Bud Hancock continues his series of articles, part two being about the “Love of Money”, todays subject is the law of sowing and reaping. The first article caused a lot of positive comment which is most encouraging. Be sure to read Bud’s biography at the end of the article, he writes with a wealth of experience behind him.

Gibber! Gibber!

Chugley

The Love of Money – Part Two

The Law of Sowing and Reaping

One of the most important subjects that Jesus taught His disciples was concerning the “Law of Sowing and Reaping”. No matter what is sown (seeds) by a man during his lifetime, he will reap whatever the seed contains within itself, that which it was meant to produce. This is also a law instituted by God, and it is unchangeable.

A recent study of St. Paul’s First epistle to Timothy revealed some truth that I had not seriously considered before, though I had read it many times. It is important to understand that Paul was writing specifically to Timothy, the man Paul called “his son in the faith”. I personally believe Paul knew the plan God had for Timothy and was determined to do all in his power to teach him what is required of the true ‘Man of God’. In this letter to Timothy, commonly accepted as “the Pastoral Letter”, Paul is teaching his disciple what is required for the Man of God to be successful and to remain righteous before God.  

Eventually, Timothy would become the Bishop of the Church at Ephesus, so Paul’s teaching was critical, not only for Timothy, but for the entire Body of Christ. In I Timothy 6:10, Paul states, ““For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

The Love of Money—The Root from an Evil Seed 

I have heard many, both Christians and non-Christians, misquote that scripture by saying “money is the root of all evil”.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Money is an inanimate object, used as a medium of exchange, nothing more. It has no mind, no will nor any emotions, it is NOT alive, therefore is is neither good not evil, but it IS necessary. Try living your day to day life without it; very difficult indeed. It is only the lust for more and more, the greed factor, that produces an actual love or fondness for money that is evil.

It is very interesting, and perhaps very telling, that Paul uses the words, “the ‘root’ of all evil” in this passage.  Having been an amateur gardener/landscaper for many years, it has long been obvious to me that the roots of a plant are what provides life for the plant after a seed is germinated, and also provides for its continuous growth. Whether the plant is a beautiful rose, or a noxious weed, the visible part is fed by the root system.  So, of all the plants that we can see with our eyes, with its growth of foliage and flowers, or thorns and thistles, the real action is taking place ‘unseen’, hidden below the surface. In the natural world, the roots of plants are only fully seen when the plant is dug up and that action, in turn, destroys the plant if the roots are exposed for more than a very short period of time. So, the only way for any plant to survive and prosper is to keep the roots hidden. So, it follows that any desirable plant should never have its roots exposed to the air, but rather they should be kept hidden in the ground.

 

But, what about a plant that is obnoxious and undesirable? The only way to destroy the plant is to expose the roots.  However, man is a ‘spiritual being’ who has a soul (made up of the mind, the will and the emotions), and lives in a human, flesh and blood body.  From the human perspective, since the true man, the spirit, cannot be seen with the natural eyes, it can be quite easy at times to keep the nature of ‘the roots’, living in the human heart, hidden from the view of other humans: Jeremiah 17:9, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?  But eventually, the visible plant, that which is seen by others, (our actions, good or evil) will reveal the nature of the roots supporting the plant.  

As important as the root is to the life of a plant, the root does not actually decide what will be produced by the plant; that is the work of ‘the seed’. So then, it is important to note that every living plant, roots and all, originates from a seed which must be placed into the soil, and nurtured, in order to germinate, grow and produce.  As hard as one might try otherwise, the visible results of this planting/nurturing action will be determined by the type of seed that was planted. A seed of corn will produce a corn plant, a seed of wheat will produce a wheat plant, etc.  The ground into which the seed is planted, according to natural law, simply does what it is programmed to do: it tries to make the seed grow without any consideration for what the plant will produce. The root simply becomes the network of supply lines that send the necessary nutrition to the visible plant. These are the natural laws that govern the sowing and reaping cycle. There is no ‘moral control apparatus’ that allows the ground to terminate the growth of a seed placed into it.   Unless the root is starved of all nutrition, or removed from the soil and exposed to the light, it will continue to send the required nutrition for the plant to survive.

Jesus told His disciples, in Matthew 7:19-21, that a tree is “known” by its fruit, or the visible result of the life of the tree, which was always in the seed. The tree he spoke of, as well as all other trees, started from a natural seed which had within it the distinctive characteristics that would determine what will emerge (the fruit) from the plant produced by the seed. The botanical process is very simple: a farmer sows a natural seed into the ground based on the fruit he desires, the seed germinates and produces roots along with a visible plant, the roots develop and then provide the visible plant with the nutrition needed to become a fruit-bearing plant, which then produces the fruit of the seed that was sown. The fruit which eventually appears was already IN the seed; the plant cannot ever produce a fruit other than what was IN the seed.  

In the case of a person, the process is very similar: a spiritual seed (a word expressing greed or covetousness for example) is sown in the human heart that WILL produce the roots which will then supply the plant (the human life) with the nourishment needed to produce fruit (the love of money and all forms of evil). Just as with the case of a natural seed, corn, wheat, etc., the fruit that results from a spiritual seed will always be that which was IN the seed. The fruit of ‘evil’ was IN the seed of covetousness from the beginning (“I want what that person has”). Most importantly, just as a farmer knows what was planted by seeing the form, or nature, of the plant and, especially its fruit, the true nature of the person is ALWAYS known to God who sees the heart.

In order for a ‘visibly evil’ plant to exist, a seed of evil (word, or words, against God), or greed, must have been planted beforehand. The ‘ground’ into which the evil seed is planted is the invisible human heart. In the case of the ‘love of money’ being the root that sends the necessary nutrition that produces visible (bodily) evil actions, it could be any of a number of seeds (words), all of them evil (contrary to God’s Word), that was planted, and accepted, by the ground, the unseen human heart. But, in the end, the seed had greed as its ‘nature’. Just as the natural seed requires nurturing, so also the spiritual ‘seed of evil’ must be accepted into the ground and provided the needed nurturing in order to produce the results that are seen.  

The Human Conscience – A ‘Moral Control Apparatus’

However, unlike the natural ground, the soil, which has no ‘moral control apparatus’, or a way to stop bad seeds from entering and germinating, the human heart does—and it is called, the conscience. The conscience is the spiritual apparatus that monitors all the seeds (words) going into the ground, the heart. One dictionary definition of “conscience”: The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one’s conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong: “Let your conscience be your guide”. 

It is the role of the human conscience, controlled by the human spirit, to cause the heart (the ground) to reject all bad seeds and make sure they are never allowed to be introduced into, and germinate in, the heart. God designed the conscience to be a perfect control apparatus, and it works perfectly until, or unless, it is overridden by the will of the person whose conscience it is. When this occurs habitually, the Bible describes the result as a ‘seared conscience’, according to I Timothy 4:2. If human flesh contacts a hot iron, the result is a ‘searing action’ that burns the flesh and renders it totally insensitive forever. All the nerve endings are destroyed along with the ability to ‘feel’ anything in that area.  Likewise, the spiritual ‘conscience’ can be made totally ineffective when the ‘recommendations’ from the conscience – “do this, don’t do that”, are continuously and habitually ignored.  

The big question is: how does a person use the conscience to keep the bad seeds out of the heart?  Paul provided the answer in II Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”. The imaginations mentioned here by Paul are our thoughts, which, when vocalized, become the words that are planted in our hearts as seeds, and when the words representing the thoughts are evil, they become evil seeds that can produce very bad fruit if they are not controlled by the conscience. Once they take root, a ’conscious action’ is required to pull them up and destroy them; left in place, the evil roots will cause the bad fruit to appear, usually when it is least expected.

The above passage of scripture is usually referenced in conjunction with spiritual warfare, but too many people misunderstand what real spiritual warfare is. We have unseen enemies who are determined to see our destruction take place by any means at their disposal. I am not talking about men we can see, but rather the ‘unseen spiritual enemies’ around us. As Paul said in Ephesians 6:12, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. These entities, who are evil fallen angels and demons, approach us in the mental realm with their ‘suggestions’ that, if considered (received into our minds), can become thoughts which can then become our words, or seeds. These are the spiritual warriors we must defeat or they WILL take control of our minds and destroy us with our own words. Any word or thought that is contrary to God’s Word can become a seed that will produce whatever is in that seed (hatred, covetousness, lust, etc.). Paul explicitly demands that all such ‘imaginations’ be cast down, or defeated, before they can do their deadly work.

Born and raised in a small textile town in North Carolina, Bud Hancock’s family moved to Michigan in the hope of finding better employment with General Motors.  After graduating from high school, Bud began an apprenticeship with General Motors to become a Metal Modelmaker.  Retiring after a 30 year career, which included an eight year stint as a Meteorologist, he and his wife moved back to North Carolina to be near his elderly parents.  Shortly thereafter, with both of his parents having passed, he started a new career in the bank security/ATM business, advancing from an entry level technician to one of two North Carolina customer service managers for his employer.  Retiring again after 13 years, he and his wife of 51 years relocated to Tennessee where Bud began writing articles specializing in Bible teaching and geopolitical issues.  At age 75, he and his wife relocated to South Carolina with their Miniature Schnauzer, Baxter.  Bud continues to study God’s word and write articles on Christian living and geopolitical issues from the Biblical end times perspective