The LOVE of Money is the Root of all Evil.

In my Missions A3 class on Friday we watched a video of a sermon by John Piper called "Proclaiming the Excellencies of Christ, Not Prosperity, Among the Nations." This Sermon was mainly talking about how we, as American Christians, sometimes think that becoming rich is what is most important in this life and that the one way to get rich is to believe in God, and believe that He can make you rich. This way of thinking is so wrong. In fact, the bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. Piper goes on to boldly state that no one who is rich can be a good Christian. I personally disagree with this statement wholeheartedly. I know lots of rich people who have committed their lives to Christ and are living a life that pursues Him in all things. Also I believe that God has blessed certain people with money so they can use it for good, such as funding missionaries/mission trips, providing money for churches, donating money to Christian organizations ect. Without money in the Christian world, many outreaches would never get done because of lack of funding. However on the other side of that argument money is a huge temptation to those who already have it and to those who desperately want it for the wrong reasons. It is impossible to say that everyone who has money is bad, and they cannot be a true Christian who actively loves God. It all depends on how one responds to having money.  Do they give portions away to churches, charitable organizations, or missionary ventures? Do they crave more money and more stuff? Do they horde it all for themselves? If they do the later, they love money, and God says that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil, but he does not say that MONEY is the root of all evil. Therefore I hold my opinion that one can be rich and a good Christian as long as they are in love with God and not their money and stuff.