1745) When I was young, I got into a fight or two with my siblings. I remember one in particular with my older brother. I don’t remember what we were fighting about but I hit him in the back as hard as I could. This ticked my brother off and I ran down the hall and into my room. I shut and locked the door and my brother sat outside my door threatening me in a clever way. He would write his threats on a piece of paper and jam it under the door. I don’t remember how this event turned out but I’m sure it wasn’t good.

Like children fighting each other, there are threats to our spiritual lives too. 1 Timothy 6:10 tells us of a specific threat and that is the love of money. (A verse that is often misquoted. The verse does not say money is the root of all evil; it’s the love of money.)

Why would the love of money threaten faith? I think it’s because it seems to cause a genuine threat to good priorities. When someone is controlled by what they can buy (or what they can’t), it can shift priorities away from the good and toward something that won’t satisfy.

You don’t have to be someone who is always scheming to come out on top financially, but the things money can supposedly buy can threaten the values God gives us in his word. You can buy into and even become addicted to the feelings that are attached to having an abundance of money. This is where a threat to our faith can hide.

Though money itself is not evil, we must guard against the subtle threat it can bring against us if we’re not guarding our faith.