“Those who are determined to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many senseless and hurtful desires, which plunge men into destruction and ruin.

Do you appreciate this counsel? Are you heeding it? Have you seen its truthfulness in the lives of many today?

5. (a) How can a desire for material wealth become a “snare”? (b) Why can one not serve two masters?

⁵ When your interest for money in providing for the necessities of life changes into a consuming desire to be rich, or to acquire things beyond your needs, money will cease to be your instrument, your servant. Instead, it becomes your master! It now becomes a “snare.” Jesus said: “No one can slave for two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stick to the one and despise the other. You cannot slave for God and for Riches.” (Matt. 6:24) The Bible does not condemn riches; it condemns your becoming a slave to it. Why? Because when your covetous desire for material gain becomes so great that you become its slave, you no longer have Jehovah God as your Master. You cannot then “love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.” (Matt. 22:37) Some say that “money talks.” But, when you become its slave, it will even do your thinking!

6. (a) What damaging effects can the love of money have on a Christian? (b) How is money viewed by some?

⁶ This craving for money (riches) can become so soul-consuming that it can eat away Christian qualities. It can degrade one to become beastlike. It can cause one to lose sight of justice, truth, honesty, of being generous and showing mercy. (Deut. 16:19, 20; Ex. 23:8) Having a strong desire for material abundance easily leads to indulging in the world’s dishonest business practices. “A man of faithful acts will get many blessings, but he that is hastening to gain riches will not remain innocent.” (Prov. 28:20) But you say, “This is not the situation with me; I can control it. How could I ever develop an affection for it? After all, money is only paper!” True, but how much time and effort are you spending to acquire it? Is it proving to be your master? David T. Bazelon, in his book The Paper Economy, makes an honest confession: “Money is a dream. It is a piece of paper on which is imprinted in invisible ink the dream of all the things it will buy . . . Most of us who are not outright losers in the Great American Scramble love money much more than any of the things it will buy. It is not a means to an end for us, it is a passion.” We are living in a time that Paul prophetically pointed to at 2 Timothy 3:1, 2, and about which he said: “In the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be . . . lovers of money.” So, how important it is for a Christian to maintain the proper balance, guarding against this insatiable appetite for material wealth!

7. In what has the toiling for riches often resulted?

⁷ This toiling for and love of riches have caused no end of heartache, misery, suffering, unhappiness, frustration and bloodshed. Pitiful are the examples of those who have lost balance, who have cultivated covetous hearts. Let us appreciate, like Paul, that “the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction” and that they are “for a warning to us upon whom the ends of the systems of things have arrived.”​—Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11.