Love of money- the third of the eight main ones, consisting of an insatiable increase in material wealth. The opposite of the love of money is.

However, this evidence does not contradict the assessment. To put it differently, there are no fundamental contradictions between them. This apparent difference can be explained using the following arguments.

As you know, the devil did not fall because of the love of money. In fact, what kind of love of money could we talk about in the immaterial angelic world, completely alien to commodity-money relations?

That is, all those benefits that are this century have a monetary equivalent, all those benefits, in an effort to obtain which modern sinners indulge in enrichment, God provided to Adam and Eve free of charge.

Nevertheless, they still went against God and bent towards evil. What was the impetus? A proud disposition of the heart (not love of money), the desire to become like God ().

Taking into account the words of the Apostle Paul, it is necessary to pay attention to the context of his speech.

In the instruction that interests us, he talks about those who want to get rich. Here he tells us what this sinful behavior leads to: money lovers get entangled in the networks of temptations, fall into many harmful and reckless ones; through this they plunge into disaster and destruction ().

From the words of the apostle it is convincingly clear that the love of money is the root of many evils. But why then did he not directly say “many”, but say “all” (evil)?

On the one hand, this can be called rhetorical exaggeration, which he used to strengthen his thoughts (examples of this kind of exaggeration are found repeatedly in Scripture).

This means that although not every proud person is a lover of money, nevertheless every lover of money is a proud person. According to what has been said, every lover of money is tempted like other proud people. As long as he is subject to the love of money (as one of the features of the manifestation of pride), he is subject to pride itself.

In this vein, the saying of the Apostle Paul implies the following comment: not the love of money as such, but pride, revealed (including) through the love of money, is the root of all evil.

The lover of money is a blasphemer of the Gospel of love

GOSPEL

Jesus Christ (Savior)

How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 18:24-25).

Apostle Paul

An Exhortation to Moderation

Having food and clothing, we will be content with that. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which plunge people into disaster and destruction, for the root of all evil is love of money, to which, having surrendered, some wandered away from the faith and subjected themselves to many sorrows (1 Tim. 6:8-10).

Renewed Life

Therefore, mortify your members on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience (Col. 3:5-6).

Rules of the new Christian life

Be kind, compassionate, forgive each other, just as God in Christ forgave you. So, imitate God, as beloved children, and live in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us as an offering and sacrifice to God, for a sweet aroma. And fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness should not even be named among you (Eph. 4:25-5:5).

Characteristics and behavior of seducers

Their hearts are accustomed to covetousness: these are the sons of the curse. Leaving the straight path, they got lost, following in the footsteps of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved unrighteous wages, but was convicted of his iniquity: a dumb donkey, speaking with a human voice, stopped the madness of the prophet (2 Peter 2:14-16).

Multiplication of harmful heresies

There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive heresies and, denying the Lord who bought them, will bring upon themselves quick destruction. And many will follow their depravity, and through them the path of truth will be reproached. And from covetousness they will entice you with flattering words; their judgment has long been prepared, and their destruction does not sleep (2 Peter 2:1-3).

About the love of money

Most of the wise teachers, after the voluptuous tormentor we described, usually believe that this is the main demon of the love of money. So that we, the unwise, would not change the order of the wise, we also wanted to follow the same distribution and rule. So, if you like, let’s talk a little about this illness, and then we’ll talk briefly about healing.

The love of money is the worship of idols, the daughter of unbelief, an excuse for one’s own infirmities, a predictor of old age, a harbinger of famine, a fortuneteller about lack of rain.

The lover of money is a blasphemer of the Gospel and a voluntary apostate. He who has acquired love squanders his money, and whoever says that he has both is deceiving himself.

He who mourns himself has rejected even his own body, and does not spare it in times of need.

Do not say that you are collecting money for the sake of the poor, for even the widow’s two mites bought the kingdom of heaven.

The hospitable man and the money-lover met each other and the second called the first reckless.

He who has conquered this passion has cut off his care, and he who is bound by it never prays purely.

The love of money begins under the guise of giving alms, and ends in hatred of the poor. The lover of money is merciful while he collects money; and as soon as he accumulated them, he clasped his hands.

I saw the poor in money, who, in cohabitation with the poor in spirit, became spiritually rich and forgot their first poverty.

A monk who loves money is alien to laziness; he remembers the words of the apostle every hour: let the idle not eat (2 Sol. 3:10); and another thing: serve me with this hand and those who are with me (Acts 20:34).

Sixteenth fight. Whoever won the victory in it either acquired the love of God or cut off vain cares.

Saint Anthony the Great

A sinful person loves a lot of acquisitions, but does not care about the truth

Without thinking about infidelity, impermanence and the shortness of life, without remembering the incorruptibility and inevitability of death. If someone lives so shamefully and meaninglessly in old age, then he, like a rotten tree, is not fit for any work.

Saint Basil the Great

What is covetousness?

The fact is that the limit of the law is violated, and a person cares more about himself than about his neighbor. There is no need to worry about anything beyond what is necessary for life and make efforts to be satiated and pompous: one must be clean from all avarice and ostentation.

Saint Macarius the Great

The strongholds of vice are numerous, and the first of them are the lust of the flesh and the love of money.

It happens that a person is outwardly poor and poor, but inwardly he rejoices in wealth and is ready to be a friend of the rich. Therefore, if he receives wealth from someone, he immediately changes. But God seeks only unmercenary character, and if a true unmercenary happens to become rich, then wealth becomes painful and hateful for him, and therefore he tries in every possible way to avoid it like fire.

Venerable Isaac the Syrian

He who has mercy on the poor has God as his guardian

Without non-acquisitiveness, the soul cannot free itself from the rebellion of thoughts, and, without bringing the feelings into silence, it will not feel peace in thoughts.

He who has mercy on the poor has God as his guardian, and he who becomes poor for God’s sake will find endless treasures. God has no need for anything, but rejoices when he sees that man gives rest to His image and honors it for His sake; When someone asks you for what you have, do not say in your heart: I will leave this for my soul to rest in, and God will give this one from another place what he needs. Such thoughts are befitting of people who are unrighteous and do not know God. A just and kind person will not give his honor to another and will not allow the time of grace to pass without action. A poor and needy person is supplied by God, because the Lord does not abandon anyone. But you, having sent the poor one away from you, have deviated from the honor given to you by God and removed His grace from yourself.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa

There is nothing so heavy and impregnable in the enemy militia as an instrument of the love of money

At least the best way souls are protected by a harmonious connection of other virtues, but, nevertheless, this battering weapon often penetrates through them. It can be seen that even with chastity, covetousness invades; with faith, with the keeping of the Sacraments, with abstinence and humility, and with all the like, this heavy and irresistible attack of evil occurs. Therefore, some abstinent, chaste, ardent with faith, people of a strict lifestyle, with modest morals, are not able to resist only this disease.

Saint John Chrysostom

The lover of money is a slave, not a master

The passion for money... is stronger and more violent than other passions and can cause more sorrow, not only because it burns with the strongest fire, but also because it does not lend itself to reasonable relief and is much more intense .

Those who are addicted to money are inevitably envious, prone to oaths, treacherous, impudent, slanderous, full of all kinds of evil, predatory and shameless, arrogant and ungrateful.

The lover of money is the guardian of his property, not the owner; a slave, not a master. It is easier for him to give away part of his body than to give away any of his wealth.

Whoever began to serve mammon has already abandoned serving Christ.

Those who are possessed by an insane passion and love for collecting wealth exhaust all their strength on this and are never satisfied, because the love of money is an insatiable intoxication.

Just as drunks, the more wine they pour into themselves, the more they become inflamed with thirst, so money lovers can never stop this indomitable passion, but the more their property increases, the more they are inflamed by greed and do not lag behind this passion until they plunge into the very the abyss of evil.

The property of a money lover is often shared among many, and he alone carries away the sins he committed because of this property.

Money lovers... do not enjoy what they have, both because they are not confident in their safety and because they strive for what they have not yet received .

There is no crazier man who cringes for wealth. Overpowered, he imagines himself as a ruler; being a slave, he considers himself a master; having tied himself in knots, he rejoices; showing bestial ferocity, he has fun; being in captivity of this passion, he triumphs; seeing a mad dog attacking his soul, instead of tying him up and starving him, he delivers him plenty of food so that he attacks him even more and is even more terrible.

Take note, money lovers, and think about what happened to the traitor Judas. How he lost his money and lost his soul. Such is the tyranny of the love of money. He didn’t use the money, nor the present life, nor the future life, but suddenly he lost everything.

What is the benefit if someone even humbles himself and observes fasts, but at the same time is a lover of money, covetous and, being tied to the earth, introduces into his soul the mother of all evils - the love of money?

I'm surprised at those who don't neglect money. This is a sign of a soul filled with extreme laziness, a soul... that cannot imagine anything great.

Even if there were no devil, if no one worked against us, and in this case, countless paths from everywhere lead the money-lover to Gehenna.

The love of money is not only about loving a lot of money, but also about loving money in general. To desire more than is necessary is a great love of money. Did the talents of gold sway the traitor? There are thirty pieces of silver in total; for thirty pieces of silver he sold the Vladyka.

Cut off this passion, it gives rise to the following diseases: it makes people wicked, leads to oblivion of God, despite His countless benefits... This passion is no less important, it is capable of producing thousands of disastrous deaths .

Let us free ourselves and extinguish the addiction to money in order to ignite the desire for heavenly things. After all, these two aspirations cannot be combined in one soul.

Let the love of money not ignite and take possession of you, but let this insane passion be burned and destroyed by spiritual fire, let it be cut off by the sword of the Spirit. It will be a good sacrifice... a beautiful sacrifice, which is offered on earth, but is immediately accepted into Heaven.

Let us neglect money so as not to neglect our soul.

Money should be owned as befits masters - so that we rule over it, and not they rule over us.

When an evil habit or passion for covetousness strongly seduces you, arm yourself against them with this thought: having despised temporary pleasure, I will receive a great reward. Tell your soul: you grieve that I deprive you of pleasure, but rejoice, because I am preparing Heaven for you. You work not for man, but for God; Be patient a little and you will see what benefits will come from this; remain firm in this life and you will receive indescribable freedom. If we talk to the soul in this way, if we imagine not only the burden of virtue, but also its crown, then we will soon distract it from all evil.

The servant of Christ will not be the slave of wealth, but its master.

How to extinguish the flame of covetousness? It can be extinguished even if it has risen to the sky. We just have to want it, and we will, without a doubt, overcome this flame. Just as it was strengthened as a result of our desire, so it will be destroyed by desire. Was it not our free will that ignited it? Consequently, free will will be able to extinguish, only if we wish. But how can such a desire appear in us? If we pay attention to the vanity and uselessness of wealth, to the fact that it cannot accompany us into Eternal Life; that here too it leaves us; that even if it remains here, the wounds from it go with us there. If we look at how great the riches prepared there are, and if we compare earthly wealth with them, then it will seem more insignificant than dirt. If we notice that it exposes us to countless dangers, that it gives only temporary pleasure mixed with grief, if we carefully consider other wealth, that is, that which is prepared for Eternal Life, then we will be able to despise earthly wealth. If we understand that wealth does not in the least increase fame, health, or anything else, but, on the contrary, plunges us into the abyss of destruction, if we learn that despite the fact that here you are rich and have many subordinates, leaving there, you will go alone and naked - if we often repeat all this and hear from others, then perhaps our health will return to us, and we will get rid of this grave punishment.

You, perhaps, use beyond your needs, spend a lot of money on entertainment, on clothes and other luxury items, partly on slaves and animals, and the poor man does not ask you for anything unnecessary, but only for this, to satisfy your hunger and satisfy the necessary needs - to have daily bread to support your life and not die. But you don’t want to do this either, and you don’t think that death could suddenly snatch you away, and then everything you collected will remain here and, perhaps, pass into the hands of your enemies and enemies, and you yourself will leave, taking with you only all the sins with which you collected this. And what will you say then on that terrible day? How will you justify yourself, having not cared so much about your salvation? So listen to me and, while there is still time, give away the excess money, so that, in this way, you can prepare for your salvation there and gain the reward of those eternal blessings that may we all receive through the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom the Father, with the Holy Spirit , glory, power, honor, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

And those who are possessed by an insane passion and love for collecting wealth exhaust all their strength on this, and are never satisfied, because the love of money is insatiable drunkenness; and just as drunks, the more wine they pour into themselves, the more they become inflamed with thirst, so these (money lovers) can never stop this indomitable passion, but the more they see the increase in their property, the more they are inflamed by greed and do not lag behind this evil passion until they fall into the very abyss of evil. If these people manifest with such intensity this destructive passion, the culprit of all evils, then all the more should we always have in our thoughts the judgments of the Lord, which are higher than “gold and even much pure gold,” and not prefer anything to virtue, but these destructive passions eradicate from your soul and know that this temporary pleasure usually gives rise to unceasing sorrow and endless torment, and not deceive yourself and not think that real life our existence ends. True, most people do not express this in words; on the contrary, they even say that they believe in the doctrine of the resurrection and future reward; but I pay attention not to words, but to what is done every day. If, in fact, you expect resurrection and reward, then why are you so concerned about worldly glory? Why, tell me, do you torment yourself every day, collecting more money than sand, buying villages, and houses, and baths, often acquiring it even through robbery and extortion, and fulfilling the prophetic word on yourself: “Woe to you, who add house to house, who add field to field, so that there is no room left for others, as if you alone were inhabited on the earth” (Isaiah 5:8)? Isn't this what we see every day?

Saint Gregory the Theologian

Rich! listen: “When wealth increases, do not set your heart on it” (Ps. 61:11), know that you are relying on something fragile. We need to lighten the ship to make it easier to sail.

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian

With covetousness there can be no love

And what should she do? He who is addicted to money hates his brother, trying to take something away from him...

If you are walking the path to the Kingdom, do not burden yourself with anything, for God does not want you to enter His palace burdened with a burden. If you are going towards the Kingdom, shed the excess from yourself. Will you lack anything in the Kingdom? Be reasonable. God calls you to His Table; throw off every burden. Get ready for the journey without burden and go with God to His Kingdom. He is looking for you, so that you may go with Him and dwell with Him in His palace.

Look, the Kingdom of God is within you, sinner. Enter into yourself, look for the Kingdom there and you will find it without difficulty.

Do not chase after acquiring property, break out of the networks of lusts, from the snares of sin, from the wilds of covetousness. Enter into yourself, live within yourself, in the silence of the inner, with moderation and pure soul, with a calm and humble spirit. Go inside yourself and look for the Kingdom of God there, it really is there, as the Lord Himself taught us in the Gospel.

In the shower, loving God, God dwells, there is His Kingdom, and that is why He says that “The kingdom of God is within us” (Luke 17:21). So, let's break out of the networks outside world and let us seek in our souls the Kingdom of God; Until we find him there, we will not stop looking. And if it has not yet taken possession of us, let us seek as the Lord taught us: "Our Father... Thy Kingdom come" and it will come if we ask for it.

Venerable Isidore Pelusiot

Because of the love of money, hostility, fights, wars

If the love of money affects you, this “the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10), and, turning all your feelings towards yourself, leads you into such a frenzy that you fall into idolatry, then answer him firmly with the right word: “It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone” (Matthew 4:10). And the effect of the poison will end, and you will be completely sober.

Because of the love of money, there is enmity, fights, wars; because of her, murders, robberies, slander; because of it, not only cities, but also deserts, not only inhabited countries, but also uninhabited ones breathe blood and murder... For the love of money, the laws of kinship are perverted, the rules of nature are shaken, the rights of the very essence are violated... No matter how many evils no one has found in public assemblies, or in courts of justice, or in houses, or in cities, he will see in them the shoots of this root.

Of the covetous and abusive people, some know, while others do not know, that they sin incurably. For the inability to feel the illness in which you are is a consequence of increased insensitivity, which ends in complete insensibility and mortification. Therefore, such people should be pitied most of all. Doing evil is more deplorable than tolerating evil. Those who do evil (offending people because of covetousness) are in extreme danger, but for those who suffer, the damage concerns only their property.

Moreover, the first ones do not feel their absolute mortification... like children who do not care about what is truly scary, and can put their hands into the fire, and when they see a shadow, they come into fear and trembling. A similar thing happens with lovers of acquisitions: fearing poverty, which is not terrible, but also protects from many evils and promotes a modest way of thinking, they mistake for something great unrighteous wealth, which is worse than fire, because it turns to dust both the thoughts and hopes of those who have it. them.

This is clearly visible because it does not have a main beginning in us, it does not begin from a substance that would relate to the participation of the soul, or flesh, or the essence of life. For it is known that nothing but daily food and drink is a need of our nature; all other things, no matter how carefully and lovingly they are preserved, are alien to human need, as can be seen from their use in life itself.

Ava Heremon

He who does not give what is necessary to the poor, and prefers his money, which he saves out of mistrustful stinginess, to the commandments of Christ, falls into the vice of idolatry, since he prefers the love of worldly things to the love of God.

The love of money tempts cold and ill-disposed monks

Although the love of money and anger are not of the same nature (for the first is outside our nature, and the second, apparently, has the initial seed in us), they nevertheless occur in a similar way: for the most part, the causes of excitement are received from outside. For those who are still weak often complain that they fell into these vices due to irritation or instigation of some, and excuse themselves by saying that, at the challenge of others, they indulged in anger or love of money. That the love of money is outside of nature is clearly evident; because there is no main principle in us that would relate to the participation of the soul or the flesh, or the essence of life.

For it is known that nothing belongs to the needs of our nature except daily food and drink; all other things, no matter how carefully and lovingly they are stored, are alien to human need, as can be seen from their use in life itself; therefore, the love of money, as existing outside our nature, tempts only cold and ill-disposed monks. And the passions inherent in our nature never cease to tempt even the most experienced monks and those living in solitude. That this is completely true is proven by the fact that we know some pagans who are completely free from the passion of love of money. It is also conquered in each of us, with true self-sacrifice, without any difficulty, when, having left all our property, we so adhere to the rules of the monastery that we do not allow ourselves to keep a single denarius. We can present as witnesses many thousands of people who, having in a short time squandered all their property, have so destroyed this passion that they are no longer exposed to any temptation from it.

But they cannot protect themselves from gluttony unless they fight with special caution of the heart and abstinence of the body.

Venerable Simeon the New Theologian

Anyone who lusts for money is condemned as a lover of money, even if he had absolutely nothing

It does not save if someone once shows mercy to one person, although if someone despises even one, he makes him guilty of eternal fire. For hungered and thirsty This is not said about one incident or one day, but indicates an entire life. Likewise: nourish, drink, clothe and everything else that follows does not indicate a one-time thing, but something that is always happening and in relation to everyone. Christ, our Lord and God, confessed that He Himself accepts such mercy from His servants (those in need). He who gave alms to a hundred needy people, but, having been able to give to others: to feed and drink many, refused to those who begged him and cried out to him, he will be judged by Christ as having not fed Him. Because in all of them He is the same One whom we feed in each of the poor.

Saint Gregory Palamas

Passions generated by the love of money make disbelief in Divine Providence difficult to overcome.

Anyone who does not believe in this Providence relies on wealth for his hope. Such, although he hears the words of the Lord, that “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24), Believing the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternal to be nothing, he lusts after earthly and transitory wealth. Even if this wealth is not yet in the hands, by the very fact that it is coveted, it brings the greatest harm. For "Those who want to get rich fall into temptation" as the apostle Paul says (1 Tim. 6:9), and the snares of the devil...

This unhappy passion is not from poverty, but rather the consciousness of poverty from it, and it itself is from madness, for rightly the Lord of all Christ called the one mad who said: “I will tear down my barns and build greater ones” (Luke 12:18). For, just as he is not mad who, for the sake of things that cannot bring any significant benefit, “for a man’s life does not depend on the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15), - For the sake of such things, he betrays what is most useful (Eternal blessings).

Blessed Diadochos of Photikie

The limit of non-covetousness is to desire not to have as another person desires to have.

Abba Evagrius of Pontus

A lover of money is not the one who has money, but the one who seeks it

For they say that an economist is a purse endowed with intelligence.

The homes of money lovers are filled with beasts of wrath, and birds of sorrow build nests in them.

The demon of the love of money is very skillful, it seems to me, and inventive in seduction. He often, oppressed by extreme renunciation of everything, takes on the appearance of a steward and a beggar-lover, cordially welcomes strangers who are not there at all, sends what is needed to others in need, visits city dungeons, redeems those who are being sold, cleaves to rich women and indicates to whom they owe to be compassionate, and to others, whose vagina is full, he inspires to renounce the world, and thus little by little, having seduced the soul, he overloads it with thoughts of the love of money and transfers it to the thought of vanity. This one introduces many who glorify the Lord for such orders of him (the hermit), and forces some to quietly talk among themselves about the priesthood, predicts the death of the real priest and adds that he cannot avoid (election), no matter what he does for it. So the poor mind, entangled in such thoughts, argues with those who do not accept it, diligently distributes gifts to those who do accept it and welcomes them with gratitude, and betrays some stubborn opponents to the judges and demands that they be expelled from the city. While such thoughts are spinning inside, the demon of pride appears, plows through the air of the cell with frequent lightning bolts, unleashes winged serpents and, the final evil, deprives him of his mind. But we, praying that such thoughts may disappear, will try, in a grateful disposition, to get used to poverty. It is nothing that we have brought into this world, as if we could bear what we can below: having food and clothing, we will be content with these (1 Tim. 6:7,8), Remembering what St. said next. Paul: The love of money is the root of all evil.

Just as the flow of a river is unstoppable, so is the greed of an unrighteous man insatiable.

It is impossible for you to live according to God when you are voluptuous and money-loving

Abba Peter said... strive to avoid the three passions that pervert the soul, namely: love of money, curiosity and tranquility. For if these passions enter the soul, they do not allow it to succeed.

Venerable Cassian the Roman

About the spirit of love of money

The third feat lies before us against the spirit of love of money, which we can call the love of money. This passion is alien, unusual for our nature; in a monk it comes from the lethargy of a corrupt, weakened spirit and happens more often at the beginning of renunciation, poorly undertaken and combined with insufficient love for God. For the irritations of other passions are inherent in human nature, as if innate, in some way fused with the flesh and, being almost contemporary with birth itself, precede the distinction between good and evil and, although at first they captivate a person, they are overcome by long labor.

The disease of love of money is fatal

But this disease of love of money, coming later, is imposed on the soul from the outside, and therefore it is easier to beware and reject it; and when left without attention and once it has crept into the heart, it is the most destructive of all and more difficult to drive it away. For it becomes the root of all evil, providing numerous reasons for vices.

About vices that are allowed without innate desire due to our depravity

However, we say that some vices arise without any previous natural reason, but at the mercy of only a corrupted, evil will - envy and the love of money itself have no basis in us from the side of natural instinct and are acquired from the outside. However, as easy as it is to protect yourself and evade those vices, they make the soul just as miserable when they occupy and take possession of it, and they hardly allow the use of medicines to heal it. Because either those who are wounded by vices that they could not know or avoid, or could easily overcome, do not deserve to be healed by quick healing; or because, having a bad foundation, they are not able to build the structure of virtues to the height of perfection.

The disease of love of money, once accepted, is driven out with great difficulty.

Therefore, this disease should not seem unimportant to anyone, which could be neglected. As easily as one can evade it, once it has dominated someone, it barely allows one to use medicines for healing. For it is the repository of vices, the root of all evil and the ineradicable inciter to evil, as the apostle says: “The root of all evil is the love of money”, i.e. love of money (1 Timothy 6:10) .

What vices does love of money give rise to, and how many evils does it give rise to?

So, this passion, having prevailed over the relaxed and cold soul of the monk, first encourages him to acquire a little money, providing some fair and seemingly reasonable excuses for which he should save or acquire some money. For he complains that what the monastery provides is not enough, can barely be tolerated even by a healthy, strong body. What will need to be done if a body illness occurs and a little money is not hidden to support the weakness? The maintenance of the monastery is meager, negligence towards the sick is very great. If there is nothing of your own that can be used to take care of the body, then you will have to die in a miserable way. And the clothes provided by the monastery are not enough, unless you take care to get yourself something else from somewhere. Finally, one cannot live in one and the same place or monastery for a long time, and if a monk does not prepare money for travel expenses and crossing the sea, he will not be able to move when he wants, and, being constrained by extreme poverty, he will constantly spend his life laborious and miserable, without any success; always poor and naked, he will be forced to be supported in disgrace by someone else.

So, when his mind is deceived by such thoughts, he ponders how he can acquire at least one denarius. Then, with a caring mind, he looks for a private matter that he could do without the knowledge of the abbot. Then, having sold its fruits secretly and received the desired coin, he is very worried about how to double it (the coin), rather, he is perplexed where to put it or to whom to entrust it. Then he often worries about what he could buy with it and what kind of trade he could use to double it. When he succeeds in this, then a strong greed for gold arises and becomes more excited the more profit he makes. For as money increases, so does the fury of passion. Then one imagines a long life, advanced old age, various long-term illnesses that cannot be tolerated in old age unless more money is prepared in youth. Thus, the soul becomes pitiful, bound by serpentine bonds, when with obscene diligence it wants to multiply the poorly collected savings, giving rise to an ulcer for itself, which cruelly inflames, and is completely occupied with thoughts of profit, and sees nothing else with the gaze of the heart, as soon as it comes from It would be possible to get money with which to quickly leave the monastery to where there would be some hope of receiving money. Because of this, he will not be afraid to commit the crime of lying, a false oath, theft, to break fidelity, to be inflamed with harmful anger. And if he loses hope of profit, then he will not be afraid to violate honesty, humility, and just like the womb of others, so to him gold and the hope of self-interest becomes everything instead of God. Therefore, the holy apostle, referring to the evil hell of this disease, called it not only the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10) , but also by idolatry, saying: “put to death... covetousnesswhich is idolatry” (Col. 3:5). So, you see to what vice this passion gradually increases, so that the apostle calls it idolatry, because, having abandoned the image and likeness of God (which he who reverently serves God must keep pure in himself), he wants instead of God to love and preserve the images of people imprinted on gold.

Thus, succeeding in deviating to the worse, being unable to have not only virtues, but even a shadow of the virtues of humility, love, obedience, the monk is indignant at everything, grumbles at everything and sighs. He, no longer having any fear, like a fierce, unbridled horse, rushes towards the rapids; He remains dissatisfied with daily food and ordinary clothing and declares that he will not be able to bear it any longer. It also shouts that God is not only here, that his salvation is not contained only in this place. That’s why he groans heavily because if he doesn’t get out of here soon, he’ll easily die.

A monk who has money cannot remain in the monastery

Thus, having money as a travel supply for his inconstancy, leaning on their help like wings, and already ready for relocation, he arrogantly responds to all orders and, behaving like a stranger, an outsider, despises everything that needs correction, and is negligent in everything and neglects everything. Although he keeps the money hidden by thieves, he complains that he does not have shoes and clothes, and is indignant that they do not give it to him soon. And if, by order of the abbot, some of this is first given to someone who has absolutely nothing, then he is inflamed with strong anger, thinks that he is despised as an outsider, not trying to put his hands to any business, condemns everything that is for the benefits of the monastery need to be done. Then he diligently looks for excuses for grief and anger, so that it does not seem that he is leaving the monastery out of frivolity. However, he is not content with just his eviction, so that they would not think that he left the monastery because of his vice, but he does not cease to corrupt anyone with secret murmuring. If the difficulties of time, travel or navigation prevent his journey, then, sitting constantly with a sad, sorrowful heart, he does not cease to cause or arouse sorrow. He will find consolation regarding the exit and an excuse for his frivolity only in the disorder of the monastery.

Thus he departs, more and more inflamed by passion for his money, which, having been acquired, never allows the monk to remain in the monastery or live according to the established rule. And when this passion, like a fierce beast, having separated him from the gathering of the herd, by separation from his comrades makes him a beast suitable for prey, and by removing him from the community prepares him for devouring, then it forces him to work tirelessly day and night in the hope of profit, although before he had not I tried to do even the easy things of the monastery. This passion does not allow him to perform ordinary prayers, or to observe certain fasts and rules of vigils, or to perform duties and private activities (such as: private prayers, reading, meditation, mutual services of brothers, etc.), until he satisfies the passions of greed or will not acquire for daily needs, and with the acquisition that he thought to extinguish the fire of passion, he ignites it even more.

Under the pretext of saving money, they seek cohabitation with women

Therefore, some, having already undergone an irreversible fall into a deep abyss, strive for death and, not content with owning money alone, seek cohabitation with women who must keep what they have poorly collected or retained. And they indulge in such harmful and disastrous activities, so much so that they fall to the depths of hell, when they do not want to follow the teachings of the Apostle, who bequeathed that they should be content with the fact that they have food and clothing, which are given from the savings of the monastery. “But those who desire to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which plunge people into disaster and destruction; for the love of money is the root of all evil, to which some have abandoned the faith and subjected themselves to many sorrows.” (1 Tim. 6 :8–10 ) .

An example of one cold monk entangled in the networks of love of money

I know one who considered himself a monk and, even worse, flattered himself with perfection. When, after being accepted into the monastery, Abba began to admonish him so that he would not return to what he had renounced when entering the field of self-sacrifice, and would renounce the root of all evils - the love of money and earthly bonds, but would rather wish to cleanse himself of former passions, which often has been exposed, has ceased to covet what he did not have before, and if he is bound by the bonds of greed, without a doubt, he will not be able to achieve the purification of his vices; Then the monk was not ashamed to answer him with a stern face: if you have enough to support so many, then why do you forbid me to have the same?

There are three types of this disease that are equally condemned by all fathers. The first, the depravity of which we described above, deceives the poor and inspires them to collect what they did not have before when they lived in the world. The second encourages you to desire again and return what you left behind when you renounced the world. The third, at the beginning of renunciation of the world out of fear of poverty and helplessness, does not reject the wealth of the world, but saves for himself both money and property that should have been rejected at the beginning of self-denial. Such monks will never achieve evangelical perfection. These three types of love of money in the Holy Scripture were subject to difficult punishment, for which we find the following examples: Gehazi, wanting to acquire what he did not have before, not only did not receive the grace of prophecy, which he should have had from his teacher according to hereditary order, but Elisha's curse is still stricken with leprosy (2 Kings 5:21,27).And Judas, wanting to receive money, which he had previously rejected following Christ, not only betrayed the Lord and lost the rank of apostleship, but also ended his life in bad order, ending it violent death(Matthew 27:5). Ananias and Sapphira, having withheld some of what they owned, are punished by death from the mouth of the apostles (Acts 5:1-10).

On the selflessness of the apostles and the primacy of the church

Likewise, the one who testifies to himself (Acts 22:25) that he was illustrious in his worldly rank, since from birth he was honored with the dignity of a Roman citizen, could he not be supported by his former property if he considered it more convenient for perfection? Likewise those in Jerusalem, being owners of fields or houses, sold everything and, leaving absolutely nothing for themselves, brought the price of what was sold and laid it at the feet of the disciples (Acts 4:35); Couldn't they have satisfied bodily needs from their own property if this had been recognized by the apostles as more perfect or if they themselves would have considered it more useful? But, having rejected all property, they wished to support themselves by their own labor or the offerings of the pagans. The Holy Apostle writes to the Romans about their donation, promises his services to them in this and, inviting them to such alms, says: “Now I go to Jerusalem to minister to the saints, for Macedonia and Achaia are zealous in some alms for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. They are zealous, and they are in debt to them. For if the pagans have become participants in their spiritual things, then we must also serve them in their physical things.”(Rom.15:25–27) .

Also in his letter to the Corinthians, showing concern for them, he convinces them to more diligently prepare alms for his arrival, which he intended to send to the saints in Jerusalem for use. “When collecting for the saints, do as I prescribed in the churches of Galatia. On the first day of the week, let each of you put aside and save as much as his fortune allows, so as not to have to make preparations when I come. When I come, whomever you choose, I will send them with letters to bring your alms to Jerusalem.”. And to encourage them to give more generously, he adds: “And if it is fitting for me to go, then they will go with me” (1 Corinthians 16:1-4) , that is, if your alms are such that they deserve to be given with my accompaniment.

Also in the Epistle to the Galatians he testifies that he made this very agreement with James, Peter and John, when the ministry of preaching was divided among the apostles, so that it was he who preached to the pagans, but in no way abandoned care and concern for the poor in Jerusalem, who, for Christ, having rejected all their belongings, accepted voluntary poverty. "Having found out", talking about “of the grace given to me, James and Cephas and John, esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the hand of fellowship, that we might go to the Gentiles, and them to the circumcision, only that we might remember the poor.”. The apostle testifies that he carried out this work with all care, saying: “Which I tried to do exactly” (Gal.2:9,10) .

So, who are more blessed, are they those who, having recently converted from the pagans and not being able to ascend to the perfection of the Gospel, still retained their property, for whom the Apostle considered it to be a great fruit that, abstaining even from idolatry, fornication, strangled and bloody (Acts 15:29), accepted the faith of Christ withholding their property? Or those who, fulfilling the gospel teaching, wearing the cross of the Lord daily, did not want to keep anything from their own property? (Matthew 19:21). And the blessed apostle himself, since he was often subjected to bonds, prisons, or fatigue from travel, and therefore did not have the opportunity with his own hands, as he usually did, to acquire his usual (daily) food, according to his assurance, he received what was necessary for his needs from the brothers who came from Macedonia. “My shortcoming,” he says, “the brethren who came from Macedonia replenished” (2 Corinthians 11:9) . And he writes to the Philippians: “You know, Philippians,... when I left Macedonia, not a single church showed me assistance with alms and acceptance, except you alone; you sent me to Thessalonica once or twice for my needs.” (Phil.4:15–16) . According to the opinion of the money lovers, which they formed out of coldness of heart, will these too be more blessed than the apostle, because they gave him from their property? Even a madman would not dare to say this.

If we want to imitate the apostles, we should not be guided by our own opinions, but follow their example

So, if we want to follow the Gospel commandment and be imitators of the Apostle and the entire leading church or the fathers who in our times followed the virtues and their perfection, then we should not rely on our opinion, promising ourselves the Gospel perfection from this cold and miserable state; but, following in their footsteps, we must try not to deceive ourselves and so fulfill the monastic order and regulations so that we truly renounce this world, which through unbelief carries us away, do not retain anything from what we have rejected, and do not acquire daily food with hidden money, but with their own labor.

Saying of St. Basil the Great about one senator

They say that St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, to one senator, who, having coldly renounced the world, left for himself something of his wealth, not wanting to earn a living by the work of his hands and to acquire true humility through poverty, tedious work and monastic subordination, said the following: “you and the senatorial lost, and did not become a monk.”

To be overcome by the love of money is dishonorable

So, if we want to legitimately strive in the spiritual field, we must drive out this destructive enemy from our hearts. Just as no greater effort is required to defeat him, so to be defeated by him is dishonorable and inglorious. For when the strong strike, although in the fall there is pain and regret at the loss of victory, yet in the strength of the enemy there is some consolation for the vanquished. And if the enemy is not strong and the struggle is weak, then in addition to the pain of falling, there is shame that is more humiliating - dishonor, which is heavier than the damage.

How to overcome the love of money

The highest victory and everlasting triumph over this enemy will be that the conscience of the monk, as they say, is not desecrated by the slightest coin. For it is impossible that one overcome by small self-interest, having once accepted the root of lust into his heart, should not immediately be inflamed with the heat of a greater desire. For the warrior of Christ will remain victorious until then, safe and free from any attack of passion, until this obscene spirit sows the sprouts of this lust in our hearts. Therefore, just as it is necessary to guard the head of the serpent in all kinds of vices in general, so you need to be especially careful in this. If this passion is allowed inside, then, strengthened by its food, it will itself start a very strong fire. And therefore, not only must one be wary of acquiring money, but the desire itself must be driven out of the soul. For it is important not so much to avoid money-loving deeds as to uproot this passion itself. For not having money will bring us any benefit if the desire for acquisition remains in us.

Someone else, even without money, can be considered a money-lover

And he who does not have money may suffer from the disease of the love of money, and the vow of poverty will not bring any benefit to the one who could not cut off the passion of covetousness and is content only with the promise of poverty, and not with virtue itself, and he bears the burden of need not without heartfelt sorrow. For, just as the Gospel word (Matthew 5:28) considers those who are not defiled in body to be unclean in heart, so those who are not burdened with the burden of money can be condemned as lovers of money in mind and heart. For they did not have only the chance to have, and not the will, which with God is always crowned with more than necessity. For it is worthy of regret to endure the trials of poverty and nakedness, and to be deprived of their fruits through the vice of vain desire.

Example of Judas

Do you want to know how disastrous, how harmful this passion is if it is not zealously exterminated; how will she multiply and produce heterogeneous shoots of vices to the destruction of the one who raised her? Look at Judas, who was one of the apostles. Since he did not want to crush the deadly head of this serpent, he poisoned him with his poison and, entangling him in the nets of lust, plunged him into such a deep abyss of vice that he convinced him to sell the Redeemer of the world and the author of the salvation of people for thirty pieces of silver. He would never have been driven to such an unholy betrayal if he had not been infected with the disease of love of money; He would not have become the wicked culprit of the murder of the Lord if he had not first become accustomed to stealing the money entrusted to him.

The love of money can only be overcome by non-covetousness

Here is a striking and obvious example of the ferocity of this passion, which does not allow the captive soul to observe any rules of honesty and cannot be satisfied by any increase in profit. For it is not wealth that can put an end to this passion, but only non-covetousness. Finally, when Judas hid the money entrusted to him, designated for alms to the poor, in order to, having had enough of the abundance of money, at least moderate his passion, he was so inflamed by a strong passion from their abundance that he wanted not only to steal the money secretly, but to sell himself Gentlemen. For the fury of this lust surpasses all riches.

About the death of Ananias, Sapphira and Judas, which they suffered because of the love of money

Finally, the supreme apostle, taught by these examples, knowing that he who has something cannot curb passion, and that it can be put an end to it not by a small or large amount of property, but only by lack of covetousness, punished with death Ananias and Sapphira (about whom we above mentioned that they withheld some of their property), so that they were destroyed for lying out of passion. And Judas himself arbitrarily destroyed himself for the guilt of betraying the Lord. What a similarity between crime and punishment in this! For there (in Judas) love of money was followed by betrayal, but here (in Ananias and Sapphira) - lies. There the truth is betrayed - here the vice of deception is allowed. Although their actions seem different, in both cases the same end followed. For he (Judas), avoiding poverty, wanted to return what he had rejected; and these, in order not to become poor, attempted to keep some of their property, which they should have brought in full to the apostles or distributed to the brothers. And therefore, in both cases, condemnation to death follows; because both vices came from the root of the love of money. So, if such a severe punishment fell on those who did not want someone else’s wealth, but attempted to keep their own, who had no greed for acquisition, but only wanted to save, then how should we judge those who want to collect money that they never had? and, showing poverty before people, turn out to be rich before God through the passion of greed?

The love of money causes spiritual leprosy

Money lovers are considered lepers in mind and heart, like Gehazi (2 Kings 5:27), who, having desired the corruptible money of this world, was struck by the plague of leprosy. This serves as an obvious example to us that every soul defiled by passion is struck by the spiritual leprosy of vices, and the unclean before the Lord is subject to eternal damnation.

Evidence from Scripturefrom which he who desires perfection learns not to return to himself what he gave up when entering into feats of self-sacrifice

So, if, leaving everything behind the desire for perfection, you followed Christ, who says to you: “Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me" (Matthew 19:21) ; then, putting your hand on the plow, why do you look back, so that, according to the word of the Lord, you will be considered unworthy of the Kingdom of Heaven? (Luke 9:62). Placed on the roof of the gospel peak (perfection), why do you go down from it to take something from your house, that is, from what you previously rejected? (Luke 17:31). Having been placed on the field of doing virtues, why, when returning, do you try to change into worldly clothes, which you threw off when entering self-sacrifice? If, living in poverty, you had nothing, then the less you should acquire what you did not previously own. For, by the grace of God, you are so prepared for this purpose that, unhindered by any nets of money, you will flow more freely to Him. But, however, no poor man should lament this. For there is no one who does not have something to leave behind. He renounced all worldly riches, who cut off the passion for acquiring them by the roots.

There is no other way to defeat the love of money than by non-covetousness

The perfect victory over the love of money is achieved by not allowing in our hearts the spark of desire for any and the slightest acquisition, being confident that we will no longer be able to extinguish it if we give even a little food to this spark in us.

What should monastic poverty consist of?

Remedies against the disease of love of money

So, remembering the condemnation of Ananias and Sapphira, let us be afraid to retain anything of what, in renouncing the world, we promised to completely abandon. Let us also be afraid of the example of Gehazi, who, for the guilt of love of money, was punished with eternal leprosy; Let us beware of acquiring what we have not owned before. Fearing the well-deserved death of Judas, let us with all our might avoid again collecting the money that we once rejected. In addition to all this, knowing the state of our weak and changeable nature, let us beware lest the day of the Lord, when it comes like a thief in the night, does not find our conscience defiled by even one half, which, having destroyed all the fruits of our self-sacrifice, will do what the word of the Lord said in The gospel of the rich man applies to us: "insane! this night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared?(Luke 12:30) . Without thinking about anything tomorrow, let us not allow ourselves to deviate from the deanery of the monastery.

The love of money can only be overcome by one living in Konovia, and how can one live here?

There is no doubt that we will not be able to fulfill this in any way, even we will not be able to obey the rules of the monastery, if the virtue of patience, which comes only from the source of humility, is not first laid on a solid foundation in us. For humility does not know how to cause embarrassment to anyone; and patience generously bears the troubles caused to us.

Third thought - love of money

The disease of love of money comes from outside of nature, it comes from lack of faith and unreason, the fathers said. Therefore, the feat of struggle against it is small for those who listen to themselves with the fear of God and truly want to be saved. When this illness takes hold in us, it turns out to be the most evil of all and, if we submit to it, it leads us into such destruction that the apostle not only “the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10) he called it: anger, sorrow and other things, but he also called idolatry (Col. 3:5). For many, because of the love of money, not only fell away from a pious life, but also sinned in the faith, suffering mentally and physically, as is related in the Holy Scriptures. It was said by the fathers that he who collects gold and silver and trusts in them does not believe that there is a God who cares about him. And this is what Holy Scripture also says: if someone is enslaved by pride or love of money - any one of these passions - then the demon no longer fights him with another passion, because this one is enough for him to perish. Therefore, it is fitting for us to protect ourselves from this destructive and soul-destroying passion and pray to the Lord God to drive away the spirit of love of money from us.

Not only should we avoid gold, silver and property, but also all things beyond the needs of life: clothing, shoes, furnishing cells, vessels, and all kinds of implements; and all this is of little value and unadorned, easily acquired and does not encourage us to vanity - so that we do not fall into worldly snares because of it. True removal from the love of money and love of things is not only not having property, but also not wanting to acquire it. This guides us towards spiritual purity.

The passion of the love of money is revealed by someone who always receives with joy and gives with sadness.

He is not covetous who has renounced all property and has nothing on earth except his body, and having rejected all affection for it, he has entrusted all the care of himself to God and pious people. Of those who acquire property, some acquire it dispassionately, which is why even when they lose it, they do not grieve like plunder of estates their with joy hosts (Heb. 10:34).

Others acquire it passionately, which is why, when they are offered to lose their acquisitions, they are sad, like the rich man mentioned in the Gospel, leaving mourning (Matt. 19:22); if, in fact, they are deprived, then they grieve to death. Thus, the deprivation of property exposes the disposition of a dispassionate or passionate money-grubber.

Three reasons for the love of wealth: voluptuousness, vanity and unbelief; stronger than the first two is unbelief. The voluptuous loves silver in order to enjoy it; the vain - in order to become famous, and the unbeliever - in order to hide and preserve it, fearing hunger or old age, or illness, or exile, and relying on him more than on God, the Creator and Provider of every creature, even down to the last and smallest animals.

Whose mind is attached to any earthly thing does not love God.

Blessed Abba Thalassius

The love of money is the food of passions, since it supports and grows all-encompassing self-gratifying lust.

God will never abandon His servants who serve Him day and night

The monk strictly forbade the monks to leave the monastery in order to ask for food from the laity: he demanded that they place their hope in God, who feeds every breath, and ask Him with faith for everything they need, and whatever he commanded the brethren, then performed it himself without any omission.

Some other time there was a shortage of food; The monks endured this deprivation for two days; Finally, one of them, suffering greatly from hunger, began to grumble against the saint, saying: How long will you forbid us to leave the monastery and ask for what we need? We will endure one more night, and in the morning we will leave here so that we do not die of hunger.

The saint consoled the brethren, reminded them of the exploits of the holy fathers, pointed out how for the sake of Christ they endured hunger, thirst, and experienced many deprivations; He brought them the words of Christ: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26).“If He feeds the birds,” said the saint, “then really cannot give us food?” Now is the time for patience, but we are grumbling. If we endure a short-term trial with gratitude, then this very temptation will serve us to great benefit; after all, gold cannot be pure without fire. At the same time, he prophetically said: Now we have a shortage for a short time, but in the morning there will be abundance. And the saint’s prediction came true: the next morning, from an unknown person, a lot of freshly baked bread, fish and other recently prepared dishes were sent to the monastery. Those who delivered all this said:This is what the lover of Christ sent to Abba Sergius and the brethren living with him.

Then the monks began to ask those sent to eat food with them, but they refused, saying that they were ordered to immediately return back, and hastily left the monastery. The hermits, seeing the abundance of food brought, realized that the Lord had visited them with His mercy, and, having warmly thanked God, they had a meal: at this the monks were greatly amazed by the extraordinary softness and extraordinary taste of the bread. These dishes were enough for the brethren for a long time. The venerable abbot, taking advantage of this opportunity to instruct the monks, said, teaching them: Brothers, look and be amazed at what reward God sends for patience: "Arise, O Lord, God[my] "Lift up Your hand, do not forget the oppressed"[will not forget his poor ones until the end] (Ps. 9:33). He will never leave this holy place and His servants living on it, serving Him day and night.

Mercy Boniface

Saint Boniface was from the Tuscan region in Italy. Since childhood, he was distinguished by his love for the beggars, when he had to see someone undressed, he would take off his clothes and dress the naked person with them, so he came home sometimes without a tunic, sometimes without a retinue, and his mother, who herself was a poor widow, She was often angry with him and said: It’s in vain that you act like this, dressing the poor, while you yourself are a beggar. One day she entered her granary, in which bread had been stored for the whole year, and found it empty: Boniface, her son, secretly distributed everything to the poor, and the mother began to cry, hitting herself in the face and exclaiming: Woe is me, where will I get food? for the whole year, and how will I feed myself and my family?

Boniface, having come to her, began to console her, but when, even after strong crying, he could not calm her down with his speeches, he began to beg her to leave the granary for a while. When the mother left, Boniface, having closed the door to the granary, fell to the ground and began to pray to God, and immediately the granary was filled with wheat. Boniface, having thanked God, called his mother, when she saw the granary full of bread, she was comforted and glorified God. From that time on, she no longer forbade her son to give to the poor as much as he wanted.

Abba Isaiah

Covetousness is the evil mother of all evils.The soul is not able to overcome the rebellion of spirits unless it frees itself from all the worries and cares of this world.

Venerable John of Kronstadt

The love of money has attacked - rather, praise non-covetousness and be jealous of it

We must constantly remember that the devil is constantly trying to litter our soul with hellish rubbish, of which we have too much and which is too small and varied. So, is your heart's eye clouded by enmity, by pride, by impatience and irritability, by sparing material wealth for your brother or for yourself - I mean stinginess, - by covetousness and love of money, by the unpeaceful and offensive words of others, by despondency and despair, or by envy? Whether through doubt, lack of faith or disbelief in revealed truths, vanity, laziness towards prayer and every good deed and service in general - say in your heart with the firm confidence of the word: this is the rubbish of the devil, this is the darkness of hell. With faith and hope in the Lord, with constant sobriety and attention to yourself, you can, with God’s help, avoid the rubbish and darkness of hell. He who is born of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him (1 John 5:18).

The treatment of mental illnesses (passions) is completely different from the treatment of physical illnesses. In physical illnesses, you need to dwell on the illness, caress the sore spot with soft remedies, warm water, warm poultices, etc., but in mental illnesses it is not so: an illness has attacked you - do not dwell on it, do not caress it at all, do not indulge it , do not warm her, but beat her, crucify her; do the exact opposite of what she asks; hatred of your neighbor has attacked you - quickly crucify it and immediately love your neighbor; stinginess has attacked - be generous quickly; envy attacked - rather be kind; pride has attacked, quickly humble yourself to the ground; the love of money has attacked - rather, praise non-covetousness and be jealous of it; tormented by the spirit of enmity - love peace and love; if gluttony overcomes you, quickly become jealous of abstinence and fasting.

The whole art of treating illnesses of the spirit consists in not dwelling on them at all and not in the least indulging them, but immediately cutting them off.

Saint Dmitry of Rostov

Don't chase after much, but be grateful for little

"When wealth increases, do not put your heart on it"- says the prophet (Ps. 61:11). It is great madness to set your heart on gold and trust in disastrous covetousness. So, do not rely on perishable wealth and do not rush for gold, for, as it is said: “He who loves gold will not be right” (Sir. 31:5), But put your trust in the living God (1 Tim. 4:10), Who abides forever and created all things.

Do not be afraid of lack of anything, for before you had nothing, but now you have it, and if you do not have it, you will have it. For He who created everything has not become poor, and will never become poor. Believe this firmly: He who brought everything from non-existence into being has not become impoverished; Giving food to the hungry. He who satisfies every animal is abundant in everything. Do not be stingy in giving to those who ask, and do not turn away from Him in whose name they ask you; Give everything to the One who gives you, so that you may receive from Him a hundredfold.

Don't chase after much, but be grateful for little. For everyone is chasing many things, everyone is looking for a lot, everyone is concerned about everything, however, having left everything down to the smallest, they will not be able to take anything from here with them. It is better to be grateful for little than to unreasonably pursue much. “The little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked people,” says the prophet (Ps. 36:16). For everything that you get here and everything you gain will remain on earth; You, having left everything, will move into the coffin with your soul naked.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk

Notice here, Christian, what the love of money leads to

Judas was not afraid to sell the priceless Christ, his Benefactor and Teacher, for such a small price, and thus bought himself eternal destruction. The same will happen to other money lovers who are not afraid to do all kinds of evil in order to get rich. .

Covetousness is the passion of extremely depraved people who have godlessness hidden in their hearts, although they confess God with their lips. This is a sign of a person who has turned into a predatory beast, which indiscriminately attacks every animal in order to feed on its flesh and blood, or even worse than a beast, as St. Chrysostom teaches. For animals, having had their fill, no longer rush to animals, and covetous people can never get enough, but always hunger and thirst for other people's goods... and the more they collect, the more they desire and steal .

Covetousness is more dangerous than other lawlessness. A fornicator, an evil person, a drunkard and others only need to give up their sins and repent in order to be saved, and a covetous person not only needs to give up covetousness, but also return what was stolen to the one from whom he stole it, or, if this is impossible, squander what he has collected with evildoers means, and so repent, otherwise it is impossible for him to repent .

The love of money and covetousness not only cause harm to others, but also plunge their zealots into disaster. Thus, Gehazi, the youth of the prophet of God Elisha, who secretly took silver and vestments from Naaman the Syrian, who was healed by God’s grace and returned to his home, was struck by this leprosy by the righteous judgment of God (2 Kings 5:20-27). Thus, Judas the traitor, who was not afraid to sell the priceless Christ, the Son of God, for thirty pieces of silver, accepts an execution worthy of the love of money, and kills himself by strangulation (Matthew 26:15-16; 47-49)... And even if whoever escapes temporary execution, for not all lawless people are punished here according to the unknown destinies of God, will not escape eternal execution, which will certainly follow, both for other lawless people and for the greedy.

The love of money, like any passion, nests in the human heart and has a heart

Consequently, not only is he a lover of money who, in fact, collects wealth in every way and keeps it for himself, without giving to those who demand it, but also one who, although he does not collect and does not have it, still insatiably desires it. Not only the covetous and predator who actually steals someone else’s property, but also the one who unrighteously desires someone else’s property, which is a sin against the tenth commandment: "Don't wish..." For in his will he covets and steals someone else’s property, and if he does not do this in practice, it does not depend on him, but on the external obstacle that does not allow him to steal someone else’s property. .

We see how much a person collects for the sake of his wretched and mortal body, which is content with a small piece of bread and some clothing, how much, I say, he collects, although he knows that at death he will leave everything; it is the love of money and the fierce lust for wealth that nests in the heart that acts in him.

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov)

The root of all sins... is the love of money

Those who want to get rich fall into misfortunes and snares that their very desire to get rich prepares for them. The first fruit of this striving is a multitude of cares and worries that take the mind and heart away from God. .

The root of all sins... is the love of money, and after the love of money... gluttony, the strongest and most abundant expression of which is drunkenness.

Fatherland

A certain monk in Nitria, more thrifty than stingy, was busy weaving linen and, forgetting that our Lord Jesus Christ was sold for thirty pieces of silver, accumulated a hundred pieces of gold. The monk died, the goldsmiths remained. The monks gathered for a meeting about what to do with the money. About five thousand monks lived there, each in a separate cell. Some offered to give the money to the poor, others to give it to the church, some to give it to relatives. But Macarius, Pamvo, Isidore and other holy fathers, according to the action of the Holy Spirit who dwelt in them, determined: to bury the money with its owner and at the same time say to the deceased: “Let your silver perish with you” (Acts 8:20). This event brought such horror to all the monks of Egypt that from that time on they considered it a grave offense to have even one gold coin in stock. This action may have seemed cruel, but the fathers were only instruments of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Scripture calls the love of money idolatry: the love of money transfers the love of the heart (in faith and hope) from God to money, makes money God, and destroys the true God for man. The money lover has no God. The god of the money lover is his capital.

Use money correctly and you will be at peace

You write: “I don’t love money so much that it never lasts long; That’s why I’m always without money, and then I borrow.” But this is stupidity, and you should not make excuses for this, but rather reproach yourself and try to improve. If a person could eat and clothe himself with air, then he would rightly neglect money, which, as it seems, sometimes bothers him. And just as in times of cold and hunger one cannot neglect the necessary clothing and food, so one cannot neglect the means through which food and clothing are acquired. The Holy Fathers say that “the edge of demons is the essence,” that is, that extremes come from the suppression of spiritual enemies. It is foolish to be addicted to money, and it is foolish to neglect it; both are bad and lead not only to embarrassment, but even to mental harm through various confusions from improper neglect. Money in itself, or rather, for the purpose assigned by God, is a very useful thing. They replace the lack of simplicity and love between people. Without money, who would count people? There would be eternal disputes and quarrels and even fights to the point of murder, but with small coins and even insignificant pieces of paper people get rid of all this, without realizing it. The harm comes not from money, but from reckless greed, or stinginess, or from abuse - perhaps, let's say, from wrongful neglect. Use money correctly and you will be at peace.

Stinginess comes from unbelief and pride

N.’s mother asks if she can keep her sisters’ money for safekeeping. If the ancient strict order of community life were preserved, when the living were given everything they needed, then it would be indecent and could be considered improper, but at the present time, due to the general weakness of both superiors and subordinates, it is absolutely impossible to forbid this. There is a need and a necessary need for the latter.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

"It is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven"

This means a rich person who sees in himself many ways and many strengths for prosperity. But as soon as the one who has a lot cuts off all attachment to possessions, extinguishes in himself all hope for it and ceases to see in it his essential support, then he becomes in his heart that even if he has nothing, the road to the Kingdom is open to such a person. Wealth then not only does not hinder, but helps, because it provides a way to do good. It is not wealth that is the problem, but the reliance on it and the addiction to it. This idea can be summarized as follows: whoever puts his trust in something and is addicted to something is the one who becomes rich. He who trusts in God alone and cleaves to Him with all his heart is rich in God. He who trusts in something else and turns his heart to something other than God, is rich in these other things, and not in God. From here it follows: whoever is not rich in God has no entry into the Kingdom of God. This means family, connections, intelligence, ranks, range of actions, etc.

Venerable Macarius of Optina

Love of fame, voluptuousness and love of money

World same, according to St. Isaac, are passions, and especially the three main ones: love of fame, love of voluptuousness and love of money. If we do not arm ourselves against these, then we inevitably fall into anger, sadness, despondency, resentment, envy, hatred and the like.

You mentioned in your writing that God does not require more from a person than to fulfill the duties of the title in which he was born, which, according to your understanding, you try to fulfill without reproach of conscience. Since this point is important, it is necessary to think about it better. This duty consists of fulfilling the commandments of God, according to the vow we made in baptism, no matter what rank one may hold; but in fulfilling them we are faced with resistance from the enemy of the human race - the devil, as the holy Apostles write about... You see what kind of invisible war we have: he always tries to fight the Christian race by opposing actions to the commandments of God, through our passions; To this end, his main weapons serve - passions: love of fame, voluptuousness and love of money. Having been defeated by these, or by one of them, we give other passions free entry to act in our hearts. From your understanding it is clear that you have an imperfect understanding of this battle or resistance and not so much caution, but only your effort, without reproach of conscience, to fulfill your duty; but they did not penetrate into this, as they should, into what it consists of. If you fulfilled all your duty without a reproach of conscience, or better yet, without humility, then there would be no benefit.

You will say: there is salvation everywhere, and in peace with women you can be saved. Truly true! but there more work is required to fulfill the commandments of God: wife, children, care for acquiring wealth, worldly glory; all this serves as a great obstacle to pleasing God. Everyone is commanded to fulfill God’s commandments, and not just monks; For monks, it is absolutely unnecessary: ​​preserving oneself in virginity and non-covetousness, which contribute to the preservation of other commandments. We do not worry about food and clothing, for in these we have no poverty through the Providence of God... In worldly life, it is more convenient to be carried away into breaking the commandments; Those who have a deposit of passions in their hearts not only do not care about eradicating them, but also do not consider them necessary, and in any case, the guilt that comes is the action of the passions. Let's talk about the love of money. Writes St. apostle paul (1 Tim. 6:9-10): “But those who want to get rich fall into adversity and snares, and into many senseless and destructive lusts, which plunge people into destruction and destruction. The love of money is the root of all evil.” Who escapes this evil rooting? Everyone tries to acquire money, sometimes with untruth, with covetousness, with godlessness and other unpleasing deeds. Here, don’t ask about love for your neighbor, about which the Lord Himself commanded so much in the Holy Gospel and the holy Apostles taught.

All these three major passions:love of money, voluptuousness and love of fame many things hinder the fulfillment of the commandments of Christ, and it is difficult for one who is in the world to fight them and not be wounded by them...

Doctor of Theology. Professor MDA

Idolatry

Idolatry (from the Greek - vision, ghost, appearance, dream, ideal, idol) in the literal sense of the word means the worship of idols, images of gods. In polytheistic religions, this was expressed in the cult of various idols-gods (for example, in the Greek religion: the cult of Dionysus - the god of wine and fun, Aphrodite - the goddess of sensual love and beauty, etc.). Sacrifices, sometimes even human ones, were made to these idols.

In a figurative sense, idolatry is the worship of such “lusts,” ideas, idols and goals in life that spiritually blind, humiliate a person, and make him a toy of his own passion. The passion idols are countless. The idea of ​​world domination, the cult of money, moral permissiveness and arbitrariness under the guise of freedom, and similar idols serve as objects of sacrifices that are often gigantic in scale. The apostle calls idolatry, for example, the passion for wealth, “covetousness” (Col. 3:5), gluttony: “their god is their belly” (Phil. 3:19). Indeed, when a stingy person thinks about nothing but profit and money, and an ambitious person thinks about nothing but fame and honor, and devotes all their strength to achieving their goal, then they are idolaters in the full sense of the word. Abba Dorotheus indicates three main idols that give rise to all others: “Every sin comes either from the love of voluptuousness, or from the love of money, or from the love of fame.”.

Any passion can become an idol for a person: physical, mental or spiritual. And in this sense, Tertullian was right when he wrote: “The greatest atrocity of the human race, which includes all other atrocities, the atrocity that constitutes the reason for the condemnation of man, is idolatry.”.

Idolaters, i.e. real pagans can be people of very different worldviews and religions: from an agnostic and an atheist to an Orthodox Christian. For loyalty to God is ultimately determined by “not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18). And the Lord warns: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).

When asked what happiness is for a person, outstanding thinkers of all times, philosophers and poets noted in their works that the greatest happiness is to be able to love and be loved, and then, to have personal freedom, not to be a slave to anyone. Christians would clarify: one must love the Lord in order to properly love a person; and in order to be free and be able to use it correctly, you need to free yourself from your passions. Without this, freedom will be not only a great, but also a dangerous gift. Love is the good that goes into eternal life and becomes its main content; and freedom deepens and expands in communion with God, in the awareness of the royal dignity of man.

Love and freedom are happiness for a Christian

In earthly life, freedom is the possibility of moral choice. In eternal existence, freedom is liberation human soul from all negativity; this is the entry of a person from a state of struggle with demonic forces and sin into the endless peace of the Divine, where there are no contradictions and confrontations, where the human will is united and fused with the divine will. So, human happiness is love and freedom.

Hatred and love of money are the antipodes of love

Love has two antipodes. The first antipode of hatred is the state of fallen spirits; the second is love of money, which, like hatred, drives love out of the heart. The love of money in its deepest essence is hostility towards man as his potential enemy and invader. The Apostle Paul calls the love of money idolatry, that is, the entry of a person into the dark world of evil - into the region of fallen spirits, and the replacement of God with earthly dust, no matter what images and forms this dust takes.

Love and love of money are not compatible. In the ascent of the soul to God, three steps can be noted: faith, hope and love. The love of money is the loss of hope in God and trust in money; This makes faith dim and love disappears. It seems to the lover of money that God’s providence will abandon him and he, impoverished, will die abandoned by everyone in this world, like a lonely traveler in the desert. Therefore, a money lover grabs onto money as a lifeline in the whirlpools of life, as a panacea for all illnesses and misfortunes. He believes that wealth is the only friend he can rely on, and the rest, in fact, are only encroachers on his property. He expects that if he gets sick, money will be needed for his treatment; if famine comes, he will survive thanks to them, and when he dies, he will leave a will so that the money would be distributed to commemorate his soul, so that it will be useful to him even after death. Left to grow, the love of money turns into passion: a person collects money for the sake of money; Because of them, he is ready to sacrifice not only someone else’s life, but also his own.

A lover of money cannot love God

The money lover forgot about the providence and help of God, which had protected him until now. He collects money for a rainy day, not realizing that he makes every day of his life a rainy day. Fornication, drunkenness, anger are obvious sins; and the love of money is an insidious, hidden sin, it is a baby snake that hides in the human heart, as in its hole, and grows, turning into a dragon.

A money lover cannot love God, even if he fulfills long prayer rules, visits temples, travels to holy places, and even makes some kind of donations. He who has no hope in God has no trust in God, and love requires trust - it itself is trusting by nature.

The money lover loves no one and no one loves him. He plays at love and they play at love with him. The place of Judas’s grave is unknown - and the grave of the money-lover will soon be forgotten: it will smell the same cold as from his heart during life. Having deprived himself of love, the money lover deprived himself of warmth and light, his very soul became corpse-like.

Alexander the Great, dying, ordered his body to be placed in a crystal sarcophagus, with an empty palm facing upward, as a sign that the one who conquered half the world took nothing with him into eternity. If we could see in the spiritual plane a money lover lying in a coffin with an open hand, then we would imagine his palm filled with dirt, into which money - his idol - had turned.

The fate of the money lover is tartarus

The embryo first develops a heart - this is the center of its being; In a corpse, the heart is the last thing to decompose in the body. But the money lover has already killed his heart during his lifetime - it is eaten away by worms, and he goes into afterworld with a soul filled with metaphysical darkness. There are two special ones in hell scary places: fiery Gehenna and Tartarus. There is no coolness in fiery Gehenna, there is no warmth in Tartarus - there is an eternal cold that permeates souls. The fate of the money lover is tartarus. Whoever extinguished love and mercy in himself during life will, after death, find himself in the realm of impenetrable cold, which is as terrible as fire; this cold pierces him through and through, like ice with its needles.

A money lover cannot love either his children or his parents. Although the voice of flesh and blood speaks in him, he has already given the main thing - his heart - to money and wealth. His children are deprived of what the children of the poor have - love. One writer has a story about how a famous mathematics professor was so stingy that he did not give his high school student even a change for travel. It was subsequently discovered that the son was stealing rare books from his father and selling them to second-hand booksellers, not only to get money, but to take revenge on his parent for his stinginess.

Pushkin has a small work “ Stingy Knight“, where the psychology and degradation of a person for whom the goal of life has become the acquisition of wealth is well shown. The stingy baron spares money for his own son so that he can acquire the weapons and clothes necessary for a knight, and goes so far as to accuse his son of attempted parricide before the duke. This drama ends with the father challenging his son to a duel and he accepts the challenge, because since childhood he has killed love and respect for his father in his heart.

Families of money lovers

Money lovers are despised by their own children. And here we see a certain paradox: either children grow up to be as greedy and petty as their parents, who tremble over every coin, or, on the contrary, wasteful, as if out of revenge on those who during their lifetime did not warm them with their warmth, but left an inheritance only because I couldn't take it to the grave.

A stingy husband interferes in all his wife's affairs; he checks expenses down to the smallest detail, asking how much something costs, and sadly shakes his head, as if it is his wife’s fault that prices are so high in the store and at the market. Usually wives do not like and despise stingy husbands. They would rather forgive carelessness and wastefulness than stinginess and pettiness, unworthy of a man. After all, deep down in her soul, until old age, a woman cherishes a romantic dream of a knight husband who would spare nothing for her sake. If she sees him as a cold businessman or huckster, she only tolerates him, despising him in her heart.

The situation is also no better if the wife is obsessed with the passion of stinginess. Her husband is in constant mental stress. He is afraid to spend time with friends, to invite his acquaintances to visit, because he knows that after this reproaches will begin, similar to the hissing of a snake. A stingy woman's house is messy and dirty. She doesn’t want to part with old and unnecessary things, and fills the corners of the apartment with them. Such a woman’s apartment resembles a junk shop, where there are a lot of unnecessary things thrown into a heap. If she has small children, then she buys them clothes that are too large for them, as if for several years in advance, so as not to buy new ones when they grow up. Stingy people usually have few children - one or two children, and sometimes they do not want to have them at all, as an extra mouth that would require additional expenses. Poisoning often occurs in such a family, since the housewife feels sorry for throwing away spoiled food, and she prefers to risk her own and other people’s health.

Why are stingy people often single?

A stingy person often abandons marriage and family, not for the sake of abstinence and spiritual life, but because of the expenses associated with family. It seems to him a terrible picture that in his apartment, as in a kindergarten, children will run and make noise, each of whom needs to be dressed, fed, put on shoes and taught. A significant part of infanticide occurs due to love of money and stinginess. Parents, having estimated the costs of each child born, come to the conclusion that such costs are not worth a human life.

It’s hard to repent of the love of money

The sin of love of money is one of those sins that is difficult for a person to repent of, because he himself despises this sin in others. At some moments he realizes its baseness, disgustingness and shame. It is easier for him to admit in confession to gluttony, fornication and pride, that he lied to friends, cheated on his wife and even killed a person, than that he could not sleep, worrying to the point of tears about the loss of an item or money that he lent, and they were delaying him with dedication. It’s even more shameful to admit that he is tormented and bitterly regrets that he gave expensive thing, and now without this thing life seems empty to him, like after the loss of his most loved one. He rarely talks about this sin in confession, avoiding it, because he is afraid that the priest will give him penance so that he would fight the love of money, for example, give some part of his income to the poor. He may get sick from such a confession or hate the priest as an encroacher on his property. Therefore, a money lover usually prefers that his passion, rooted in his heart, hides there until Last Judgment than to tear out this poisonous plant with agony and pain.

Stinginess cannot be justified by asceticism

Some religious misers seek their passion in the most spiritual ascetic literature. Having read from the Monk Isaac of Syria and other ascetics that the highest mercy is not physical, but spiritual, which is most manifested in prayer for humanity, the miser seizes on this thought and decides that he has no need to light candles in the church, serve prosphora at the proskomedia, or help those in need. , but one prayer for humanity is enough. Passing by beggars, he mentally prays for them and does not stop to give out alms, so that, in his opinion, the mind would not deviate from God. He does not want to understand that prayer for peace requires self-denial and sacrifice, that for the highest feat it is necessary to go through lower stages, that constant prayer for peace is a burnt offering, which requires a long and difficult struggle with passions, including the love of money.

The love of money alienates us from our neighbors

The Lord teaches us to see our neighbor in every person. The love of money turns someone close to someone distant, then into a stranger, and then into an enemy. Love expands the heart, but the lover of money has narrowed his heart to the size of a wallet. Although he hides his passion, it is visible to people; it cannot but appear, just as a fire in a haystack or the stench of a dead rat rotting somewhere under the floor cannot be hidden.

The love of money can be combined with external virtues, but this is self-deception. The goal of virtue is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, but the heart of a money lover is in a state of paralysis and cannot perceive the grace of God - the invisible light. His inner life takes place on the mental, and not on the spiritual plane. He can rejoice in trips to holy places, experience temple prayer emotionally, even cry with tenderness, but the door of his heart is locked for Christ.

Love of money in the Gospel

The Gospel tells how a rich young man asked Christ how to be saved. The Lord replied: “Sell your property, give it to the poor and follow me.” He called the young man to the highest apostolic service, but he accepted this as a cruel sentence: the desire for eternal life faded, the heavenly treasure was rejected for the sake of the earthly. The young man thought that he had fulfilled the commandments of the Holy Scripture, but the demon of love of money made him his captive. Before him stood the One who embodied truth, salvation and eternal life, and the lover of money chose an idol made from the dust of the earth. The Lord once called to Adam: “Where are you?”, but Adam hid in the bushes, wanting to hide from the face of God; Christ said to the young man: “Follow Me,” but the money-lover turned away from Him and, bowing his head, walked away. Adam listened to the serpent and lost God; but the money lover listened to the demon and lost eternal life.

A lover of money may be distinguished by such virtues as fasting, prolonged prayer, reading the Holy Scriptures, pilgrimages to holy places, meekness in dealing with people, affection, etc. It is easier for him to re-read the entire Psalter than to perform a work of mercy, which would require expenses from him. He will read the Psalter, but will he understand what is said there? Will grace be grafted onto his soul when the idol of the love of money stands in his heart, as in the pagan temple of the image of Moloch and Baal?

A lover of money is like a suicide

Love expands the human heart; it makes him capable of responding like a tuning fork to human pain, empathizing with the suffering of others, and rejoicing in their joy. Love deepens a person's life. It reveals previously unknown containers and spaces of the soul. Whoever loves God, his soul becomes an abyss filled with light; whoever loves a person, his heart exudes warmth. In this regard, the money lover is a suicide: he has compressed and petrified his heart, deprived himself of spiritual light and real communication with God. He may experience an emotional uplift during prayer and worship, like inspiration, and even consider this a state of grace, but there is no grace there, but a refined spiritual experience, a feeling associated with passions, which has nothing in common with spiritual enlightenment. These are mental and emotional states combined with blood and flesh, and the lover of money exudes muddy tears from his eyes, dissolved with vanity.

A lover of money is a potential apostate from Christ. I was told the following incident. One young man lived as a novice for several years in a monastery, was blessed with monastic clothes, was distinguished by a quiet disposition, and the abbot expected him to be an exemplary monk. Rich relatives began to often visit the novice and talk about their affairs. Soon he became sad and told the abbot that he was not suitable for monastic life, but wanted to create Christian family and have children. Without listening to anyone, he returned to the world and began doing business. He soon stopped going to the temple, and then a terrible misfortune befell him: during the division of income, a quarrel occurred between him and his companion, which turned into a fight, and the former novice inflicted a mortal wound on his former companion, from which he died on the spot. To avoid punishment, he managed to go abroad, and there was no more news about him. The love of money brought this man out of the monastery, forced him to engage in some dubious business, and then brought him to such a state that he became a murderer.

Love of money combined with vanity

Often the love of money is combined with its opposite passion - vanity. Then two demons attack the soul from both sides, each dragging it towards itself: but no matter which demon wins, the win is still Satan’s.

The love of money, combined with vanity, makes a person a constant artist and a liar; he makes generous promises that he does not fulfill, speaks of mercy, which he hates in his soul, does ostentatious good, but in the expectation that he will receive doubly.

Sharing as a type of love of money

There is also a type of love of money called greed. A person is always aimed at getting benefit from everything; he chooses friends based on profit, calculating how much someone is worth and what benefit can be derived from him. Such a person knows how to warm his hands even around charitable causes. Usually such money lovers are outwardly courteous, friendly and affectionate, but it’s all a mask: they look like a bird, with dove eyes and hawk claws.

The Bible says: “Alms cleanses all sin,” but only when it is accompanied by truth and repentance. The son of Sirach writes: “Better is a little with truth than a great thing with untruth.” If you give alms, you have gained a friend, and if you are repaid with ingratitude, then its price will double and triple, and the ingratitude of people will serve to save you. If you have given a debt, but they cannot or do not want to repay you, then perform another spiritual favor: accept it calmly and indifferently, as if you had moved a stone from one place to another.

Stinginess towards yourself

There is also a special type of stinginess when a person treats not only others, but himself as an enemy. Such a person deprives himself of the most necessary things: he dresses in old, already worn-out clothes, tries to buy cheap provisions, often spoiled and rotten, so as not to spend an extra penny from the treasury of his idol and master - the demon of love of money. This is some kind of special asceticism - to cut back and deprive yourself of everything in which and where it is possible; only asceticism is not for the sake of God, but for the sake of the demon, not to fight passions, but to serve one of these snakes.

Some money lovers keep money on their chests, afraid to part with it, in the place where the heart enslaved by passion beats, and at night they put the money under the pillow so that their family does not get to it. Favorite hobby such a money lover - locked in a room, counting money, sorting and putting them in bundles, while he falls into some kind of ecstasy.

Usury as a type of love of money

There are shameful professions: one of them is an executioner, the other is a moneylender. Usury is the most disgusting form of love of money. If the executioner takes a person’s life with one blow or shot, then the moneylender slowly drinks the blood of his victim. A moneylender is a man with a lost heart. In both Christianity and Islam, usury is prohibited, and yet it exists, because the passion of love of money makes a person forget about reward after death and his own soul.

The love of money is the sin of Judas

One is not born a money lover, one is made one. In the beginning, Judas was an apostle; he shared the difficulties and dangers of following his Divine Teacher. His fall did not begin immediately: he kept a donation cup, from which Christ’s disciples bought provisions and also gave alms to the poor. From there he started stealing money. The demon of the love of money deprived Judas of faith in Christ as the Savior of the world, and then completely took possession of him so that he betrayed his Teacher to death for 30 pieces of silver - the price of a slave.

The love of money is the sin of Judas, who from a disciple of Christ turned into a traitor and committed suicide. According to legend, the tree on which he hanged himself trembled with horror and disgust towards the corpse of the traitor. Every lover of money, to some extent, imitates the sin of Judas and condemns himself to the same fate in the future life - being in hell along with the fallen apostle. Saint John Chrysostom, in his sermon on the Gadarene demoniac, says that it is better to deal with a thousand demoniacs than with one money-lover, since none of the demoniacs ever dared to do what Judas did.

How to deal with the love of money?

The love of money must be fought from the very beginning, at its first manifestations. What are the means to combat this sin? First of all, memory of death. Righteous Job, having heard the news that all his property and children had perished, said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I will return. The Lord gave and the Lord took away; Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

A person who has realized the sin of love of money must force himself share with those in need. Some people, having done a good deed, then grumble and complain that they did not receive any gratitude or reciprocal favors in return. But to give for the sake of the Lord means to give freely, without expecting a return. He who gives in order to receive from another in return is like a money changer who cares about his own benefit and, having not received the profit he expected from the transaction, begins to be indignant and grumble.

The Lord allows misers to go broke

It must be said that the Lord often allows miserly Christians to go bankrupt in order to show how dangerous it is to rely on money, that wealth is a fickle friend that can leave a person at any time. Such miserly Christians, not understanding the providence of God, wonder why they pray a lot, but their affairs are worse than those of unbelievers.

In the Gospel, the Lord most severely denounced the Pharisees - these artists of goodness and actors of religion, who wrote sayings from the Law of Moses on the wide sleeves of their clothes in order to have them before their eyes, but in their hearts were written the words: love of money and vanity. You must force yourself by force of will to give alms, especially secret ones, and not tell anyone about it, either directly or in a hint. At first it will be difficult, like performing an operation on your own body or cauterizing yourself with a hot iron. But then a person begins to feel joy from the fact that he is fulfilling God’s commandment: he feels the touch of grace on his heart, which gives bright joy, and not dark pleasure, as when thinking about accumulated money. He begins to understand the words of the Savior that it is more blessed to give than to take. He feels the snake crawling out of his heart and thanks God, like a dying person, for returning to life.

Based on materials from an article by Archimandrite Raphael (Karelin), magazine "Holy Fire"

The purpose of man is to develop all those virtues that are embedded in his soul by the Creator. But how difficult this task is. After all, our nature is damaged and the tendency to evil is revealed from the very early childhood. Sins turn over time into passions that are very difficult to eradicate. And slavery to evil in this case cannot be avoided. One of these sins is the love of money, what kind of sin this is, how to recognize it in yourself and fight it, we will learn from the following article.

What is love of money

The virtue of non-covetousness was implanted in us from the very beginning by the Creator. When Adam and Eve lived in paradise, everything was arranged by God so that they did not need anything. There was everything they needed for life. After expulsion from paradise, the natural virtue of non-covetousness for us was transformed into the opposite moral quality - a passion for money as the source of all earthly goods.

The love of money refers to all of a person’s property. And, accordingly, money, real estate, and even an extra shirt - everything can become an object of passion.

In nature, animals also exhibit evidence of hoarding. But they are not determined by insane acquisitiveness or passionate enslavement, but are caused by vital necessity and have an adaptive nature.

But a person possessed by the spirit of gathering seeks not only what is necessary for life, but also tries to have more than that. And then how bright samples stinginess, miserliness, and other manifestations of the love of money, characters like the famous Gogol heroes are born. Who doesn’t remember Plyushkin from Dead Souls, who became one of the most recognizable examples of this passion.

Origin of the word

In the New Testament, God warns believers to strive diligently for Him and turn away from the love of mammon (wealth): “You cannot serve two Lords...”. Why is sinful attachment to material goods not called “love of gold” or something else, but precisely love of money?

Here again there is a connection with the events of the Gospel history. God did not just admonish Christians about the harmfulness of this passion. On the pages of the New Testament we can find a clear example of how love for mammon has a destructive effect on a person’s soul and his life.

One of the apostles of Christ, Judas, was hopelessly overwhelmed by a passion for profit. While banknotes were called pieces of silver. This, apparently, is where the name sin comes from. Perhaps the origin of the word has other roots. The Slavs in ancient times always called money “silver”.

The image of Judas served as an eloquent sermon that the Lord is betrayed by people because of money and the benefits that can be purchased for it.

For the sake of perishable material pleasures, many of us lose the opportunity to receive eternal life and spiritual joy, which is immeasurably higher than all carnal pleasures.

Meaning of the concept

In Orthodoxy, the love of money is such a state of a person’s soul that pushes him to violate all Divine and moral human laws in the pursuit of acquiring wealth. This is based on a strong preference material assets to the detriment of the spiritual.

Money lovers, having allowed destructive passion into their hearts, automatically violate all biblical commandments:

1. The first and second are like idolatry, deifying the “golden calf”.
2. The third (...the Lord's name is in vain...) is trampled upon by businessmen who falsely swear that their product (services) are the best, and the price corresponds to the declared quality.
3. Fourth, they work on Sunday instead of devoting the seventh day to God.
4. Fifth (honoring parents) - they spare money in order to adequately support their aged father and mother and help them financially.
5. Sixth (about the value of human life) - every day there are many murders for profit.
6. Seventh (about fornication) - trade in the body, in sinful love, flourishes widely.
7. Eighth (thou shalt not steal) - theft is widespread as an illegal way to take possession of material goods.
8. The ninth (about perjury) is violated in courts and other instances, where justice is trampled underfoot for money, and the weak and poor are offended.
9. Tenth (about envy) - in the heart there is an irrepressible desire to possess all earthly blessings.

A person subject to passion is capable of many vile acts. A doctor who makes an incorrect diagnosis or prescribes ineffective treatment in the hope of “beating money” out of a patient is one of the most common examples in our lives.

People infected with a passion for wealth can now be found at every step. Everyone strives to meet the “gold standard”. And they do everything in order to break out from the general gray mass of “losers” by any available means and ways. Where can we remember about God? He only interferes with their lives.

Mention in the Bible

The Holy Scriptures repeatedly mention the passion for wealth and profit. The Lord Jesus Christ himself spoke about the destructiveness of the love of money in his teachings, that “...it is difficult for those who rely on wealth to enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” The Apostle Paul argued in his sermons that the love of money is the basis of any sin.

Everyone knows the story of Judas' betrayal. Another striking example of the destructive love of money is the sad fate of the married couple, Ananias and Sapphira. The passion that settled in their hearts prompted them to lie. And they tried to deceive God himself in the person of the apostles. This eloquently demonstrates their unbelief. What brought the husband and wife to the Christian community remains unknown.

The passion of acquisitiveness is an attempt to live on this earth on your own, without God. In the Gospel there is a parable about a rich man who had a good, rich harvest. This man was delighted, broke down his old barns, created new ones and said: “Eat, drink, soul, be merry for many years to come...”. Here the basis of passion is also very well shown - how without God you want to receive and achieve a lot.

Historical reference

The love of money (or self-interest), the love of fame (self-aggrandizement) and the love of voluptuousness (love of pleasure) are passions that serve as a source of the appearance of other vices, the extinction of reason, and the weakening of faith. At the core is self-love.

Their existence and leading role in the formation of other sins was testified to by such holy fathers as St. Abba Dorotheos, Elder Leo of Optina, Venerable. Theodore of Edessa.

Sources and causes of appearance

Even the Apostle John the Theologian cited the division of the sin of acquisitiveness into: “... the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life...”. The Holy Fathers developed and improved the teaching about types of passion, recognition and fight against them. They believed that the love of money is the most dangerous, and is the basis of all other sins. It is eradicated by having hope in God with all your heart and soul.

Development and future fate

Over the centuries of Christianity, holy ascetics experienced not an easy path struggle with your passions. They left many books of spiritual content, from which we see how Orthodox asceticism became and developed. The Holy Fathers thoroughly studied all the subtleties spiritual work, including telling us about the passion of love of money.

For example, Theodore of Edessa outlined in detail the path of the emergence of passions in the human soul. He said that the three main ones - love of money, love of fame, love of voluptuousness - are invariably followed by the following five sinful habits, from which all types of vices are generated. The person who defeats the first ones invariably gets the opportunity to cut off all the others.

Current situation

The theologian of our time, Professor A. Osipov, like many other clergy and preachers, develops the doctrine of Orthodox asceticism. In his opinion, this passion underlies the pagan worldview that now infects most people, and is also the central core of scientific and technological progress.

Types of love of money

The sinful love of wealth manifests itself in different forms, sometimes the most unexpected. People of different incomes and social levels are susceptible to this passion. And it would be wrong to consider only the rich and successful as such, as if their condition were an indicator of this passion. A poor man sometimes clings more tightly to his last coin than another to his millions. And that is why the contribution of the poor widow from the Gospel stories, who gave everything she had, was so dear to the Lord.

The love of money includes a whole bunch of varieties of sin:

• covetousness;
• selfishness;
• stinginess;
• greed;
• extortion;
• fraud;
• perverse gain;
• self-interest;
• greed;
• selfish benefit;
• speculation;
• other.

Each of the listed points means a specific manifestation of sin, but all these definitions are related.

Stinginess

This is an extreme manifestation of greed, a painful reluctance to part with anything that goes beyond normal generally accepted norms. Greed is the insatiable desire to get as much as possible, while stinginess is aimed at spending as little as possible.

Covetousness

The sin of idolatry is when all worries are aimed at acquiring property, leaving no time and energy for God. It leads to the violation of almost all of His commandments, when the interests and benefits of other people are betrayed for the sake of profit, and the law of love for one’s neighbors is violated.

Mshelomystvo

Used primarily in cases where we're talking about about bribes, love of gifts, collecting, the presence of unnecessary things in everyday life, and the like. The reason often lies in pride, vanity, and lack of faith.

Selfishness

It is used when it comes to individuals who do nothing for others without their own benefit. Such people will not lift a finger for the benefit of another person for free. They are distinguished by the desire to obtain profit in any way, indiscriminateness in the means of profit, which leads to violation of civil and Divine laws.

Why is the love of money a sin?

The passion for accumulation is closely related to two other sins - gluttony and fornication. After all, in order to please your belly, eating expensive gourmet foods in large quantities, you need money. Therefore, such a person will inevitably develop a love for gold. To satisfy lustful passion often considerable funds are also required.

The desire to possess wealth, in turn, gives rise to sadness and anger, as well as sinful passions that destroy a person’s personality and his life. A money lover experiences the loss of property very hard, falls into anger and despondency.

How to identify in yourself

To discover the passion lurking in the depths of the soul, you need to be well aware of the signs of its external manifestation.

The Holy Fathers identified the following characteristic properties of this spiritual illness:

• the desire to live in comfort and luxury;
• love for expensive and rare things (collecting);
• theft, robbery and kleptomania;
• cruelty, greed and contempt towards the poor;
• envy;
• slander;
• insolence;
• impudence;
• perfidy;
• ingratitude;
• tendency to take oaths;
• dreams and thoughts about wealth;
• fear of old age, poverty, disease;
• love of gifts;
• passion for vain, perishable objects and affairs;
• a lot of worries and worries;
• cruelty towards all those in need.

The confessors claim that one who has attached his whole heart to wealth cannot love his brother, since he always wants to take something away from him. Such people, as a rule, are lonely because they are hostile towards everyone, even towards friends, close relatives and themselves, exhausting the soul with excessive worries.

Modern Orthodox psychologists, having conducted a series of studies, have come to certain conclusions in this area. Scientists believe that if a person could not part with part of his funds to save the life of another person, he is definitely enslaved by a sinful passion for money.

How to deal with sin

The holy ascetics left Christians a rich heritage of their spiritual experience. From their books and teachings, we can easily learn those methods and techniques using which, with God's help, we can cope with any sin.

To eradicate the love of money from the soul, Orthodox confessors advise using:

• alms;
• non-acquisitiveness;
• memory of death;
• faith in God's Providence.

Non-covetousness becomes the most powerful means in this struggle. Monks build their entire lives on his principles, like on a stone. Although arbitrary poverty brings sorrow to the flesh, it gives peace and tranquility to the soul, so necessary for Christian life. Another effective technique is almsgiving. First, you should accustom yourself to give what is in abundance. Then it will be easier to share with the poor the last thing you have in your soul.

As the holy fathers say, love of money is the daughter of unbelief. Therefore, you should try with all your might to strengthen your faith in God’s Providence in order to overcome the harmful habit of relying solely on the power of money and power.

Video

You can learn how to fight sin from John Climacus and other holy fathers by watching this video.

Love of money... Spelling dictionary-reference book

Cm … Synonym dictionary

See: Covetousness, greed, love of money... Brockhaus Biblical Encyclopedia

LOVE OF AVER, love of money, many. no, cf. (book. outdated. inod.). Greed for money, selfishness. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 … Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

- @font face (font family: ChurchArial; src: url(/fonts/ARIAL Church 02.ttf);) span (font size:17px;font weight:normal !important; font family: ChurchArial ,Arial,Serif;)   noun. greed for money. Put his love of money aside for now... ... Dictionary of Church Slavonic language

Love of money- greed for money, greed: a sin that leads to many grave sins and crimes. The root of all evil is the love of money (First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Timothy 6:10) ... Orthodox encyclopedic dictionary

Love of money- greed for money, greed: a sin that leads to many grave sins and crimes. The Holy Apostle Paul in his first letter to Timothy points out: The root of all evil is the love of money (1 Tim. 6:10) ... Orthodoxy. Dictionary-reference book

Wed. outdated 1. Greed for money. 2. the same as selfishness Explanatory Dictionary by Ephraim. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern Dictionary Russian language Efremova

Love of money, love of money, love of money, love of money, love of money, love of money, love of money, love of money, love of money, love of money, love of money, love of money (Source: “Full accentuated paradigm according to A. A. Zaliznyak”) ... Forms of words

- ... Wikipedia

Books

• Help, Lord, to overcome my love of money
• Help, Lord, to overcome my love of money. The passion of the love of money manifests itself in greed, acquisitiveness, self-interest, envy, the desire for luxury, and bribery. But what is the result?.. John Chrysostom says: “The possession of a money lover is often...