77. All the same, love for the world is not so completely opposed to heavenly love as love for ourselves is, because the evils hidden within it are not as horrendous.

Love for the world takes many forms. Wealth can be loved as a means of gaining high office; a prominent position or high office can be loved for the wealth it brings; wealth can be loved because it affords us various kinds of pleasure; wealth can even be loved purely for its own sake, which is called miserliness; and so on. The goal for which we seek the wealth is called its use, and the goal or use is what determines what the love is like, since the nature of the love depends on the goal that it seeks. The other factors serve that goal as means.