A Money-Making Man

“But you, O man of God, flee from all this” (1 Timothy 6:11).

A few years ago a friend and I wandered into a little café in the Owyhee mountains here in Idaho. We had been fishing all day; it was late and we were tired and hungry.

   

The first thing I noticed was that the room was filled with loud, rowdy, intoxicated Owyhee county buckaroos. The second thing I noticed was that the room suddenly became ominously quiet and that every eye in the place was fastened on us.

   

“Shucks,” my friend, Pete said, looking around and then looking at me. “I’m not that hungry; are you?” “Not really,” I agreed. And we vamoosed. Sometimes, it’s best to take one’s hat and run.  

Paul would agree: “You, man of God, flee from all this… (1Timothy 6:11).

Paul had been writing about those who “want to get rich” (1 Timothy 6:9); who are eager to make money (6:10). Then he turns to his young friend Timothy: “You however…flee from all this”—from the notion that making money and buying stuff is all that matters. Rather, he continues “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.”

Simply stated, Paul’s argument is this: Who of us can stand before Jesus and say: “I want to be rich.” Far better to say, “I want to be like you.”

David Roper

5.22.17