1 Timothy 6:6-19
September 28, 2025
Every summer I like to vacation with my family at the beach. I don’t do anything spectacular at the beach. I don’t own a boat. I’m not into wind surfing. I don’t even go fishing. I find the beach very relaxing and almost every summer I sit in a beach chair, enjoying the sunshine and the waves, and I say to myself, “Now this is life.” Maybe you have found yourself saying something like that whenever you are on vacation or during special moments in your life, such as at your wedding day or your child’s graduation, or when you are driving through the mountains and you stop to admire the fall colors. What is it about those moments that move us to say, “Now this is life.” Maybe it’s the relaxation or the feeling that for just a little while everything is all right in your life and in the world, because you have temporarily left behind all of the challenges and difficulties of the world, and the worries of your life, and you are able to truly enjoy the moment. Wouldn’t it be great if we could wake up every morning and say, “Now this is the life.” In a sense we can, we can take hold of that which is truly life, Paul says in our second lesson for today from 1 Timothy 6, namely when we let go of our love for money and hold on to Jesus, our loving Savior, and serve Him.
One of the first things Paul tells us in this text is not to put our hope in money, and that’s hard. Whenever we walk into a store and see something that we would like to have, is to look at the price tag. We want to know how much money that item is going to cost us and if we have enough money to buy it. It is at this point that we learn the power money possesses. Money and the amount of money you have can allow or prevent you from having certain things, doing certain things, and even being certain things. The power that money possesses is not a financial issue, it is a human issue. Therefore, we find Jesus repeatedly addressing the topic of money in
His teachings, because He understood that money is powerful and it competes for the top position of priorities in our hearts.
Money constantly asks, “Who will you love? Who will you serve? Who will you allow to be in control of your thoughts, attitudes, and actions?” Jesus describes this competition in our hearts in the Gospel of Matthew saying, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24). But why would a person ever want to serve money? Well, money makes some pretty bold promises. It tells us that it can make us happy and bring security. Just look at all the people who buy lottery tickets, especially when the jackpot grows to some huge ridiculous amount. Sadly, though, I have read many stories of people who won a huge amount of money in the lottery, who said initially they were very happy, but that happiness did not last, because many people came asking for some of that money and they did not know how to manage that kind of instant wealth, which resulted in them losing the security they thought they had. In other words, the promises money offers are only temporary, they are only good until death. Money cannot promise anything beyond this life.
While that is money’s great weakness, that is also what makes it so appealing. Human nature always loves immediate gratification. When a parent tells a child they cannot a cookie before dinner or they cannot have a phone until they get older, there is no child who says, “Thank you, mom and dad, I am so happy to wait.” Think back to the very first sin when the devil said to Adam and Eve, “The only reason God does not want you to eat from that tree is He knows if you do then you will be just like Him,” meaning right now! And the devil continues to use those same tactics on people today. Why work for something when you can take it from someone who probably doesn’t deserve or appreciate it? Why wait for sex until marriage when you can have it right now? Why work at a difficult marriage when you can discard this one and move onto
someone else who will make you happier? The promises of money fall right in line with that instant gratification mindset. It turns our eyes away from the eternal to focus on the temporary things of this life.
The problem with money is us. Money itself is not the problem; it’s a blessing from God, something God gives us to enjoy. But our love for money and our reliance on it turns it into a problem. So, knowing the power and influence money has on us, as well as our tendency to immediately look at price tags, Jesus encourages us to look at the price tag for eternity – the cost of being with Him in heaven forever.
I’m sure we have all been shocked at the price of different things today. I especially think of houses, how the price of houses have more than doubled over the past few years. Many of us look at those home prices and wonder, “How can anyone afford to buy a house today, especially young adults just getting started with their families and careers?” Well, get ready for some sticker shock, because the Bible tells us, “No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them, the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough” (Psalm 49:7-8). The cost of eternal life is more than any human being could pay. So what does God do? He steps into human history and pays what we could not pay. In Jesus, God becomes one of us and lives the perfect life that was required of us. But then He pays the price for every one of our sins – the greed that has stifled our generosity, the seeking of our ways first instead of God’s, and the exchanging of what God says is important for what we say is important – by giving His life on a cross. And then on Easter morning Jesus closed the deal by rising from the dead to assure us that we now possess something that will last beyond this life – eternal life with Him in heaven.
Just think, heaven is now something that God owes us through faith. Did you ever think about it that way? God owes us an eternal life of joy and happiness in heaven, because of what Jesus did for us, not because of anything we have done. So if this is what Jesus has done for us,
then it only makes sense for us to let go of our love for money and hold on to our loving Savior, for if He gives us heaven, then there is nothing He won’t give to us?
I think that looking at the price tag for eternal life helps us to appreciate the warnings in our second lesson for today of using our money inappropriately, especially when Paul says, “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils” (1 Timothy 6:9-10). God understands how easily money can convince people to give up their eternal “riches of heaven,” into thinking that the temporary things of this world are all that they really need. Their love for money and the things money can buy have caused them to lose their love for Christ and the “riches of heaven” He purchased for them.
Whenever I hear someone say that they don’t come to church, because all the church talks about is money, I realize in some settings that may to be true. But I also wonder, when was the last time that person took a long, hard look at the price Jesus paid for their eternal life in heaven? When we look regularly at the price God was willing to pay for us to be with Him in heaven forever, wouldn’t we also want to be aware of anything that could possibly jeopardize us from receiving that gift? When people complain about the church discussing money, is it possible they do not fully appreciate the price Jesus paid for us to live with Him or do they underestimate the power of sin?
According to our text from 1 Timothy today, we see that money is not really a financial issue. It is a spiritual issue. Our bank and credit card statements are more theological documents than financial statements. What do they say about your love and trust in God? How far have you distanced yourself from the sinful nature’s love for money? No, we don’t need money to survive, we have our loving Savior, who has promised to give us everything we need. So entrust yourself to Him, He will free you from your worries, and serve Him to find out what it really means to live.
