Live a Godly, Content Life
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs 1 Timothy 6:6-10
The above text is the first of three sections in Paul’s letter to Timothy dealing with money. They run one after the other.
In this first one (6:6-10) the emphasis is on the dangers associated with money. In the last (6:17-19) the emphasis is on how to handle money righteously. Sandwiched in-between (6:11-16) is how Timothy’s attitude to money should contrast the world’s attitude. The fact that the Western church feels uncomfortable with all three should start alarm bells ringing.
So in this first part (6:6-10) Paul wants Timothy’s thinking to stand out from that of some of the visiting teachers to the church in Ephesus (6:3-5). They expected their ministries to be well supported financially and followed the traditions of visiting philosophers. These philosophers would be always calling on their listeners for offerings and would promise more time to those who gave most.
How does Paul respond? He agrees that ‘godliness … is great gain’ (6:6) but only if accompanied by contentment. Living godly will generally bring prosperity to our lives but with the divine safeguard of being content with what we have. Striving to be rich creates a whole lot of unwanted problems that amount to our being painfully impaled on a sharp pole (a vicious and painful death).
Live godly; expect God’s blessing but foster contentment as if your life depended on it – because it does.
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