Listening to God’s Every Word

All evil has a source. The ultimate and first source was Satan and the demon’s rebellion against God. Scripture then breaks down sin saying it comes from three areas, “the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life” (I John 2:16). You can read more about that in our article, “Root Sins: Part I Identifying Root Sins”. But then there are other areas sin and evil come from. One such area deals with money.

Some people believe money is the root of all evil. Some of them would even try to point to Scripture saying that this is what God says. But is that what Scripture really says?

First of all, when talking about money being the root of all evil in I Timothy 6:10, we need to realize that Scripture doesn’t say money is evil, but “the love of money” is the problem. It’s craving what God has not given you or blessed you with. These are two very different concepts. 

We need to make sure that we take the time to look at every word of a verse or passage

If we think money is evil, we won’t try to earn it, save it, or build it up for the next generation. If money itself is the root of evil, we will try to avoid it. But Scripture says otherwise. 

Proverbs 6:6 says we should look to ants to see how they save for hard times. Proverbs 3:9 says that we are to “honor the Lord with your wealth.” It’s hard to honor Him with wealth, if we don’t have any. Proverbs 13:22 says it is good to leave an inheritance even to multiple generations. Money isn’t evil, loving money is the problem.

Second, loving money isn’t the root of every evil. It’s the root of a lot of kinds of evil, or as the passage says, “all kinds of evil.” If we don’t read every word, we will miss this. There are many kinds of evil that have nothing to do with money.

Why I bring this up is because we easily misinterpret Scripture. One of the reasons is that we don’t listen to God’s every word. When we are studying Scripture, we need to make sure that we take the time to look at every word of a verse or passage. Often we can skim read it, or see a social media post which paraphrases a verse, and it can change the meaning of a verse. We need to make sure we hear God’s every Word.

Think About It

When you study Scripture, do you make sure you are hearing God’s every Word?

Are you taking time to make sure you are hearing what He meant to say?

God was very specific in what He said to us, and we need to make sure that we follow His way to represent Him correctly.

Thanks for taking time to read this Maddening Theology post. If you enjoyed this content you can find Pastor Tim’s sermons at www.cornerstoneforestcity.org. You can also join us at 520 Marion St. Browndale, PA 18421 on Sundays at 10 AM. To make following the blog easier you can also register. You can also join us on Facebook at Cornerstone Forest City. Also, don’t forget to download our APP on iTunes  or Googleplay.