Christian Contentment - 1 Timothy 6:3-10

Christian Contentment

1 Timothy 6:3-10

©Copyright March 22, 2020 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

The Apostle Paul wrote,

I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 12I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 13For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13)

It is a real test to be content in the unprecedented times we are currently in. Due to the Coronavirus, life has been turned pretty well upside down. Stores have been closed, events have been cancelled, we have been urged to stay inside. Is it possible to be content, even in times such as this.

This morning we can hopefully answer that question with a resounding "Yes." We have been studying First Timothy and we are in the last chapter and Paul is wrapping up his letter, in characteristic fashion, giving us a number of commands that are important and concise. Let's go to our text in 1 Timothy 6:3-10. I see three very practical directives for our lives. Let’s start with verses 3-5

Some people may contradict our teaching, but these are the wholesome teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. These teachings promote a godly life. 4Anyone who teaches something different is arrogant and lacks understanding. Such a person has an unhealthy desire to quibble over the meaning of words. This stirs up arguments ending in jealousy, division, slander, and evil suspicions. 5These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth. To them, a show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy.

Beware of Exalting the Trivial

Paul begins by warning us to look out for those who distort the message of the gospel for their own ends. The message of the gospel is pretty simple: God wants us to be His followers and has made a way for that to happen. We are rebellious, stubborn and sinful people. On our own, there is no way for us to be holy in God's sight. That ship sailed when we were very young. We required God to make a way for us to have our sin forgiven and he did this by sending Jesus. He traded His life for our sin. Those who put their hope, trust, and allegiance in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are forgiven and made new. This is the message of the gospel. This message, when understood and embraced transforms our lives in the here and now. We have different appetites and goals from the rest of the world. We are not looking over our shoulders wondering if we have done enough. Instead, we move forward in the humble confidence that we have been made new by the matchless grace and stunning mercy of God.

Paul was followed from town to town by those who charged him with all kinds of error. These people wanted to set up additional requirements for salvation. They believed you had to first become Jewish before you could follow Christ. They slandered Paul, they stirred up mobs, they did everything they could to discredit him. Paul says, "it was all about financial gain." These men were protecting their "market share."

When people make the gospel something different than it is, they become arrogant and lack understanding. They believe they can improve upon God's way of salvation. Paul said,

"This stirs up arguments ending in jealousy, division, slander, and evil suspicions. 5These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth."

There is a good deal of division taking place in the church at a time when we should be working together. Paul says when we desert the message of the gospel, when we make things about the consumer rather than the Creator; when we focus on externals rather than internals. We too can be overly concerned with “market share” (or numbers). We start competing as churches rather than working together as allies for the Kingdom. When we work as competitors, the unity of the church will be disrupted. It becomes about power and preference rather than worship and obedience. Pecking becomes extremely important. You had better align yourself with the right people or you will be discarded.

It is not always leaders that are the problem. There are some people who seem to relish finding "error" in other people. You aren't singing the right music, you didn't read from the right translation of the Bible, you don't have the right system of government, you aren't wearing the right clothes etc . . . in other words, you aren't doing things the way they think they should be done. In their mind, this means you are a false teacher.

Paul reminds us to keep our eyes on the message of the gospel. Nothing else matters! Beware of those who tell you that you can't get to Jesus unless you follow their program, attend their church, or prefer the same things they do.

Pursue Contentment

Next, Paul turns to the issue of contentment.

6Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. 7After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. 8So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.

People building kingdoms to themselves miss the point. The real treasure they should be pursuing is contentment. And you can't have contentment if it is about you! Contentment is being satisfied with God's provision for our lives. It is recognizing that everything else is just STUFF. It is the ability to enjoy what IS instead of always feeling restless about what you might be "missing."

Chuck Swindoll wrote,

"Striving to be better, oft we mar what's well," wrote Shakespeare. it's a curious fact that when people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. I seriously fear we are rapidly becoming a nation of discontented, incompetent marionettes, dangling from strings manipulated by the same, dictatorial puppeteer." (Swindoll Character 155)

One of the great examples of this discontent is our hyper-activity. We push ourselves, we push our children, and we try to fill the resultant emptiness with activity. We have to be on our phones, checking Facebook, Twitter and SnapChat because we might be missing something important (you aren't!) We place our children in activities that keep them busy night after night because we want to be seen as "good parents" and want our children to have "every opportunity." We buy them all kinds of stuff because we want them to be "happy." We might change jobs several times so we can more quickly climb the ladder of success.

There is a severe price tag on all these things:

our children are media addicted

we don't get enough sleep

we are losing our ability to adequately communicate with words

the main time families spend together is when they are belted into a car traveling to the next "thing."

we are lonely and empty

we "don't have time" to develop a true relationship with God.

when there is a crisis in the world we panic and look out only for ourselves

we compete with each other rather than support each other

Someone switched the price tags on the important things of life!

Contentment starts by recognizing who we are in Christ. Nothing material can add to our status in the Kingdom of God. We cannot be more valuable than we already are as children of the King! Satan's goal is to have us so busy that we never get around to appreciating who we are or the value of the people God has brought into our lives. He will keep us so entrenched in our phones that we will never truly appreciate each other. He will work to make us feel deprived even though we have been richly blessed.

A Purtain writer by the name of Jeremiah Burroughs defines contentment as

that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition. (Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment p.19)

When we are truly content, we are satisfied not only with what we have, but also with who we are, and how God is using us in the body of Christ. It is the realization that God in His wisdom has placed us right where He wants us to be. It is trusting that God knows what He is doing.

There is no need to compare ourselves with others. We can be content right where we are.

Asaph in Psalm 73 catches the beauty of contentment

Yet I still belong to you;

you hold my right hand.

24You guide me with your counsel,

leading me to a glorious destiny.

25Whom have I in heaven but you?

I desire you more than anything on earth.

26My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,

but God remains the strength of my heart;

he is mine forever. (Psalm 73:23-26)

All the material things and the treasure we embrace can be taken from us in a moment. Honestly, I hope our experiences with the coronavirus helps us appreciate the blessings we have taken for granted.

The ability to get a good education

The conveniences that surround us

The rich privilege of being able to gather together

Our family

Our generally good health

Productive labor and the blessing of a good job

The warmth of a good handshake or caring hug

The relative availability of the comforts of home

The joy of friends and neighbors

Contentment is focusing on the blessing of what IS instead of feeling deprived by what ISN’T. Doesn't that sound like a delightful place to be?

View Money as a Tool and Not as a God

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

It is the love of, or the obsession with money that leads people to steal, to scam, to swindle.

Money will not satisfy (even though I know many of you are thinking even now, "I'd sure like to be able to test that hypothesis." The more we have, the more we have to guard, and fix, and insure. We live in a society drowning in debt from the pursuit of the happiness we think can obtain from the material. (We have probably all engaged in some retail therapy on occasion). And we discover we are not any happier, just more in bondage. We have to work more to pay for what we hoped would make us happy.

Money in and of itself is not evil. It is a means of exchange, a tool. It is something you can use to indulge yourself or help others; you can spend it recklessly or invest it eternally. It is the LOVE of money that is the root of many evils. We can easily put our trust in money rather than in the Lord.

We believe happiness can be found in the right purchase

We think we can buy influence

We place our security in our 401K and other investments

We rest in a healthy bank account

We believe the better job with the higher salary will be more satisfying

Later in this chapter Paul said,

Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. 18Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. 19By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

The message is simple: we can use what we have been given for earthly rewards (which perish) or for heavenly rewards (which are eternal).

I don't know a great deal about tools. I have learned (mostly the hard way) that tools are made to be used for particular purposes. If you don't use them properly you can cause some real problems and even severely hurt yourself. Money is a tool. You can use it for good or for evil. It was meant to be used to further the work of the Lord. If we use it selfishly, it can draw us away from God and lead us to the worst of troubles.

Bringing it All Home

There are a couple of practical applications I want to draw from this text.

The greatest service to others is to be faithful and unashamed of the truth of the Gospel. People need to hear the truth of the gospel much more than they need to debate the latest news stories or rehash the most recent sporting event. We must not be preoccupied with lesser things. We should stop quibbling about words and start serving the Lord who saved us to bring glory and honor to Him. We should stop wringing our hands over our circumstances and start celebrating the reality of God's grace.

In a time of crisis, we must keep in mind the role we can play. We are messengers of hope and we point to the One who is strong enough to see us through any crisis.

We would enjoy life more if we changed our focus from what we don't have to what we DO have. Contentment is a wonderful goal. We should want to get to that point when we

pass on a promotion to keep doing what we enjoy

turn off the television or set down our phone to enjoy our partner and family

slow down our pace so we don't miss living while we live. It is a sad thing to get to the end of life and say, "My life is at its end, and I missed it!"

downsize to minimize our costs so we have more to share

focus conversations on our blessings rather than our burdens

crave the riches of relationships rather than piles of stuff

We would be better off if our default posture was one of gratitude rather than envy or discontent. We have been redeemed and made a child of God through the blood of Christ. That is something for which to be grateful no matter what is happening in the world.

Let me close with what author Tim Hansel calls the Four Commandments for Contentment

1. Thou Shalt Live Here and Now. God's life is in us right now. It is not reserved for some future day; it is to be lived in this moment. God has given us everything we need to be happy. Hansel writes, "It helped me realize again that the peace and happiness we seek must begin with an unadorned acceptance of where we are and who we are." Life is only granted to us one moment (this moment) in time. Do not look past the moments. . . even in tense and distracting times!

2. Thou Shalt Not Hurry. When we hurry, we don't see people. We don't savor moments. We don't have time to live. We brag about our crazy schedules because we think it makes us seem important. In reality it is a sad confession of a life out of balance.

3. Thou Shalt Not Take Thyself too Seriously. The fate of the world does not hang on your shoulders or mine. The Lord is the one who gives all good things. We are bit players on the stage of life. Lighten up!

4. Thou Shalt Be Grateful. We need to take more time to think about the incredible gift we have been given in Christ. We should be thankful for the blessings that are all around us instead of licking our wounds from the past or dreaming about what things could be in the future. (When I Relax I Feel Guilty 1979 p.80)

I hope one of the benefits of the coronavirus is that it opens our eyes to how much we have that we simply overlook. I hope it helps us to discover a little of what it means to be content.