Money and wealth were not condemned or frowned upon by Jesus. The view St. Timothy was trying to impress upon his community of believers echoes what Jesus emphasised all throughout his ministry. The love of money is the root of all evil. The love of money reveals that money has overtaken the person. Money is a thing and not a person. We are called to love people and not the things of this world. Of course, when there is a confusion about the use of this word, it becomes frivolous for it matters not whether that thing can bring you eternal life or not.
When a person has unconditional love that person is willing to give up his or her life for another. We can give up our lives for money, but will money give up its life for us? Money just moves on to the next person. Your loss is another person’s gain. At one point in time, money was most sought after by the young and the old. The aspiration of the young was to get rich as quickly as possible. These days when there is turmoil after turmoil in the world, one begins to rest their hearts on other things. The love of money fills one’s heart with temporary satisfaction and fear.
There is more to life than material riches. This can only be said by those who have detached themselves from the views of the world and are not envious at the satisfaction of the rich. Life is short and to realise what is of value only in your 50s is having wasted much of your life.