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What is the power of Money?
- Thread starter allfoak
- Start date
What is the power of Money?
Why is the love of money the root of all evil?
Money is not evil, what money does to worldly people is evil. God has nothing against wealth and money, there were many people in the Bible that God allowed to amass vast fortunes. But I do believe that in today's society that there are way to many 'things' to spend money on. I believe that whatever man can do to earn money, honest jobs that is, is a gift from God. He enables us to work and earn and we should first and foremost honor Him with the first-fruits of our labors. He deserves His cut right off the top, before we go out and buy that new I-phone or whatever the case may be. The money that God enables us to earn is meant to be wisely put to use to further His Kingdom, He only asks for a mere 10%, that still leaves you with 90%.
ronandcarol
Why is the love of money the root of all evil?
Money is not evil, what money does to worldly people is evil. God has nothing against wealth and money, there were many people in the Bible that God allowed to amass vast fortunes. But I do believe that in today's society that there are way to many 'things' to spend money on. I believe that whatever man can do to earn money, honest jobs that is, is a gift from God. He enables us to work and earn and we should first and foremost honor Him with the first-fruits of our labors. He deserves His cut right off the top, before we go out and buy that new I-phone or whatever the case may be. The money that God enables us to earn is meant to be wisely put to use to further His Kingdom, He only asks for a mere 10%, that still leaves you with 90%.
ronandcarol
I've always thought that was one of Paul's more superficial statements. Money can be used for evil, of course, but the love of it is root of all evil? Nonsense. It doesn't hold a candle to the ego in that department.
There have always been people who lust irrationally after wealth.
(And yes, I'm old enuf to remember all the way back.)
Only what represents/constituties wealth has changed.
They used to say that "mastodon skins are the root of all evil".
Then we entered our farming phase, & it became "cattle are the root of all evil".
Finally, money was invented, & we heard "big round stones are the root of evil" (in Yap anyway).
So money is simply the object of lust de jour.
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One translation says the love of money is not the "root of all evil" but "the root of all kinds of evil." That makes a lot more sense. Money is a tool to benefit people. The love of it causes all kinds of evil but not all evil. I think its a reference to 'Greed' which includes more things than money.
Overall Jesus is speaking in the context of Torah which references greed in multiple places. In particular adding fields to fields is an evil representative of the problems with greed. Its analogous to accumulating so much money that nobody else can have any spending power.
For example the Big Mac Index shows that the minimum wage in USA does not effect the cost of the Big Mac whose price is fairly consistent worldwide, yet certain parties which have gotten greedy whine that a higher minimum wage would raise prices and kill the economy. Hence the love of money is the root of an evil -- a Big Mac that a minimum wage worker cannot really afford in the USA but could afford in other countries if they worked there. It shows that the minimum wage in USA does not effect the cost of the Big Mac, yet certain parties which have gotten greedy whine that a higher minimum wage would raise prices and kill the economy. Hence the love of money is the root of an evil -- a Big Mac that a minimum wage worker cannot really afford in the USA but could afford in other countries if they worked there. In other words the love of money has affected the perception of the evil, in effect helping to cause it.
Overall Jesus is speaking in the context of Torah which references greed in multiple places. In particular adding fields to fields is an evil representative of the problems with greed. Its analogous to accumulating so much money that nobody else can have any spending power.
For example the Big Mac Index shows that the minimum wage in USA does not effect the cost of the Big Mac whose price is fairly consistent worldwide, yet certain parties which have gotten greedy whine that a higher minimum wage would raise prices and kill the economy. Hence the love of money is the root of an evil -- a Big Mac that a minimum wage worker cannot really afford in the USA but could afford in other countries if they worked there. It shows that the minimum wage in USA does not effect the cost of the Big Mac, yet certain parties which have gotten greedy whine that a higher minimum wage would raise prices and kill the economy. Hence the love of money is the root of an evil -- a Big Mac that a minimum wage worker cannot really afford in the USA but could afford in other countries if they worked there. In other words the love of money has affected the perception of the evil, in effect helping to cause it.
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Isn't the love of money what created consumerism and the environmental plight well that and egoism
Money doesn't create egotism, although it might fuel it. Egotism is something one is born with the potential for. It's part of human nature and emerges early during the course of a child's development.
arthra
Baha'i
There is a Tablet revealed by Baha'u'llah that I think relates to the issue of the love of money...or wealth in this world.. It goes like this:
Rejoicest thou in that thou rulest a span of earth, when the whole world, in the estimation of the people of Baha, is worth as much as the black in the eye of a dead ant? Abandon it unto such as have set their affections upon it, and turn thou unto Him Who is the Desire of the world. Whither are gone the proud and their palaces? Gaze thou into their tombs, that thou mayest profit by this example, inasmuch as We made it a lesson unto every beholder. Were the breezes of Revelation to seize thee, thou wouldst flee the world, and turn unto the Kingdom, and wouldst expend all thou possessest, that thou mayest draw nigh unto this sublime Vision."
(~ Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 55
Rejoicest thou in that thou rulest a span of earth, when the whole world, in the estimation of the people of Baha, is worth as much as the black in the eye of a dead ant? Abandon it unto such as have set their affections upon it, and turn thou unto Him Who is the Desire of the world. Whither are gone the proud and their palaces? Gaze thou into their tombs, that thou mayest profit by this example, inasmuch as We made it a lesson unto every beholder. Were the breezes of Revelation to seize thee, thou wouldst flee the world, and turn unto the Kingdom, and wouldst expend all thou possessest, that thou mayest draw nigh unto this sublime Vision."
(~ Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 55
Kelly of the Phoenix
Well-Known Member
And as God has no need of money, I'd rather give it to the poor and suffering.
I think I should have had a comma in my post .