In the first epistle to Timothy, Paul teaches us about idolatry to money: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil", 1 Timothy 6:10
Love of money is a form of idolatry because you worship an object, an idol, in this case, the money. This love is the opposite of the love for God and the neighbor, this is why Jesus explains the great commandment in the gospel of Mark:
"One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ´Of all the commandments, which is the most important?´
´The most important one´, answered Jesus, ´is this: ´Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.´ The second is this: ´Love your neighbor as yourself.´ There is no commanment greater than these." Mark 12:28-31
Love of money is characteristic of the natural man who is in opposition to the spiritual man: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Luke 16:13
When we love money the neighbor does not matter, this is why the love of money is the source of all evil. In other words, this is the love directed at false goods or the apparent goods, like the love for the power or the lust.
The love of money is associated with a high degree of internal suffering, we will always be afraid of running out of money, or how much money is enough to be happy. The vices of greed and miserliness arise as a result.
And it is in the miser in which this love is seen in a worse degree because the miser is stingy even with himself, the miser can be rich and live in poverty, which is paradoxical: the love of money becomes evil for those who have it.
For those who have this type of love, it is most advisable that they learn to practice mercy and charity, and to enjoy the small joys that the exercise of human virtue provides. We grow practicing mercy.
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