One of the more popular movies of the 1990s was Home Alone, which if you haven’t seen it, is about a young boy who foils the plans of robbers by setting a series of traps all around his house. The popularity of this movie led many young boys to attempt to recreate the traps, which did not make parents too happy. No one likes to step on broken glass or have something fall on their head when they open a door. The interesting thing about snares and traps is that no one thinks they will be the one who gets caught in one. There is always an element of surprise, which leads us to today’s passage. 

The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to Timothy, a young pastor and leader in the early church. Much of the letter was written as a warning to Timothy about things to watch out for. This particular passage was a warning about the desires of people who pursue wealth above all else. Paul describes how an incorrect view of money can end up having the effect of causing people to wander away from the church, greatly harming the health of the local church. There are a few key insights within this passage that are important for us to grasp today. The first is to understand what the word “want” means in this passage in the phrase; those who want to get rich. This word has a much bigger meaning than the surface reading. What it really means is to have a deep desire or be driven to intense planning and scheming. To want something so bad that you’re willing to scheme and cheat to get it. Those who have a deep heart desire to be rich will fall into many traps and temptations because of it.

A great series of questions to ask off of this clarification is this: What do you really want? What is your deep desire? Do you want to get rich? Is what drives and motivates you to simply acquire more? What is your end goal? What are you working towards in life? Does everything you do revolve around retirement, savings, possessions, or entertainment, or are your decisions based on a more eternal criteria? How you answer those questions will greatly affect what you value and are willing to invest your time, energy, talents, and financial resources into. The desires of your heart will lead your steps, and if you’re not careful, those desires will lead you into a trap of your own making. Here’s another great question; Do you dream of being rich or do you dream of being generous? There is a big difference between working to get rich in order to further help others versus working to get rich just to help yourself. It’s a question of where the blessing ultimately ends up. We all have a lens that we see money through and that lens affects every area of our life. Money is either an end result in itself or a means to an end of helping others. There is nothing wrong with wanting to work hard and earn more, but the real question is why? What is the end goal? Am I focusing more on temporary and physical motivations when I should invest more in eternal things which never fade away?

It’s so important to see money in the correct way. Money in and of itself isn’t a bad or good thing. Money is completely neutral. It’s a tool much like a brick is a tool. It can be used to build an orphanage or it can be used to cause violence. It’s all in how that tool is viewed and used. The passage above even lets us know that money isn’t evil and it isn’t the root of all evil (as many people incorrectly claim). The passage lets us know that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. A tool cannot be evil; only our hearts can be evil. People can and will do evil and horrible things in order to get money, and it is these motivations that lead people into traps and snares. 

The last revealing question we can ask ourselves is this: “Have I wandered?” In verse 10, Paul states that, "Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Is this verse describing you? Have you wandered from the faith because of the pursuit of worldly wealth? Is your skewed view of money affecting or preventing a healthy walk with God?  Many have wandered away from spiritual wealth in pursuit of worldly wealth. They chased careers, profits, status, possessions, and many years later, have become spiritually poor, in ruins, and pierced with many griefs. There is grief in realizing the money you have chased hasn’t filled what is missing in your heart. There is grief in knowing your family suffered as you pursued something which won’t last. There is grief in stress, anxiousness, discontentment, comparison, envy, jealousy, and much more that go hand in hand with living a life with the wrong view of money.

Let’s be people who leave a legacy of avoiding the traps of money and seeing money how God sees it!