10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
1 Timothy 6:10
I have said it before. Poverty and financial struggle do not immunize anyone against the love of money. Rich or poor, we all have to deal with the love of money in our lives. This means that 1 Timothy 6:10 applies to everyone, not only the rich.
What Does 1 Timothy 6:10 Mean to Us?
The frightening truth is this; the love of money is far more likely to result in crippling debt and financial struggle than it is in wealth or riches.
Here is one simple way to identify and combat the love of money.
- Check Your Trajectory
- Examine your own heart
Check Your Trajectory
This is a quick and simple evaluation of your current financial state or direction. The only rule is you have to be honest with yourself.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Am I currently worrying about mounting debt and financial struggle?
- Have my debt and expenses been growing consistently over a period of months or years?
- Do I spend all my time trying to earn money just to make rent and pay my bills?
- Do I constantly feel that I don’t have enough money and that I need just a little more to make ends meet?
If the answer to one or more of these questions is yes, this is a clear indication that your trajectory has brought you to or is moving towards a place of financial struggle.
This could well mean that the Love of Money, as described in 1 Timothy 6:10, has already taken hold in your heart and is directing your financial trajectory. While this may a tough pill to swallow, remember; the love of money is far more likely to result in crippling debt and financial struggle than it is in wealth or riches.
Don’t panic. You are not alone. God is in control and His grace is able to carry us through every challenge and fear.
Examine Your own Heart
This is the harder part. Examining our own hearts requires brutal honesty. As we all know, the easiest people to lie to are ourselves.
In step one, you might have identified a trajectory that is carrying you deeper into debt and financial struggle. You now need to find those spending patterns and emotional triggers that drive the behavior that brought you to this place.
Examine your spending choices. Both in your monthly bank account as well as your credit-card purchases over the past year.
Yes, this is an exercise to examine your own heart. I realize bank accounts and credit-card bills may seem like an odd place to start but consider Matthew 6:19-21.
19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21
Our financial history keeps a perfect record of all those little treasures that we have stored up for ourselves on earth over time. They may not have any value now but they certainly did back when we made each purchase.
This is a great barometer to indicate where our treasure is. The fact that many of the treasures we bought all those months ago might now have little value is irrelevant. They are still treasures that we valued at the time and that we have stored up for ourselves here on earth.
Why do I ask you to look at credit card history? If you look at your bank account and see a large interest payment made to your credit card each month, you might justify this as a legitimate expense. After all, it is money owed and we should always pay our debts, right?
Only when we examine the credit card transactions themselves, are we able to determine whether the purchases that landed us with the hefty monthly payment were legitimate or not.
Now that you can see your transactions, you can allocate them to Earthly Treasure or Heavenly Treasure.
Heavenly treasures are those expenses that give according to God’s word. These could include charity contributions, missionary support and tithes and offerings made to your local church.
Earthly treasures are all those other items we gather around us. Expensive houses, cars clothing and jewelry, hobby/sporting equipment, gadgets, club memberships, travel, restaurants and entertainment like televisions, games consoles etc.
Your list may look different. However, it should give you a fair indication of where your treasure is and whether materialism (the love of money in a different guise) has taken hold in your heart.
A particularly good place to focus is on those items that you bought on your credit even though you couldn’t really afford at the time. It is worth asking yourself if:
- You could have delayed that purchase and saved up the money instead of buying it immediately on credit.
- You could have opted for a cheaper brand or model that does the same thing
- You could have done without it completely.
If the above self-examination reveals a Love of Money issue (1 Timothy 6:10). However small, now is the time to deal with it.
Again, don’t panic! You are not alone. Almost everyone I know is in this boat to a greater or lesser extent. C.S. Lewis said it best.
You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.
C.S. Lewis
There are loads of great resources out there that help people manage their budgets, as well as reduce their debt and monthly expenses. Those resources will explain what you have to do to achieve freedom from debt and financial struggle.
What I would like to focus on is who we need to be in order to make the hard choices and to do what needs to be done. This means aligning ourselves with God’s word and conforming ourselves to the image of Christ. We already do this in every other aspect of our Christian walk on a daily basis, so why should the financial realm of our lives be any different?
We need to become people who walk in obedience to God’s word and, where we recognize that our behavior deviates from that standard, we need to repent and ask God to help us change that behavior. The Bible refers to this as “working out our salvation” (Philippieans 2:12).
We can only achieve this through prayer and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Ask God to instill the Bible-based value system that you will need in order to begin making the wise financial decisions to reduce your debt going forward.
I would also urge you to seek an accountability group. Find some like-minded friends and mentors who can help and encourage you in your decision to become more Christ-like, align your values with God’s word and begin making wiser financial decisions.
As you do this, you will change your trajectory and begin living a life that is both Godly and free of constant worry and financial struggle.