Let's get back to what God's Word has to say about this whole topic:
"For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows." --- 1 Timothy 6:10
This is one of the most misquoted--and misunderstood--verses in the Bible.
It's misquoted because I've heard many people--both saved and unsaved people--tell me that it's MONEY that's the "root of all evil," but that's not what 1 Tim. 6:10 says.
That verse tells us that it's the love of money, not money per se. There's a big difference between having money and loving money.
Bible figures such as Abraham, Job, and Barnabas were quite wealthy men; IOW, they had money, but nowhere in the Bible do I read that they loved it. To the contrary they all seemed to be quite generous with their money.
So, it's not money itself that the Bible condemns, but it is "the love of it that the Bible condemns.
The other week our SS class covered Acts 4:31 - 5:11, in which the local church at Jerusalem (The "mother local church of all local churches") first death with how to finance the challenges and needs of this ever-increasing "mega-church" whose members were facing the confiscation of their property and goods by the local religious and political powers that be because they just wouldn't stop telling everybody they encountered about God's salvation through His resurrected Son, Jesus Christ--the one that these religious and political tyrants had just got through crucifying just a couple months ago.
[OBSERVATION: If I were to be hauled before the Supreme Court to answer the charge of telling every person how to be saved, would there be enough evidence on my part to convict me of this "crime"?]
Knowing that the members of the local church at Jerusalem were about to be faced with having everything they owned but the clothes on their backs, they did the only reasonable thing they could do--sell all their lands and worldly possessions, and do the best they could to survive their soon-coming persecution, which, BTW, seemed to be headed up by the Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus.
Since this "mega-church" we call the local church at Jerusalem had within its 5,000+ membership roles many poor people who, even after selling all their worldly goods, still had very little on which to survive this persecution, didn't want to see a large percentage of her membership living under the dire possibility of near starvation, they called upon her members to create a "love offering fund" from which the church's leadership would see to it that her brothers and sisters in Christ wouldn't starve to death.
It's here where we first read of not only wealthy members being very generous in their voluntary love offerings to this fund, but also of a married couple who were so beholden with the love of money that they lied about their giving.
The cast of characters was the wealthy Barnabas who was led by the HS to donate the proceeds of his selling his property to do probably more than fund his per cent of the relief fund.
Then, on the other side were Ananias & Sapphira. They too sold a possession that they had, but, unlike Barnabas, they were so filled with "The love of money" that they had conspired among themselves to secretly keep back some of the proceeds of the sale of their possession but lied about this evil deed.
Finally, we have Peter, who along with John, seemed to have been something like Moses and Aaron in Exodus--they were both leaders in defying the Satan-inspired opposition against the plans of the HS.
Peter, who at least in this incident, was God the Holy Spirit's spokesman to the audience when Ananias, followed later on with his wife and co-conspirator Sapphira, saw through their hypocrisy and, in Acts 5:5 we see what happened to this hypocrite, and in Acts 5:7-10, what happened to his wife.
That's a classic example of how God views one's "Love of Money ."
Kinda makes me glad that I wasn't a member of that local "mega-church" at Jerusalem when it comes to my often-times giving a "love offering." :tear::tear:
