The phrase goes back to Biblical times; the apostle Paul is credited with saying ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’. People have debated the statement for centuries past and continue to do so today.

The sentence is often shortened to ‘money is the root of all evil’, but that wasn’t what the original quote was trying to say. Money itself is fine, in many ways necessary, but the over-zealous love of it isn’t. That translates to greed, which we would all agree is an evil.

Money is vital to today’s society. It builds homes, schools, hospitals, roads – the list is near endless. We obtain and spend money as a form of exchange for goods and services. Direct exchange of services is rare, but still used in certain charitable cases; direct exchange of product is even rarer. If we want to acquire something, we part with money to buy it.

Don’t let the power of money overtake principles and morals

It leads to evil, in the form of crime, when you want to acquire something but don’t have the money to spend. It leads to poverty when you don’t even have enough to pay for essentials. It leads to jealousy when you see someone else with enough money to buy things that you cannot afford. It leads to addiction when you gamble in a vain attempt to exchange a small sum for a much larger one. All of these are forms of evil that might support the argument that money itself is the root.

The trick is surely not to let the power of money overtake principles and morals. There will always be things that money cannot buy – love and happiness are probably top of that list. But in the meantime, let’s pay money some respect and not regard it as the root of all evil. But let’s not fall overly in love with it either.