pierced

As a born-and-raised Calvinist, I learned to mistrust wealth even while, as a Dutchman, I wanted it. Money, I learned early, is the root of all evil. The only thing worse, as far as I could discern from my mom and grandma, was dirt.

Turns out, I must not have listened well. The only thing wrong with money is that it helps Satan to tempt us. Here’s how Paul explains it, in 1 Timothy 6:9-10: “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 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.”

If I get Paul right, the problem with money is it takes a godly person to handle it. If you don’t have your eyes fixed firmly on Jesus and your purposes slaved to his, money can be a poison that erodes your soul. It isn’t the root of all evil, but it is a root, meaning it contributes along with other factors. People who chase after money are easily tempted, and that lust for wealth can actually lead people to their ruin.

But, Paul says, that’s only some people. It’s the ones chasing money for its own sake. There are others, this implies, who have worked their lives amassing wealth without being led astray. The difference, it seems, is whether your goal is to get rich, or to best use the gifts God has given you. After all, there have to be some money-earners in the church or it would be a struggle to fund ministry.

As with so many things, this seems to be an example of God’s blessing being turned by Satan into a curse. Don’t blame God for creating the potential for wealth in this world; Paul is clear that when money leads us to sin we’ve pierced ourselves. It’s literally a self-inflicted wound.

Good, committed Christians, it turns out, might be the only people on earth who can handle money.