After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. 1 Timothy 6:7-10
“The love of money is the beginning of all difficulties. And so, since we know that we brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out of it, we should arm ourselves with the weapons of righteousness and teach one another, first of all, to walk in the commandment of the Lord.
Then we should teach our wives to walk in the faith given them and in love and purity; to be affectionate toward their own husbands in all truth; to love everyone equally, with all self-restraint; and to discipline their children in the reverential fear of God.
We should teach the widows to be self-controlled with respect to faith in the Lord, to pray without ceasing for everyone, and to be distant from all libel, slander, false witness, love of money, and all evil, knowing they are God’s altar and that each offering is inspected for a blemish, and that nothing escapes His notice, whether thoughts, ideas, or any of the things hidden in the heart.”
Ignatius of Antioch (c. 50-c. 110) in his Letter to the Philadelphians 3:1-3.
Scholars estimate that the Apostle Paul wrote 1 Timothy around A.D. 64-65. Notice that Ignatius echoes the words of Paul in his letter to the church in Philadelphia around A.D. 108.
This provides evidence that the early followers of Christ shared copies of the correspondence of His apostles with each other and inspired each other to walk in the commandment of the Lord.
They did not all have Bibles in their homes and on their phones, so it seems that the Bishops of prominent cities may have had copies of the first epistles to relay the teaching to the people.
Remember the 27 books that we refer to as the New Testament were not canonized as such until the Councils of Hippo (A.D. 393) and Carthage (A.D. 397) in North Africa.
But going back to today’s post, it leads each of us to ask multiple layers of questions of ourselves.
Is my life free of the love of money, which is the beginning of all difficulties? Am I walking according to my culture (which serves money) or according to the commandment of the Lord?
And for wives and widows, does your life match the exhortations of Ignatius which echo other New Testament texts? Notice that widows can be tempted by the love of money.
If you are a widow, don’t put your trust in holding on to money. Be like the widow in Mark 12:41-44. Give God everything, all you have to live on. You will thank me someday as “nothing escapes His notice.”
Part of the reason we give generously is that it shows where are trust is. The other part is that we cannot take the resources we have with us when we die. We leave the world like we came, with nothing. So, make your own hands your executors.
Live on a mina (3 months income). Store up the rest in heaven. If you hold treasure here your heart will follow. This leads to all kinds of trouble. Don’t heap difficulties on yourself.
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