Paul never said money is evil. He said the love of it is a root of every kind of evil, and he said it inside a paragraph that also tells rich people what to do with what they have.
The saying money is the root of all evil is a misquote. 1 Timothy 6:10 says the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Money is a tool, and Scripture never calls it evil. What Paul warns against is craving it and trusting it, and in the same chapter he tells wealthy believers to be rich in good deeds rather than telling them to get rid of everything.
That small word, love, changes the whole verse. It moves the problem from your bank balance to your heart, which is exactly where Jesus always put it.
Most people have heard the short version so often that they assume it is a Bible verse. It is half of one, with the most important word removed.
Money is the root of all evil. Money itself is the problem, so the less of it you have, the holier you are.
“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.
Love of money, greed, avarice. It is built from the words for love and silver, and this verse is the only place the noun appears in the New Testament.
The adjective, lover of money, describes the Pharisees in Luke 16:14. Hebrews 13:5 uses the negative form: keep your lives free from the love of money.
Rhiza. In the Greek it has no article, and it comes first in the sentence for emphasis. That is why many translations say a root.
Panton ton kakon, literally of all the evils. Translators read it as all kinds of evil, because Paul is not claiming every sin on earth starts with greed.
You will hear preachers make a big deal of “a root” versus “the root.” Be careful with that. The missing article makes “a root” a fair translation, and the King James rendering “the root of all evil” is also defensible Greek. The case does not rest there. It rests on the word love, and nobody disputes that one.
Verse 10 sits in the middle of a letter to Timothy, who was leading the church in Ephesus, a wealthy trading city. Paul is not writing a theory of economics. He is dealing with real teachers who treated faith as a way to make money.
The problem that starts it all: people “who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.” Paul is confronting religious profiteers.
“But godliness with contentment is great gain.” We brought nothing into the world and take nothing out. Food and clothing are enough.
“Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap.” The danger is named as wanting, the appetite, not the account.
The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and some have wandered from the faith chasing it.
Paul does not tell wealthy believers to become poor. He tells them where to put their hope and what to do with their money.
“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”
1 Timothy 6:17 to 18Read verses 10 and 17 together and the picture is clear. There were rich people in that church, and Paul did not kick them out or shame them. He told them not to trust their money and to use it well. He even says God gives us things for our enjoyment. That is not someone who thinks money is dirty.
Verse 19 says generosity lets them “take hold of the life that is truly life.” That life is not something to wait for. It is the life of the Kingdom, available right now, and greed is one of the fastest ways to miss it. I unpack the line Eat, drink and be merry in its own study.
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Manage My Giving"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."2 Corinthians 9:7
The idea that greed sits underneath a lot of wrongdoing was not new with Paul. Greek moral teachers said something very close. Diogenes Laertius, collecting sayings of the philosopher Diogenes, records that “The love of money he declared to be mother-city of all evils.”
So Timothy's readers would likely have recognized the line. Paul takes a piece of common wisdom and puts it to work inside the gospel. What makes his version different is what comes next: the answer is not simply self-control. It is hope placed in God and a life turned outward toward other people. I unpack the line I will never leave you nor forsake you in its own study.
“You cannot serve both God and money.” Jesus treats money as a rival master. It wants your trust, and it will take it if you let it.
“Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Jesus says this right before the rich fool builds bigger barns.
Free from the love of money and content, “because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” Contentment rests on His presence, not on a balance.
The Pharisees, who loved money, sneered at Jesus. The love of money shows up in very religious people too.
Every one of these passages aims at the heart's attachment, never at the coins. Scripture treats greed as a question of trust: who or what you are counting on.
This verse gets bent in two opposite directions, and both hurt people.
If money is evil, then the poor are automatically holier and anyone who earns well is suspect. It sounds humble. It makes people ashamed of honest work, suspicious of anyone with a good job, and strangely comfortable leaving the poor where they are.
This is the prosperity gospel, and it is the exact thing Paul was fighting in verse 5. It teaches that giving is a seed that guarantees a bigger harvest, and that lack means weak faith. It is preached hardest to people who can least afford it.
Contentment, trust in God, and generosity. Enough to live on is a gift, extra is a responsibility, and hope belongs to God alone.
At Sound of Heaven we believe money is not evil and poverty is not holy. God does not ask His people to take a vow of poverty, and He does not promise wealth as a reward for faith or giving. Both of those teachings are wrong.
The strongest case for the poverty view is real. Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything, and the first believers in Acts shared their possessions. But Jesus named that man's specific idol rather than issuing a rule for everyone, and Zacchaeus gave half and was told salvation had come to his house.
The prosperity view has verses too, like God blessing those who give. Generosity is good and God does provide. But Paul says people who use godliness for gain have been robbed of the truth. We will not tell anyone their breakthrough is waiting on a check.
What Scripture condemns is the love of money: trusting it, craving it, and letting it decide who you are. That can happen to a rich person and a broke one equally.
In 1 Timothy 6:17 to 19, what does Paul tell rich believers to do?
Paul tells them not to be arrogant, not to trust wealth because it is uncertain, and to be generous and willing to share. He neither orders them into poverty nor promises them more money.
Nobody thinks they love money. That is part of what makes it dangerous. Paul says some people “wandered from the faith” chasing it, which means it happened slowly, one reasonable step at a time. A few honest questions help.
If a bigger balance is the only thing that lets you sleep, money is doing a job Paul says belongs to God.
Generosity with no angle attached is the clearest sign money is serving you rather than ruling you.
Cutting corners, skipping people, or shading the truth for gain are the evils Paul says grow from this root.
Verse 8 sets a very low bar for contentment. Wanting more is not wrong, but never being able to stop is a warning sign.
Here on Long Island, where a lot of families work two jobs to keep up with the cost of living, it matters to say this clearly. Working hard to provide for your family is not greed. Paul himself told believers to provide for their households. The question is what you trust, not how hard you work.
Maybe you are reading this with bills you cannot cover. This verse is not aimed at you as an accusation. Worrying about rent is not the love of money, and being short is not a sign God is disappointed in you.
You do not have to carry it alone. Tell your church, tell a friend you trust, and in most of the United States you can dial 211 to find local help with food, rent and utilities. Asking for help is how the body of Christ was meant to work.
If you want someone to pray with you, reach out through our prayer page. No ask attached.
In the end this verse is about Jesus. Money makes promises it cannot keep: security, worth, control. Jesus actually keeps them. He owned almost nothing, gave everything, and showed us a Father who “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”
When your hope is in Him, money goes back to being what it was always meant to be. A tool. Something to enjoy with gratitude, to provide with, and to give away freely. That is not a smaller life. Paul calls it the life that is truly life, and it is available to you today.
For more on this, read godliness with contentment is great gain, does God want me poor, the rich young ruler, storing up treasures in heaven, tithes and offerings, stewardship in the Bible, Lazarus and the rich man and what we believe.
Paul said the love of money, not money, is a root of all kinds of evil, and his cure is contentment, hope in God and a generous hand, never a poverty vow and never a prosperity promise.
Whether it is worry about bills or a pull you cannot shake, tell us what is going on and someone at Sound of Heaven will pray with you.
No. That popular saying drops the key word. 1 Timothy 6:10 says the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and some people chasing it have wandered from the faith. Money itself is never called evil. Paul's warning is about craving money and trusting it. In the same chapter he tells wealthy believers not to put their hope in wealth, but to put it in God and to be rich in good deeds, generous and willing to share.
In the NIV it reads: 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. The King James Version has the love of money is the root of all evil. Both translations keep the word love. The Greek word is philargyria, love of money or greed, and this verse is the only place that noun appears in the New Testament.
No. Scripture never treats having money as sin. In 1 Timothy 6:17 to 19, Paul addresses believers who are rich and does not tell them to become poor. He tells them not to be arrogant, not to trust uncertain wealth, and to be generous and rich in good deeds. Jesus did warn that wealth makes trusting God harder, and He asked some people to let go of it. The sin is loving money and trusting it, not owning it.
It rarely looks like a cartoon miser. It looks like finding your security, worth or peace in what you have. It shows up as never being able to say enough, as being unable to give without expecting something back, and as bending your honesty or your relationships for gain. Paul says people drift into it slowly. It can affect someone with a lot of money and someone with very little, because it is about trust, not income.
God does not promise wealth as a reward for faith or giving, and He does not ask His people to take a vow of poverty. Paul's picture in 1 Timothy 6 is contentment with enough, hope in God rather than riches, and generosity with whatever you have. Some believers will have more and some less. What God wants is your trust and a generous heart, and Proverbs 30:8 even asks for neither poverty nor riches.