It is not mammon itself that creates evil, but the love of mammon that creates evil.

It is the desire for mammon which creates evil.

This kind of thought, often related to medieval thought, attempts to identify a root cause for why human beings create evil. The end conclusion that philosophers came to was that what we call ‘desire’ is the single identifiable root of the creation of evil. This is because if you remove the desire, you remove the creation of evil.

From a Christian perspective, you could say that demons, dark spirits, and the devil can only use you through a single gateway, the gateway of desire.

People tend to feel judged when they are condemned for having desire, but it is not having desire which is evil, for you do not create desire and you are not evil. It is the feeding into desire which allows space for evil.

One perspective of evil is that which God does not desire. The things God does not desire are of a measure of evil. The more God does not desire them, the more evil they are.

You may remember the verses that say that you ought to turn your heart from your own evil desires, over to what God desires.

This ‘medieval’ model does not speak of words with the usual connotations and moral ideas such that we hear these words with in a modern tone and understanding. Rather than a moral argument, this model is a human attempt to find the cause of why man creates evil, so that they could attempt to stop creating evil.

This is difficult for us to understand, and it should be, because this is a human and analytical way to understand a far more curious and deep phenomenon, the phenomenon of human relationships and connection with others. This is like music. This can be understood intuitively from the following thought exercise.

First, imagine the future consequences of sin, the result of a city or country being completely destroyed by wickedness.

Now, forget about this “future consequences” perspective. Instead, turn your attention to the now.