“But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.”— 1 Timothy 6, 9.
IF you should see a man that had a large pond of water, yet living in continual thirst, not suffering himself to drink half a draft for fear of lessening his pond; if you should see him wasting his time and strength in fetching more water to his pond, always thirsty, yet always carrying a bucket in his hand; watching early and late to catch the drops of rain; gaping after every cloud, and running greedily into every mire and mud in hopes of water; and always studying how to make every ditch empty itself into his pond;— if you should see him grow gray and old in these anxious labors, and at last end a careful thirsty life by falling into his own pond, would you not say that such a one was not only the author of all his own disquiets, but was foolish enough to be reckoned amongst idiots and madmen? But yet foolish and absurd as this character is, it does not represent half the follies and absurd disquiets of the covetous man.
Note it is “They that will [desire to] be rich,” not “they that are rich.” 1 Timothy 6:11 gives warning: “O man of God, flee these things.”
“Keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Tim. 6:14.)