What IS the Root of Evil?

So many times we hear that money is the root of all evil. Unfortunately, that is a common miss-quote of God's Word. He tells us in First Timothy 6:10, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" (italics added). It does seem to ring true doesn't it? Money is a source of trouble for many people. If you have too little and even sometimes if you have too much it becomes something that is quarreled over, cried over and coveted. But is money really the major source of evil? God tells us that it is a root of all kinds of evil, not the root. If there were a "top ten" list for sources of evil, love of money would be on it for sure, but what other things would make that list? I believe pride would be pretty close to the top. 

What was the first sin of all time? A quick response to this may be disobedience to God in the "Garden" but the first sin ever was when Lucifer, a beautiful and worthy angel desired to be equal to God Himself. That was the first sin and it was PRIDE (see Isaiah 14:10-14). As I was considering an area of my life that has an ongoing unresolved issue I realized that pride was at the root. This started me thinking about sin in general.

What is the cause of most sin? When we lie to protect our reputation; isn't that pride? What about when we speed or run a red light; aren't we saying that our agenda is more important than the law or even the lives of those around us as we do these things? If I cheat on my taxes because I don't think that it is fair that the government gets as much as it does; isn't that an indication that I know better than those God put in authority over me? Complaining or grumbling about our stressful life situations, like work or relationships is also pride because we are not considering that God, who is Almighty, has control over these situations and He could change them in a flash if He chose to. Complaining and grumbling indicates discontentment and discontentment indicates ungratefulness which indicates pride because where we are in life isn't good enough for us!

If you do a word search on "pride" in your Bible, you will find that God talks about it quite a bit! I found over 100 verses (using the words; pride, proud and haughty) that refer to pride in a negative sense. Most verses either refer to the destruction that comes from pride or teach that it is a sin. Pride is what caused God to allow the Israelites to be exiled by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. They would not turn to God because they had their own plans and ideas. A walk through the Old Testament will paint a clear picture of what disobedience through pride will do. It isn't a pretty picture at that! 

So what sins or struggles do you have that are rooted in pride? If you don't know if pride is the root, start with prayer and then do a word search of your own. You may be very surprised at what you find! Pride isn't a worse sin than any other, but it is an indication that we view ourselves higher than we ought. Many times, once we determine the cause of our sin it is easier to break free from it! I pray that the Lord will show you exactly what you need to see and then give you the strength and wisdom to confront it.

Read Isaiah 14:10-14 to learn about the "fall" of Lucifer.