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Common Theme. Death is the end of our life. But in our life we are called to walk righteously before God. Death is also the beginning of life. For we have already died and have been raised to life. We should not walk in death but in accordance with the life God has given us.
Hebraic Context. “Money is the root of all evil.” This sounds biblical. After all, wealth and corruption are often seen together. Both the Torah and the Prophets speak against the evil of the wealthy exploiting the poor. Deuteronomy 24:10-13 commands Israelites to return a poor person’s cloak taken as collateral before nightfall so they can sleep in warmth. Verses 14-15 go on to command employers to pay their workers—especially the poor and needy, whether Israelites or sojourners—on the day they work and not to withhold their wages.
An ostracon from the 7th century BC (around the time of King Josiah) found near Yavneh-Yam, contains a complaint from a worker whose employer, Hoshayahu, would not return his garment after a full day of work. This ostracon preserves a formal petition to a local commander, showing that the Torah’s commands in Deuteronomy 24:10-13 were not merely theoretical—they addressed real abuse:
“May my lord, the commander, hear the word of his servant: Your servant harvested… gathered and stored before Shabbat… then came Hoshayahu, the son of Shovai and took the garment of your servant when I completed my harvest. As always, he took the garment of your servant and all my brothers will answer for me, those who harvested with me in the heat of the sun—my brothers will testify for me. Amen. I am innocent from any guilt and now, let him return my garment! I call out to the commander to return the garment of your servant and grant him mercy. Now return the garment of your servant and do not send him away.”
The prophet Amos likewise condemns the actions of the wealthy elite, declaring, “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountains of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy.” He continues by declaring the judgment of God will come upon them.
Yet we must not misquote Scripture in saying “money is the root of all evil.” Paul writes in I Timothy 6:10: “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”; wealth itself is never considered to be evil in the Bible.
Many righteous people are described as wealthy in Scripture: Job, Abraham, Boaz, the Shunammite woman, various kings of Judah, as well as Joseph of Arimathea, Lydia, Joanna, Mary, and Martha. Wealth was often seen as a blessing from God. When first listening to Jesus’ parable about a barn full of grain, our first assumption should be that the man is being blessed by God, as stated in Proverbs 3:9-10, “honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.”
That Jesus continued by referencing Ecclesiastes instead and stating that the man should be rich toward God but was foolish should be surprising. Except, Jesus was specifically speaking against greed, not wealth.
Greed is a sin. Both bribery and greed disqualify a man from serving as a judge, elder, or deacon. James warns against favoritism towards the wealthy, going so far as to say “are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?” Yet Exodus 23:3 warns against the opposite error: “Do not show partiality to a poor man in his lawsuit.” We must be just—neither flattering the rich nor romanticizing the poor.
Biblically, wealth can be a blessing, but it can also become a tool for exploitation. The poor can be just as greedy as the rich. We can only serve one master, and if we crave wealth we will eventually wander away from the faith. If God is gracious to us—whether by sending the rain in its season for our daily bread or, in his generosity, by granting even greater abundance—we are to be thankful to God, knowing all things come from Him and not from our own working hands.
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