Money Can Not Buy You Happiness
Money can't buy you happiness. You might have heard this one before, but it's worth repeating because it is absolutely true! Money can't buy you happiness, but it can make your life a lot easier and help you afford to do some of the things that make you happy.
If we look at the origin of the phrase "money can't buy you happiness," we see that its meaning has evolved over time. The original sense was "money couldn't buy you a decent dinner," and even that meaning has declined in popularity, since today there are a lot of options at the dinner table.
The current meaning is "money can't buy you happiness," or "money doesn't bring happiness." But why is that true? Why can money not buy happiness? And what do we mean when we say that money can't buy us happiness?
First, there are two ways to view money. There is the material (or wealth) view of money, which sees it as just something that can be put towards buying things; and there's the non-material (or spiritual) view of money, which sees it as having spiritual value. When we say that money "can't buy happiness," what we're really saying is that spiritual values can't be bought with material values.
The Bible speaks against the material view of money when it says, "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…." (1 Tim 6:10 NKJV) This verse shows us that money is a tool that can be used in the wrong way, and that when the wrong person holds power over the flow of money, he will use it to do things like steal and commit adultery. For example, in the Bible we read about the rich man who altered his will at the request of his wife, who really wanted his money for herself. What was a tool used for the good of others was used for evil instead.
But when money is used in the right way, it has great power to do good and make our lives better. Our spiritual values can be much stronger than material values because they are a higher plane than material reality. We should use money wisely to make our lives happy, but we should use it wisely according to spiritual values and principles of goodness. Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy us important things like health care or good food.
We see in 1 Timothy 6:10 that the love of money leads to evil activity. We should have a healthy respect for money, and a healthy respect for the power that the love of money can have over us. The love of money often leads to jealousy and conflict, which is another reason that spiritual values can't be measured or bought with material ones.
As Christians, we should know that we're not supposed to use our spiritual values as a tool for measuring material ones – since only God has the power to measure spiritual things.
When we have an attitude of gratitude, we're able to use our money in the right way. We don't feel like we have unlimited resources at our disposal, and that gives us the humility that is needed to make wise decisions.
Some people think that taking money away from the rich is a way of buying happiness, but this isn't true. The Bible tells us that "poverty and wealth do not bring happiness." (1 Tim 6:8b) The rich are supposed to be happy, since they have a lot of material wealth!
The Bible also says that "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…." (1 Tim 6:10b) The love of money leads to jealousy and conflict, which causes unhappiness. And when this happens, we have an opportunity to learn how to trust God in our difficult situations; we can pray for wisdom and discernment and ask Him to help us make good decisions.
If you feel that you're struggling with the relationship between material values or spiritual values, or if you just want to get a better handle on your relationship with money, don't hesitate to pray about it. Our hope is that God will give us the wisdom we need so that our lives can be happy and calm because we trust in Him instead of in the things of this world.
Conclusion:
Money can't buy happiness but it does make our lives easier. We are encouraged to use money wisely according to God's plan for us but we must understand that our values and priorities will always be superior to any material things. Money can not buy our happiness, but if we use it in the right way, it can buy our needs and make life better.
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In the end Timothy 6:10-11 is talking about a root of all kinds of evil. The greed is a root causing people to act immorally. This means that money has power over us at times even though we do not want this power.