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Many of us have grown up with certain myths about money.  Indeed whenever I speak to people and ask them about these myths one of the most common ones that people carry around with is “Money is the root of all evil”. For many of us we heard this from our social upbringing – parents, relatives, teachers and sometimes even the pulpit. This phrase as far as I know was taken from the Bible and is often misquoted as “Money is the root of all evil”.  Can you see the dilemma in this?  On one hand we want to make money but on the other hand we actually believe it is the root of all evil. When you do inherently believe money is the root of all evil, as much as you want to do things to make money, you may subconsciously shy away from opportunities to do so, or you may want to get rid of money as fast as possible so you find yourself spending it.  You may also only notice where people have made money in the wrong which would justify your believe.  Imagine having one thousand shillings in your hand.  Looking at it and thinking it is evil. You will want to get rid of it.  But can that piece of paper in your hand really be evil?  As a piece of paper it wields no power other than what you give it. In fact the actual phrase in the Bible is “The love of money is the root of all evil”. I don’t agree with the misquoted version of the saying. However I definitely do see the sense in the love of money being the root of all evil and here are a few examples of how this manifests itself.

 

We are now living in a society that does love money, loves having money and glorifies those with money.  For many people they have made money the priority and that is where the problem comes in.  I have said this before and I will say it again.  Money is a tool or resource for your life; it is not your life. It can be evil when you make it your life (hence love it). When you make it the objective of your existence.  We do this by prioritising making money first and everything second. Imagine a household where the parents are always at work or doing something or the other in search of money.  Time together as a couple is compromised, time with family is compromised and many times even their own health.  They are deluded into thinking that if the reach a certain status, or certain level of finances they will spend time on these other things.  They don’t realise that money is a moving target, it will never be enough.  If you make a million, you want five.  If you make ten million, you want twenty. If they get addicted to the attention that money brings, you always need to make more or buy something bigger to retain the attention. The child who grows up in that family, lets call him Sam, will be resentful because of all the time the parents spend with the other child called money.  If his relative happens to whisper, “Money is the root of all evil” Sam will obviously believe it because he feels neglected. But it was never the money or even the process of making money.  It was his parents that chose to value money above him. Our pursuit of wealth has to be grounded deeper in something more than just making money.  What is important to you and why you are making this money are questions that have to be answered. Many people say they want their families to have a better life.  It doesn’t matter how materially successful the parents turn out to be, the fact is absence of quality time with his parents has not made Sam’s life better but worse.  The pursuit has actually taken them further from their goal. Then they will wonder why more and more money is not giving them fulfillment and flashy toys making Sam a happier child. When you understand what you truly value then even how you make money will not compromise that. You will make and use the money as tool to get where you want not further from where you want.

 

Danger of love of money is also shown when we begin to adore destination rather than process.  We speak of wealthy people and want to know what they have now as opposed to what they went through.  The real gem in making money is the process not the destination or millions in the bank account. Wealth creation is not the range rover or luxury villa, it is a process of character building.  Let’s take Sam.  His parents have the flashiest things.  Sam will grow up thinking these things were more important than him. After all they spent all their time getting them.  All Sam’s parents showed him was the result but possibly never took him through the process of understanding how they accumulated these things. So Sam, like his parents, grows up adoring the material things not the process.  Sam is likely to do anything to get these material things.  After all, his parents taught him to value these things over everything else.  It is not going to be a surprise if Sam steals to get and maintain these things. Process of hard work, commitment bla bla bla is just not what Sam was taught.  In fact he knows his parents will be pleased by him having these things not really how he got them. And inside he is still that small boy yearning for his parent’s attention.  In his thinking he must get these flashy material objects to prove himself worthy and get their validation. The validation that was never instilled in him as a child because they were too busy making money. These are just only a few examples of how the love of money can be dangerous. A phrase by Suze Orman holds very true.  Don’t love money and use people. Use money and love people.

 

8 Comments

  • julius says:

    So long as you add value and have right motives& intentions morally unquestionable make it & keep where possible

  • Alfred Gachanja says:

    True ,don’t work for money instead let it work for you

  • Maureen says:

    Correction, the actual quote from the bible is “The love of money is the root of all evil”.

  • Tyler says:

    Thats a great graphic for this post.
    I’m glad you noted that “The Love of money” and not money itself makes up the subject of the quote. An important distinction that as you rightly identified, is often misquoted. It all comes back to what you attribute worth to. If you attribute too much worth towards the amount in your bank account and value it above friends and family, above strangers, above law and ethics, you are going to act accordingly. If you want, check out a recent post I wrote on the topic as well.
    https://biblecents.com/money-is-the-root-of-all-evil/

  • Abdimalik says:

    I am pleased to come across this valuable articles and I thank people behind this great website.
    spread THE word. (CENTONMY)

  • nicole delcourt says:

    Thank you for this article.
    As you say the key is balance. A balanced life is developing financial, emotional and spiritual areas of our life.
    Any life out of balanced, too much or too little of one of these components can lead to a distressed situation.

  • Brian says:

    I agree with the article. I can’t see an author’s name. Very interesting. My take is, I feel, more direct: Money is only evil if it makes its way into immorality. And that can take many forms. Personal, business corruption, political mischief, etc. It’s also evil to many who are envious of those who have it, which is to say have wealth, assets, power. There will always be an imbalance there and efforts to erase the imbalance have proven catastrophic again and again. And such a large scale financial equality erases upward mobility from the equation, the incentive which drives a robust economy. Money is also part of a system of emerging order among chaos, as Friedrich Hayek explained. It’s a way of getting things done, as Milton Friedman has said. Money doesn’t die in the hands of those who hold it at any specific point in time. And there’s no fixed pie.