Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11 But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. 1 Timothy 6:6-11 NKJV
The love of money – greed; covetousness – is the root of all evil! A covetous person – one who has lustful desire for the property of others and is greedy for gain – is an idolater, and will not inherit the Kingdom of God (Ephesians 5:5). You either serve and worship God – or your worldly possessions (mammon). Covetousness is not compatible with serving God, because it breeds only evil and destruction. A covetous person destroys lives – their own and that of other people.
These are the things that covetousness breeds:
1. Greed and murder:
But [when these men set a trap for others] they are lying in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. 19 So are the ways of everyone who is greedy of gain; such [greed for plunder] takes away the lives of its possessors. Proverbs 1:18-19 AMP
You are jealous and covet [what others have] and your desires go unfulfilled; [so] you become murderers. [To hate is to murder as far as your hearts are concerned.] You burn with envy and anger and are not able to obtain [the gratification, the contentment, and the happiness that you seek], so you fight and war. You do not have, because you do not ask. James 4:2 AMP
2. Rebellion and Poverty:
There are those who [generously] scatter abroad, and yet increase more; there are those who withhold more than is fitting or what is justly due, but it results only in want. Proverbs 11:24 AMP
3. Oppression and violence:
He who oppresses the poor to get gain for himself and he who gives to the rich — both will surely come to want. Proverbs 22:16 AMP
But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness and dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, for oppression and doing violence. Jeremiah 22:17 AMP
Woe to those who devise iniquity and work out evil upon their beds! When the morning is light, they perform and practice it because it is in their power. 2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses and take them away; they oppress and crush a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. Micah 2:1-2 AMP
4. Denial or rejection of God:
Remove far from me falsehood and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9 Lest I be full and deny You and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal, and so profane the name of my God. Proverbs 30:8-9 AMP
5. Injustice:
Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes and runs after compensation and rewards. They judge not for the fatherless nor defend them, neither does the cause of the widow come to them [for they delay or turn a deaf ear]. Isaiah 1:23 AMP
Both their hands are put forth and are upon what is evil to do it diligently; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters his evil desire. Thus they twist between them [the course of justice]. Micah 7:3 AMP
6. Backsliding:
Its heads judge for reward and a bribe and its priests teach for hire and its prophets divine for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? No evil can come upon us. Micah 3:11 AMP
7. Deceitfulness and deceptions:
As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the Word, but the cares of the world and the pleasure and delight and glamour and deceitfulness of riches choke and suffocate the Word, and it yields no fruit. Matthew 13:22 AMP
8. Defilement:
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” Mark 7:21-23 NKJV
9. Temptations and lusts:
But those who crave to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish (useless, godless) and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction and miserable perishing. 1 Timothy 6:9 AMP
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:15-17 NKJV
10. A short life and a fool’s end:
Like the partridge that gathers a brood which she did not hatch and sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches by unjust means and not by right. He will leave them, or they will leave him, in the midst of his days, and at his end he will be a fool. Jeremiah 17:11 AMP
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”‘ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ 21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16-21 NKJV
