On the Love of Money (Covetousness)
No passion is so hateful as pride, and none deserves so much mockery as the love of money.
A man who loves money is the most unjust of all. He brought nothing with him when he was born, and yet he cares so much for earthly treasure as if he would take it all with him at his end. The beginning of every sin is pride, and the root of all evil is the love of money. The first separates a man from God; the second brings him close to the animals. The lover of money has turned away from God, for the love of money is idolatry. Priest N. Sokolov
A man occupied with thoughts and cares about gold cannot strive toward heaven or desire the eternal, incorruptible treasure. His heart is shut up in his riches as a snail is in its shell, which has neither the wish nor the ability to leave it. It is impossible to love both silver (money. — M. B.) and the soul together.
The desire to acquire often stifles the voice of nature in parents, stirs up quarrels between brothers, fills deserts with murderers, seas with pirates, and cities with slanderers.
The jingle of metal so captivates the hearing of the lover of money that because of it his ear can no longer hear the word of the Lord.
Hear, all you lovers of money who are seized with the sickness of Judas. Hear, and beware of this evil passion. If he, who was with Christ and heard so many teachings from Him and had received the grace of working wonders, for all this, because he did not guard himself against that passion, fell into such a pit — what shall we do, ignorant as we are, who are ever nailed to this world?
It is impossible to love silver and the Spirit (of God) at the same time.
Hell does not say “It is enough” (Prov. 30:16), and the covetous man does not admit: “That is enough.”
For the lover of money wealth is what a sword is for a madman.
All sins grow old together with a man; only covetousness grows younger day by day.
The Saviour’s commandment about freedom from possessions — “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal” (Matt. 6:19) — concerns not only the rich but the poor too, for a poor man can be as bound to his one rouble as a rich man to a thousand roubles.
Do you want to be rich? Make friends with God, and you will be the richest of the rich.
The love of money, the more it finds, the more it seeks.
If you stop obeying Jesus and begin to gather unjustly, it will go with you as it did with Judas, who not only gathered nothing but destroyed both soul and body.
Whoever owns material wealth is always sad and troubled: either he trembles over his possessions lest someone take them from him, or lest his soul be taken from him. Such is the miser, whose clenched hand aches; he has clenched his heart as well and turned it to stone. To be healed he must meet a suffering person who will shake him inwardly; then he will be forced little by little to open his clenched hand, and his heart of stone will soften and become a human heart, and the door of paradise will open for him too.
