1 Timothy 6:5, calling out those who imagine “godliness is a means of gain.” Scripture teaches that God provides according to his will and purposes, not according to a formula we can manipulate.
Does the Bible say money is evil?
No. The often-misquoted verse is 1 Timothy 6:10: “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Money itself is not evil.
There is no spiritual virtue in poverty and no inherent wickedness in wealth. The danger comes when we love money, when wealth possesses us instead of us possessing it.
What does “godliness with contentment is great gain” mean?
Paul is playing with the false teachers’ claim that godliness leads to financial gain. He says godliness does lead to gain, just not the kind they mean. True gain is being content with what God provides, rather than endlessly pursuing what we do not have. Contentment is the opposite of grasping.
What does “fight the good fight of the faith” mean in 1 Timothy 6:12?
Paul uses active, forceful language to describe the Christian life: flee, pursue, fight, take hold. This is not passive waiting. It is a real spiritual battle. We fight by pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness, and by holding firmly to the eternal life to which we have been called.
What is the “deposit” Paul tells Timothy to guard in 1 Timothy 6:20?
The deposit is the gospel message itself, the truth about Jesus Christ that was entrusted to Timothy and to every believer. Paul’s closing charge is to guard this trust, avoiding false teaching and irreverent speculation that leads people away from the faith.
Does Paul say wealthy Christians should give away all their money?
No. Paul does not condemn wealth. He tells the rich not to be arrogant, not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, and to be generous and ready to share. The goal is not poverty but a heart that trusts God rather than money, and hands that are open rather than grasping.
This lesson is part of the Guarding What Matters series.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway.