1 Timothy 6:10 Commentary and Bible Study

‘For the love of money is the root of all evil’ It is not the only root. The New Testament tells us about others. In the letter to the Hebrews we are told that bitterness is a root of evil, and it doesn't imply it is the only root. You could strengthen it in this way: you could say that the love of money is the root of all the evils. There are other roots of evil too, but the love of money is a is the root of all possible evils. That's more the sense of what the apostle is saying. You can see this in the Scripture. You think of the parable of the Lord Jesus Christ about the Rich Man and Lazarus. You can't help noticing in that parable, because the rich man was rich, he was also selfish and unfeeling and utterly lacking in compassion. He would allow another man to beg daily at his door with his body full of sores. There a picture of how the lust after plenty can be the father of a host of other sins. Then too with Judas. The love of money made him utterly disloyal. We know he was an unregenerate man, but he got so close to the Lord and to the apostolic band, and yet he was blind to the meaning of the miracles. Ananias and Sapphira would commit blasphemy and would lie and lie against the Holy Spirit and try and fool the people of God in their stewardship matters, because of their love of things. This is the nature of this temptation. You start nurturing a love of fame and fortune and applause, and you will soon be lying to defend these things. This sin gets hold of you and it leads to many other sins. ‘Which while some coveted after,’ stretched for, were eager for, ‘they have erred from the faith,’ stopped exercising faith, no longer satisfied with spiritual things, ‘and pierced themselves through’, illustrative of great pain, much loss and heartache, ‘with many sorrows’, or pangs in the Greek. They pierced themselves through with many pangs and sorrows of emptiness, spiritual emptiness, and worthlessness comes in, pangs of conscience, pangs of unease, letdowns, bitterness and the chastisements of the Lord. This is a solemn message, but it's given in kindness by the apostle Paul.