Hey, so, as most of you know, I wrote a book. This is one of the chapters from my book. At the end, you have the option of watching the episode from the video series covering the book. This will be the Wednesday Word for the day.

When we look at money, we think that it’s the only way to function in this world. And yes, we need money to pay for the bills, food, a place to live in and other things. Because of the importance of money, we can end up looking at money as our life line. We start to idolize money. We start thinking money can buy peace and happiness and ultimate success.

That’s just not true.

One of the famous miss-quotes of the Bible is “Money is the root of all evil” Before I explain what the actual saying is; let’s go over how this is wrong. For one thing, God wants us to prosper here on earth, even though our time here is short. While God doesn’t need money, He understands how the world works and is able to supply His children with the resources to survive. And since money is a big necessity, he gives us what we need.

There is no reason why you would have to believe that money is the root of all evil when God himself encourages us to get it.

So then what’s the correct saying?

“The love of money is the root of evil” Oh. So then that’s a whole different thing. So why would the love of money be the root of all evil? Well, remember we have a dependency on money to survive on earth. And God clearly doesn’t want any other gods before Him. So that’s one reason why loving money is evil.
Another reason is that the love of money brings out greed and jealousy. And we all know about what envy does to us. So many scams in the big corporate world are surrounded by money. But, we are not supposed to steal, remember? Loving money can bring out the violent side in us.

How many people have died from the greed and desire of money? Take a look at the Iraq war. I think we can all agree that sure they were after whoever was behind the 9/11 attacks. Many speculate a desire for getting oil from the Middle East too. I happen to believe this as well. So the love of money already has us killing, stealing, lying and not focusing on God.

So what do we do about this? How can we tell where our love is going to? If we put our faith in money, we will not survive. It’s foolish. I would come out with a corny little joke saying that even money says, “In God We Trust” but then it wouldn’t be funny because people are trying to get rid of that anyway. I’m not going into that though. We are on the point of loving money. You know you love money when you don’t think you’re going to make it without it.

When you get the bills in the mail, and you know you don’t have the money, your reaction will come in two ways. 1) you will call on God, asking Him to give you the money to pay for your bills. This shows your faith is in God, not money. Or, 2) you now don’t think you will make it because not only have you been focused on each pay check that came in, but your life centered on the fact that money got you from point A to point B. You thought money got you food on the table and clothes on your back. When we start thinking like that, our faith and hope and really who we are, rests on money. And that’s not a good thing at all.

Tithing is very important. God wants us to do it so that should technically be enough but not everybody does it. One way I like to look at it is this: The Kingdom of Heaven is a bank. By the way, I’m not using this example just because I’m an accounting student. I just happen to see things more clearly this way. Let’s call this bank BofH for Bank of Heaven (like Bank of America). Ok, so when you put in a deposit into your savings, the general reasoning is that it collects interest and when you go back in to get money, there’s more in there than what you put in.

And that’s how the BofH works. You put money in the kingdom and the best part is: 1) The bank will never collapse or go broke. You won’t lose your money. 2) The returns are great. BofH has more than enough to give you in returns.

I’ll tell you I have put in my tithes knowing that I would have nothing left. I’ll tell you this too; as a college student, expenses can sure suck your wallet dry. But every single time I am in a pinch and need some cash, here comes God giving me what I need. I’m telling you right now to put your faith in God and His bank. Make sure you are cheerful about it. God doesn’t want you to give if you’re kicking and screaming the whole way through like a kid in a dentist office. Actually, most of my dentists when I was a kid were not bad.
Anyway, putting your money in the BofH is the smartest thing to do with your money.

God does want you to give only what you can. He completely understands if you just can’t do it. I’m no judge so I’m not going to give out examples of why you would be excused from giving. That’s between you and God. Just make sure you don’t lie about your financial state. It could be deadly.

One of the things I did in my book is add biblical references for some of my statements. So, look at these verses to see where I’m coming from:

One of the famous miss-quote of the Bible is “Money is the root of all evil”—1Timothy 6:10

But, we are not supposed to steal, remember?—Deuteronomy 5:19

Tithing is very important. God wants us to do it so that should technically be enough but not everybody does it.—Deuteronomy 14:22-23

Just make sure you don’t lie about your financial state. It could be deadly.—Acts 5 1-11

If you liked this post, maybe you’ll like me talking about it even more. Check out the episode of my video series Breaking Down the Book. And of course check out my page “My Book” (sub-page of Who’s Dante) if you’re interested in reading more. Thanks for reading and let me know if you’ve got any comments.

-DALANEL