The Love of Money and Evil
The equation of the love of money and evil is evident throughout the Bible. Jesus’ harshest rebukes are for the wealthy who show no generosity; His one parable involving a specific individual in hell is that of the Rich man and Lazarus (Luke 6:19). There is a direct and very serious caution surrounding, not money as such, but rather the pursuit of it in 1Timothy 6:10: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” (ESV) Finally there is the famous line of Jesus: “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24, ESV) While the implications of this equation may seem obvious, there is a deeper level at which they shine light on the fundamental struggle in humanity.
What is money? Money is something like the abstract representation of material value. Money is the intermediary between provision of medical services, production of eggs, and obtaining a book. All of these goods/services are vastly different and thus difficult to trade one for another, money provides an intermediate abstract value. Thus, I receive money for you buying my book and use that money to purchase eggs and medical services. While deeply complex, a reasonable way to understand how money works is as potential to cause work to happen in the material world. In this frame, work is defined as human attention creating a change in physical reality; for example, to build a table I must place my attention upon pieces of wood in such a way as to move my body and interact through tools to transform it into a table. Another way to say it may be, money is a means of directing the choices of other humans. If I possess a great deal of money, I have a great deal of power to change the world insofar as human beings can do so. We have many shining examples of this currently, Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, etc.
In the account of the foundational problem of humanity, the Fall, we get the Biblical diagnosis for all suffering, disconnection and evil. “But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5, ESV) In the Bible, God is Being itself which calls into existence reality with words, and humans are made “in our image.” (Gen 1:26). Thus, humans have the capability of attempting to play the role of God, to create reality with words. This is, of course, the primary thing we do as humans; intake information, structure it, restructure it and use models to change reality. Now, if we engage in this way of being with an appropriate degree of humility as to the extent of our knowledge, and our capability, we can accomplish astonishingly positive outcomes. However, in the participation with the knowledge of good and evil we have engaged pride and defined ourselves as the primary arbiters of reality. This leads to the attempt of humanity to force reality to fit onto our models by any means we can manage. It inverts the proper relationship (my model ought to correspond with reality and change with it as I discover), into a dictatorial relationship (I KNOW what reality should be and reality must reflect me). Now I have effectively become God, that which calls into existence reality.
The outcome of my being God is all manner of suffering. Suffering is not pain, suffering is the loss of agency in any situation which you would like to change. My power over reality is miniscule, thus if I am trying to force reality to fit onto my model I will mostly be suffering. When I attempt to force others into my model I introduce suffering to their lives, this is evil as such: purposeful imposition of suffering onto others and the world. It is entirely possible to eliminate suffering from one’s experience. You must, simply, let go of all attachment to your notions of how things should be. (It should be noted the “simply” is sarcasm, this is no simple task.) If my orientation toward reality is true humility I will understand my expectations of what ought to be is immeasurably small, thus I will attempt to flow with reality and release attachment. The outcome of this state of being is one in which my engagement with reality will still bring about change, creativity, work. However, my goals will be dynamic and not limited to a momentary frame of value reference. In short, I will no longer be attempting to force reality to fit my model, I will attempt to allow my model to dynamically adapt to reality. This is analogous to the definition for the Christian word Faith.
So how does this idea of evil relate to the love of money? While money itself is never declared evil, the love and pursuit of it is. As money is acquired, one becomes more able to impose their model of reality onto the objective and others around them. Thus, the potential for one’s “god-ness” increases. The possession of wealth does not itself lead to the imposition of one’s will on reality, as many beautifully generous wealthy humans in history have shown. But the potential for imposing one’s model increases. If one is engaged in attempting “god-ness,” they will be enamored by money and will desire it beyond all else as it increases their god-ness. If one is placing their attention in the world solely to acquire more money, they will spare no amount of suffering on creation to get more. The money acquired is in turn used to impose more suffering as they create their own, small, trivial version of reality. Hence we have, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.”
Beware of Virtue. -Watts