By Prem Lee.
1 Timothy 6:6-10
Money is good, a great blessing. So, can good become bad?
Yes. It depends on our attitude to it.
1 Tim 6:10 reads as, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Good can be immaterial, like good behaviour, godly love for people, and the fruit of the Spirit.
Good can be material like a good harvest, a good meal and various other things. This can confuse our minds.
When the pursuit of my life is immaterial good, I become a blessing to mankind. When the pursuit of my life is material good, I become a curse to humanity and all kinds of evil come into my life.
This enigma is further compounded by God promising material wealth to all those who pursue Him (Matt 6:33). This results in many people pursuing God for the wrong reasons – to get material wealth and not immaterial wealth.
But pursuing God is the pursuit of immaterial wealth, the fruit of the Spirit and a renunciation of material wealth (Matt 16:24-28). Hence, most of these people do not find God or the salvation of God.
You will ask the obvious question, why does God give material wealth to those who do not pursue it? Because, when the pursuit of the material is not the motivating factor in my life, I can use the material for the purposes of God’s kingdom. It becomes useful for God.
But the pursuit of the material makes me a curse. This can be applied to many areas of our life. For instance, am I seeking knowledge (the immaterial) or acquiring a good rank in class (the material). What are you pursuing in your life – the material or immaterial?
You cannot pursue both according to Jesus. Matt 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon”.