---
title: 1 Timothy 6:10
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-timothy-6-10/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-timothy-6-10.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Timothy 6:10
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Timothy 6:10

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

## JW Usage

"The love of money is a root of all sorts of injurious things" is one of the Watchtower's sharpest proof-texts against the prosperity gospel and paid clergy. JWs use it to contrast their donation-box model (anonymous, voluntary, no collection plate) with televangelist fundraising appeals, and to argue that the moral fruit of "God's organisation" is visibly different from what the verse warns against.

## Protestant Usage

Agree with the indictment. Copeland, Osteen, and Dollar are a genuine scandal, and confessional Protestantism has said so from within for decades. Then apply the verse with the same honesty to the Watchtower's own record. 1 Timothy 6:10 is not a test of salary structures — it is a test of where the heart sits in relation to money, and any organisation's real posture shows up in how it handles wealth when no one is watching.
Concrete examples to raise gently: the Brooklyn Bethel property sold for over a billion dollars before the 2016 Warwick move; the May 2015 *Watchtower* (study edition) encouraged children to donate their "ice cream money" and members to consider "their surplus"; the September 2017 Governing Body letter instructed congregations to send excess Kingdom Hall funds to Warwick; Beth Sarim in 1929 was built with donor money for the resurrected patriarchs who never arrived. A movement that takes 1 Timothy 6:10 seriously has to let the same verse test itself, not just its rivals.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Prosperity Gospel Is a Scandal — and Confessional Protestantism Has Always Said So](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/prosperity-gospel-acknowledgment.md) — 1 Timothy 6:10 — the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil [Practice]