1 Timothy 6:3-10
Introduction: Just as we are now paying very close attention to certain metrics and vital signs of physical health – our temperature, cough, fatigue, 1 Timothy was written to show us what metrics and signs we should be paying attention to for our spiritual health. In this passage, we get another glimpse into what was going on in this unhealthy church at Ephesus. There were very influential people in the church teaching things that were not in agreement with the sound (ie, “healthy”) teaching of Jesus Christ and with “the teaching that promotes or leads to godliness.” (ie a real/genuine Christian life). Paul teaches Timothy how to tell the difference between a real, growing faith in Jesus and an unhealthy, empty counterfeit – look for contentment.
To start things off, ask yourself a question: How content are you today? This may seem like an unfair question give all we are facing - global pandemic, sheltering in place, job disruption, economic uncertainty and more. But could it be that what we think we need to be content right now is not what we actually need? Before moving on, let’s define Christian contentment:
Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition. (Jeremiah Burroughs)
Or, paraphrased slightly: a calm, inward satisfaction in what I have been given by God
Coronavirus and Contentment, is this really possible? Paul says it is and shows us how.
1) How to Stay Discontent
Paul begins his instructions to Timothy by showing us how to stay discontent. In verses 3-5, Paul paints a picture of a very unhealthy approach to God that is “out of agreement” with the sound “healthy” teaching about Jesus Christ. He lists out the symptoms of this spiritual disease: being conceited, having an unhealthy interest in arguing (controversy), envy, quarrelling, slander, suspicion (thinking the worst of people), constant disagreement, etc (v.4). Next, he reveals in where this pride/relational unhealthiness comes from – a discontentment which is rooted in a false belief about God and godliness.
The false belief is “imagining that godliness is a way to gain.” [The key words are “a way to” (also translated “a means to”]
Paul exposes the belief at root cause of all this unhealth – It is thinking that our relationship to God, and our obedience to Him, is a means to something else; that we hope to gain/receive from Him in return for what we do for Him. This is living for God to get from God, which is in direct opposition to the belief at the heart of Christianity – that we live for God for God.
Paul then shows us how our false beliefs about God are very closely connected to our false beliefs about money. He doesn’t not say that money is evil or that material things are bad. He does say the love of money (v10) and desire to be rich (v9) is what lies at the root of our discontent.
But what drives a love of money and a desire to be rich? It’s the hope of having the power to control our circumstances. It’s the belief that these circumstances will lead to contentment. When we look to money for the power to control our circumstances, that is when money becomes a substitute for God (an idol). This is why Jesus said it is impossible to serve both God and money.
At any point in our lives (and possibly even more so in this current economic moment), we can be tempted into using God to get the circumstances that we want or to look to money as a god to protect or change our circumstances. Here’s Paul’s message - looking to our circumstances for contentment is a sure-fire way to stay discontent
2) How to be Content
Christian contentment is not a matter of changing our circumstances or somehow ignoring or detaching from the reality of hard circumstances, it is a matter of becoming more aware of all we already have been given in Christ by grace in any circumstance.
This is what Paul is saying in verse 6 ,“godliness with contentment is great gain”. A genuine, living and growing relationship with God through Christ is not a means to something else, it IS great gain itself. This is the secret to contentment
It is easy to fall into the trap of interpreting God through our circumstances. If things aren’t working out for us, we think how could He be loving and good? But we must learn to interpret our circumstances through God and the “teaching of Jesus Christ” (the gospel).
In the cross of Christ, we see the hard truth about the circumstances we really deserve because of our sin. Jesus took these circumstances we deserve in order to give us what we really need. Himself. In the cross we also see God’s mysterious wisdom - He was able to take the worst possible circumstances and work the best possible circumstances from it
If God would do this for us, we can learn to trust that, “Everything is needful that He sends; nothing can be needful that He withholds.” (John Newton). When we interpret our circumstances through the lens of gospel/grace, we are able to accept the two hard facts about life that lead to true contentment.
The difference between what lasts and what doesn’t (v7). We are born with nothing and we die with nothing. All our circumstances in this life are temporary – but God promises to “never leave nor forsake us”.
The difference between what we need and what we want (v8). There is much God gives us that we don’t truly need – Paul says we receive all of it with thanksgiving and enjoy it but realize that these things will never make us content. Just the basics are enough
3) How to Stay Content
Contentment is not something we achieve once and never lose – it requires constant attention and monitoring to avoid the temptation of falling into discontent. Discontent, when left undetected and untreated, is a serious disease of the soul that does leads to ruin and destruction. To stay content, we need to take a few preventive measures: .
Resist misunderstanding. Contentment does not mean:
We do not feel or acknowledge difficult emotions (ie Stoicism)
We do not pursue change and growth, or even changes in our circumstances – but we act from a place of contentment in our identity in Christ, even when things don’t change.
We do not cry out to God in our adversity and suffering asking Him to help and change things
We simply accept injustice. Instead we seek “His kingdom come” while praying “His will be done”
Receive the gift of less - There are all kinds of things that we’ve had to cut back on or no longer have. Thomas Watson writes “Be content; if God dams up our outward comforts—it is that the stream of our love may run faster to Him!”. Sometimes we learn contentment in seasons of want.
Receive the gift of limits - Most of us imagine contentment outside of our current situation with all its commitments and restraints. But Christian contentment teaches us that what God wants to give us in our real and current circumstances with all its limitations is far better than what we could ever find in our imagined circumstances. It is in our current life circumstances with our limits where we will find God Himself, the only source of true contentment.
There is a rich spirituality in these principles: Stay inside your commitments, be faithful, your place of work is a seminary, your work is a sacrament, your family is a monastery, your home is a sanctuary. Stay inside them, don’t betray them, learn what they are teaching you without constantly looking for life elsewhere and without constantly believing God is elsewhere.
Ronald Rolheiser, Domestic Monastery
DIAGNOSE – Using the definition of contentment above, how content are you? Give yourself an honest rating on a scale of 1-10?
REFLECT OR DISCUSS
What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions?
How do you fall into the false belief at the root of discontentment?
Answer this question – What one thing do you believe that – if you had it or if it happened – would make you truly content?
Does your own relationship to money reveal a tendency toward idolatry?– ie making money your god to give you the circumstances you believe will make you content?
Do you find yourself interpreting God through your circumstances? How so? What would it look like to interpret your current circumstances through the truth about God and what he has done for you in Christ?
How does the gospel help us trust the love and wisdom of God when we struggle through unwanted and difficult circumstances?
How can receiving the gifts of less and limits lead us into true contentment? Is there a way God is teaching you this now?