“For the love of money is the root of all evil.”

Context & Editorial Note

For the love of money is the root of all evil. — the documented wording, its source, and the money lesson, recorded and explained.

From the First Epistle to Timothy, chapter 6, verse 10, a letter attributed to the apostle Paul and dated to the first century AD. The verse is almost always quoted incompletely: the full text warns not against money itself but against the craving for it — “which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” The Greek is more precise still: the love of money is “a root of all kinds of evil.” Recorded here in the King James wording, the most influential English form, as a warning about desire rather than a condemnation of wealth.

Why This Saying Endures

Some money sayings fade with the institutions that produced them; this one kept its audience since Roman Empire, 1st century AD. The reason is structural: it names a pattern that repeats in every market and every household — the small leak, the patient creditor, the appetite that grows with income. Each generation meets the same pattern wearing new clothes: paper money becomes digital, the merchant’s ledger becomes an app, and the sentence still fits. Attaching it to 1 Timothy 6:10 (King James Version) gave it a face and a voice; the record kept it honest. That combination — a true mechanism, a memorable wording, and a traceable source — is exactly what separates a durable lesson from a motivational poster. It is also why this archive insists on recording where each line comes from before repeating what it says.

Using the Saying Today

A saying only earns its place when it changes a decision. Keep the wording in view — “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” — and apply it to one live question: a subscription you forgot, a loan you are considering, a raise you are about to absorb. Write down what the sentence tells you to do, then check the numbers behind it. If the principle survives contact with your own figures, keep it; if it does not, the sources above will show you where the boundary of the wisdom lies. That habit — quotation first, verification second, decision third — is the working method of this entire collection.

The Origin of “For the love of money is the root of all evil.”

This saying reaches us through 1 Timothy 6:10 (King James Version), from Roman Empire, 1st century AD. The recorded wording is: “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” The source on file is BibleGateway — 1 Timothy 6:10 (KJV), and its evidence status in this archive is marked as: source recorded. Sayings survive because they compress experience into a sentence that can travel. This one traveled far enough to enter the financial vocabulary — repeated in counting-houses, printed in almanacs and newspapers, and quoted today in boardrooms and budgeting apps alike. Tracing it back to its earliest reliable form is the first step in trusting it: wording drifts, attributions get attached to famous names, and a good line collects false fathers. The record above shows what can actually be documented.

What It Means for Your Money

Read as financial instruction, “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” is less a slogan than a compact model of behavior. Every durable money saying encodes one of a few timeless mechanisms: the arithmetic of spending less than you earn, the compounding of small habits, the transfer of power that comes with debt, or the psychology of wanting more than you need. This entry belongs to that tradition. The practical test is simple: write the sentence at the top of a monthly budget, a loan decision, or an investment plan, and ask what it tells you to do differently. If the answer is concrete — save first, avoid the obligation, doubt the easy promise — the saying has done its job. 1 Timothy 6:10 (King James Version) earned the authority behind these words through a life recorded in the sources cited here, which is why the line has outlived its century. Treat it as a prompt for verification, not a command: the wisdom is in applying the principle to your own numbers.

Source and Further Reading

Primary source: BibleGateway — 1 Timothy 6:10 (KJV). Read the full WealthPast explainer: The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil: What 1 Timothy 6:10 Actually Says. Browse the full collection in Wealth Proverbs & Sayings, where every entry carries its wording, attribution, and evidence status.