1 You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
2 will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust.”
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence;
4 he will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
or the arrow that flies by day,
6 or the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
or the destruction that wastes at noonday.
14 Those who love me, I will deliver;
I will protect those who know my name.
15 When they call to me, I will answer them;
I will be with them in trouble,
I will rescue them and honor them.
16 With long life I will satisfy them,
and show them my salvation.
An unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Thomas Haynes Bayly
Every cloud has a silver lining. D.R. Locke (1863)
A thing of beauty is a joy forever John Keats
These are all famous quotes, words of wisdom that have floated and inspired through history. I am sure you can come up with some more on your own like “Joy comes in the morning,” or a “Stitch in time saves nine.” Our lives are filled with such pearls. Today we will read another familiar quote, but I want us to hear it with new ears. I am sure it will jump right out at you when I read it. But there is also a secondary quote and we sang about it already today- “Fight the good fight, of the faith, take hold of the eternal life.” But that is not the one we will be focusing on.
6 Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; 7 for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; 8 but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. 9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by 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 evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
11 But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 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, I charge you 14 to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 16 It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
If I asked you to repeat the quote, many would say, “Money is the root of all evil” because that is how it has been simplified and repeated. But that is not what I just read. You will say, “The love of money is root of all evil.” We are getting closer. Are you starting to feel uncomfortable? Oh no is Anne gonna talk about money? Before I even parse this out I want to remind you that Jesus talked about money. Of his 40 parables, 11 of them were about money or used money to teach us a spiritual truth. Yes, we are approaching our stewardship campaign, in about a week you will be getting mailing. But this is a time for us to look at money, our relationship to money and what the Bible says about that. So what is the quote about money?
“The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…” Three things to note. First, the love of money is different from money. Money is not inherently bad. No, it is when money tempts us into other things or becomes our god that Paul takes issue with it. We have all made money, success, a big house, or that new car our idol, our god, at least for a while. If our pursuit of money takes us away from our values and our faith, then we are wandering away and it can certainly lead to many pains.
We live in a place that requires a lot of money just to survive. So having money is not bad, it is necessary. But we all have seen people who have made the accumulation of money their focus, their goal and they don’t see how that changes them. Maybe that is why Paul reminds us that “we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out” (v. 7). We have shortened this to the familiar quote, “You can’t take it with you when you go.”
An old Jack Benny skit illustrates how money can become more important to us than anything else. Jack was walking along, when suddenly an armed robber approached him and ordered, “Your money or your life!” There was a long pause, and Jack did nothing. The robber impatiently queried, “Well?” Jack replied, “Don’t rush me, I’m thinking about it.”
How is it that we value material things more than the very life God has given us?
Secondly, the love of money is a root, one of many, that can lead to evil. We need to take it off the one and only list. Another way of saying that is we can get into mischief in many ways and love of money is only one of them. Finally, the love of money can lead to all kinds of evil: corruption, pain, destruction, temptation. Jeffrey Epstein gives us a recent example. His love of money, accumulation of money, made possible the systematic, repeated and horrible mistreatment of young girls.
But before we say I’m off the hook, Paul is speaking a truth to all of us. We all use money in ways that make it our god. What is one person’s treasure is another person’s stuff. My ex husband loved Disney statues and he purchased many of them. It was a point of contention. But you might have a different love, requiring money that can take your away from what God has planned. Maybe it takes you away from your family or is taking up too much space in your head. So, I ask you, what is the thing, the behavior, the passion that requires money that can become your god, your idol? That tempts you, or pulls you away from your best self? Offer it up to God, ask God to make that thing right sized in your life and to help you to return to God with a clean and content heart.
Paul reminds Timothy and us to find contentment. Contentment, not in material things, but in our relationship with God. Buried in this passage is the question, “What is enough?”
If we have food and clothing is that enough?
If we have a retirement plan is that enough?
If we take a trip every year is that enough?
By the world’s standards we are rich, so Paul reminds us to not be haughty and to not set our hopes on uncertain riches. Our culture does this, makes the accumulation of money the goal and god of life and in so doing replaces our need for God. Because if our security is based on the things we earn, create, then what need to we have for God. I think this is a contributing factor in the decline in people seeing the need for God or having faith.
You see Paul was writing to Timothy because some leaders said that faith would lead to financial gain. Paul is challenging that. No matter how much we try to make money be our security, God is the source of all we have, God is the one who provides for us. Even the money we make. We are to shun our love of money, our pursuit of money, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. God protects those who have faith, who live in the shelter of the Lord. When we trust God then there is enough, when we rest in God’s care then our need for money diminishes.
This week we endured some sourcing heat, and I had to find shade several times just to get my core temperature down. I was quickly cooled by simply standing in the shade feeling the breeze. That is what it is like standing in the shadow of the Lord, protection, care, comfort, coolness. Money can buy A/C but it does not provide refuge, protection and hope.
So while God is providing protection, and everything we need for enjoyment (v. 17) God asks us to do three things: Do good, be rich in good works, and be generous, ready to share. So when money is tempting us into places that we might not want to be, or pulling us away from God, God asks us to get outside of ourselves and help others. Be of service to others. Help others by caring for a neighbor, or volunteering at the showers, or giving of your time or money in pursuit of some good work. The simple act of caring for another person helps to make us right sized and no longer think we are god and it is all up to us. There is no money to be made helping others so we see that life has meaning well beyond the pursuit of money. We discover that meaning and purpose have greater value than the all mighty dollar and that God guides us in finding the way to be in His service.
The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, but when we rest in the shadow of God’s presence, when we see the value in helping others, when we trust God for everything we have and are, then we know that whatever we have, is enough. We can then take hold of the life that is life, the eternal life we have in Christ, loosening our idolatry towards the love of money. Amen.
