1 Timothy 6:9 — 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.
Why is wealth for possessions a bad thing?
First you must understand what the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are:
- The lust of the flesh — food, drink, sex, anything that stimulates the body.
- The lust of the eyes — possessions.
- The pride of life — thinking you’re better than others for the things or qualities you possess.
Why are these things bad? Seeking after these things produces all sorts of:
- Selfishness
- These things only benefit oneself – not others, all at the expense of others’ time, effort and money – and even more time and effort to acquire that money.
- The money spent to acquire such useless possessions could go to help someone who has no possessions – no shelter, food/water, clothing, healthcare, transportation.
- Greed
- The flesh is never satisfied – it just wants more and more, endlessly, all at the expense of others – whether it’s the acquirer or the manufacturer.
- Envy
- It makes you envious and jealous of others who possess better things than you, and these feelings are painful.
- Then you decide to possess these things yourself, so you work harder, faster, longer to make enough money to acquire such possessions, which overwhelms you, frustrates, brings stress, anxiety, depression, which are painful feelings.
- Anger and depression
- When you can’t acquire such possessions, you feel angry or sad, which are painful feelings.
- Pride
- Acquiring such things inherently makes you think you’re better than others who don’t possess such things.
Second, you must understand that the lusts of the flesh and eyes don’t bring you as a spirit any joy or peace. The spirit just simply doesn’t care for these things. The spirit’s peace and joy is companionship and loving and righteous fellowship, goodness, patience, self-control, gentleness, kindness, love, faithfulness – not physical possessions.
Examples:
- Your neighbor gets a beautiful new kitchen. You want one yourself (envy). You work harder to earn more money (stress). You finally remodel your kitchen, but don’t have the budget to get everything you want (anger, depression). You start feeling sorry for the poor people in poor countries that don’t have nice kitchens or homes (pride). You find your new kitchen doesn’t bring you any more joy or peace (sadness). You see someone else’s kitchen on TV and become dissatisfied with yours (greed, depression and envy).
- You want a special dinner. You or your partner have to work to earn the money to buy the food (time, effort, stress). Then you have to go shopping for the food (time, effort, stress). Then you have to prepare and make the food (time, effort and stress). Then you eat the food (about five minutes of stimulating the flesh, all while the spirit truly gets nothing from it), then it’s over and your flesh is craving more, but there is no more (greed). Then you have to wash the dishes (time, effort and stress). You like your nice meals and become dissatisfied with anything less, so the process repeats itself, causing others much time, effort, stress and money (selfishness and greed). Then you gain weight and health problems (stress and depression), then you have to do much exercise (stress and sometimes depression).
1 Timothy 6:9 — 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.
Wealth tempts you because you have access to any and all lusts of the flesh and eyes – you can buy anything you want, whenever you want, and it’s easy (oh the temptation). These lusts bring the spirit no joy and peace, and end up leading to all sorts of destructive emotions that make life not worth living such as: selfishness, greediness, envy, anger, depression and pride.
What’s the opposite of desiring to be rich?: Contentment. How do you be content? Knowing the lusts of the flesh and eyes don’t bring the spirit any joy and peace, rather, they bring misery.
What if I am rich? What should I do?
- Learn contentment.
- Learn why money is temptation.
- Learn that your money is actually God’s money entrusted to you to distribute to those with no basic necessities.
- Sell all your flashy and unnecessary possessions and buy non-tempting possessions (sell your BMW and buy an old used car with low miles).
- Use that money God entrusted to you to feed, cloth and shelter the homeless, and to spread the gospel and get people saved.