1 Timothy 6:6-8, 17-19 How To Be Rich:Contentment
Orange Cat Wisdom
When I was a kid in elementary school, every couple of months or so the school would hold a Scholastic book sale and send home these fliers with all sorts of books targeted right at my age range. It was like getting the annual Sears and Roebuck catalogue, but for kids. (And I know that many of you have no idea what Sears and Roebuck is, let alone a catalogue, but some of you remember!)
My mom is a librarian, so she doesn’t believe in buying books. “Why buy a book when you can get it free at the library?” she’d always say. (It’s a philosophy I agree with today, although if you go into my office you’ll see I have quite a few books. Those are books for work, though! Books I read for fun I still get at the library!)
Anyway, those book sales were never that much fun for my brother and I. Our friends would buy books, but we didn’t. There were, however, other things in the catalogue, including posters. So mom didn’t let us buy books, but every once in a while we could get a poster. This was the early ‘80s, and Garfield the Cat was a big deal among the pre-teen set. There was a phase where my brother and I had several Garfield posters hanging on our bedroom walls. Here’s one that came out right after Bruce Springsteen’s big hit. Here’s one that shows Garfield’s classic Odie-hating behavior. And here’s one that reminds us that Garfield is a fat and lazy cat.
I don’t actually remember if we had any of those specific posters hanging on our walls. There were a bunch to choose from. But I do know that we had one poster in particular. It hung right above our light switch, and it looked like this:
I don’t know why, but I know my brother and I both loved this poster. “The One Who Ends up with the Most Toys Wins.” I guess it seemed aspirational. I guess it spoke to something we could see in America of the ‘80s. I guess it struck something in our basic human nature.
“Greed is good.”
Life is a game.
And in America, we judge who wins by who has the most stuff.
But I’m sure that was just my brother and me and Garfield, right? I’m sure you’ve never been affected by the desire for more things.
The Game
Last week we started a new series called “How to Be Rich.” Not: “How to Get Rich,” but “How to Be Rich.” We said that most of us, just by virtue of living in America, are far wealthier than most of the people in the world today; and far, far, wealthier than most of the people who have lived throughout history. We said that even if we don’t feel rich, we should want to manage the resources we have well. So we went to the Bible to find God’s instructions for people with money. 1 Timothy 6:17-19. It reads like this:
17Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
“Command those who are rich…” This is God’s instruction manual for people who have money. If we want to be good at being rich, these verses and the verses from the rest of chapter 6, tell us how to do it.
Last week, we saw that if we want to be good at being rich, we have to learn to love money less. We looked at some of the griefs that come from the love of money. And we ended with this game changing declaration, based on verse 17. (Last week I made you say it with me. This week I won’t, but I do want to encourage you to remember it.) The game changing declaration is:
I will not place my hope in riches, but in God who richly provides.
I want to talk a little bit about why I called this a game changing declaration. It has to do with that Garfield poster. We live in a world that is driven by the desire for more. More money. More stuff. Bigger. Better. Flashier. Newer. Like Garfield says, the rules of this game are whoever ends up with the most stuff wins.
But God wants us to play a different game. God wants us to see that a game played by the world’s rules has no winners. God wants us to see that real hope, genuine hope, doesn’t come from our accumulation of stuff, it comes from our relationship with Him.
I will not place my hope in riches, but in God who richly provides.
All of which leads to the Big Idea for today, which is this:
If we want to be good at being rich, we have to learn to be content with what we have.
The world says we should play a game of always wanting more. God says we need to change the game.
1 Timothy 6:6-8
Our primary text this morning is from earlier in 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6:6-8:
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
The main idea here is that first phrase. “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” If we want to be good at being rich, we need to learn to be content with what we have. But if we play around with the wording of this phrase, we can come up with three approaches to life that characterize so many people in our world.
Life Lived For Now
First, let’s consider Contentment Without Godliness.
This is the secular approach to life. A materialist mindset. This is the approach to life summed up by the Garfield poster. It’s a preoccupation with what can be seen and touched. It places a high value on stuff, and a low value on ideals like love, compassion and generosity.
God created us to love people and use things. But as many have pointed out, a materialist loves things and uses people. That’s the mindset of “Contentment without Godliness.” It’s playing the game by the rules of a secular, materialist world.
I found a sermon online by a Bible professor named Dr. Daniel G. Powers. He wrote:
I think it is interesting to look at the Greek word that is translated “contentment” in this passage. It is the word autarkeia. Literally, this word is a compound word made up of two different Greek words. The first word is autos, which means “self.” The second word is the word arkeia which means “enough, or sufficient.” In other words, those who pursue contentment without godliness think that they are “self-sufficient.” They have enough, and they are enough in and of themselves. They don’t need anything else. They have it all figured out. They are self-sufficient, and God or godliness is not needed at all.
[He goes on to say:]I find it interesting (and also quite tragic) that a person can sometimes go through life like this for a while and get away with it. But eventually, ultimately, something will go wrong, and the whole “house of cards” of their life will collapse around them. I have seen it happen, and it is so tragic and sad. They bet all their life on their own self-sufficiency, and when it falls apart, it falls completely apart!
https://nbc.edu/news/31878/godliness-with-contentment-is-great-gain---1-timothy-66-8
The real problem with a materialist view of life is that it lasts for such a limited time. We may get rich in this life, but we cannot stay rich. Here’s how the passage puts it, in verse 7:
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
This verse is a rephrasing of a couple of verses from the Old Testament. Job famously said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall depart” (Job 1:21) and the book of Ecclesiastes used the same expression adding that in the end we take nothing from our toil that can be carried in our hands (Ecclesiastes 5:15).
It’s an obvious statement, but also fairly profound. As I said last week, hearses don’t pull U-Hauls. Nothing we own or achieve materially–not our houses, not our cars, not our bank accounts–goes with us when we end our time on earth. It is all temporary.
This verse reminds me of one of my favorite illustrations. The story goes that a miserly old man died, leaving behind three sons and a large estate Just before the funeral, the man’s lawyer came to the sons and shared the contents of the old man’s will. He had three big bags of money. He explained that the old man really wanted to take his money with him, so he had requested that each son take his inheritance and place it in the casket with him.
Well, the boys were pretty bummed, but they loved their dad and wanted to honor his final request. So, just before they put the casket in the ground, each son was given one final, private moment with their dad’s body to give the money back. There were a lot of tears—because they missed their dad, and it was A LOT of money.
Then, when they were back at the church for lunch, the two older brothers noticed that the younger one still had his bag of money. “Hey,” they said, “you were supposed to give that back to dad.”
“I did,” said the youngest, “I wrote him a check!”
The Pharaohs of Egypt used to be buried surrounded by their treasures. But centuries later when archaeologists broke into the pyramids, all that stuff was still right there. Corpses don’t cash checks. Gold does us no good after we die. We can’t take it with us when we go.
Another illustration. When one of the wealthiest men in history, John D. Rockefeller, died, his accountant was asked: “How much money did John D. leave?”
The accountant's reply was a classic: “He left all of it.”
This is also the important truth behind one of Jesus’ parables. In Luke 12 we are told that a man was in a dispute with his brother over their inheritance. The man came to Jesus, hoping he would set his brother straight. Instead, Jesus said:
15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
Jesus went on to tell a story about a farmer who had a banner year. The man didn’t know what to do with his abundant harvest, so he tore down his barns and built bigger ones. Then he congratulated himself on the great wealth he had laid up for many years to come; and settled down to eat, drink and be merry.
And yet, that very night, Jesus said, God came to the man and called him a fool. His time on earth ended that night. Who, then, would get the riches the man had prepared for himself?
Jesus ends that parable with this warning:
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Storing up things for ourselves, without being rich toward God. That sounds an awful lot like contentment without godliness. It’s selfishness. It’s materialism.
And the Bible says it is a dead end street.
The Veneer
There's another way we can play around with our key phrase, and it leads to an equally empty approach to life. Some people seek Godliness without Contentment.
This is an approach to life that sees God as a means to an end. It uses God, but plays by the same rules as the secular materialist.
In order to see this in the text, I need to take us back to 1 Timothy 6:6. This is our key phrase, but did you notice the conjunction it starts with? It starts with a “but.” That means this phrase is a response to something that came earlier.
In the verses just before this, Paul is talking about false teachers. He’s warning Timothy that there are some unscrupulous individuals who trade on controversies and quarrels in the name of Christ. Why do they do this? He says this in verse 5:
5 [They have an unhealthy interest in…] constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
In other words, in Paul’s day (and in our day too) there are people who are willing to use the name of Jesus and the claim to be Christian in order to stir up the passions of their audience, gain a following, and in that way pursue financial gain. They have an appearance of godliness, but their motivations remain entirely materialistic.
Let me put it like this. At various times in our marriage, Beth and I have bought the kind of furniture that we have to put together at home. We’ve gone to some of the Big Box stores and bought bookshelves, end tables, and dressers for our kids’ bedrooms. And, even though I’m not the handy type, we’ve been able to follow the instructions well enough to get them together and get them to work. But we’ve also moved a few times in our married life, and one thing I’ve noticed: furniture like that rarely survives a move.
And why is that? Well, you’ll notice when you assemble that stuff that even though it looks good with a nice wood grain pattern and bright finish, it’s all just a veneer. The actual material the furniture is built from is pressboard, basically sawdust glued together. So all those screws and pegs that I had to so carefully insert just fall out as soon as any pressure or twisting is applied.
It’s that veneer that I think of when I read these verses. What Paul is describing is people who are willing to use the name of Jesus to pursue financial gain. They put on the veneer of godliness, but in the end their goal is just as materialistic as the person who makes no mention of God at all.
We don’t have to look far to find examples of these types of people. Many of the celebrity preachers in America, especially those who teach the so-called “prosperity gospel” are lining their own pockets while defrauding their audience. Preachers with their own private jets, as well as those with million dollar mansions and luxury watches should immediately fall under our suspicion.
But it’s not just false teachers who practice godliness without contentment. I wonder how many of us are also at risk of using Christianity as a veneer.
Last week during Sunday School we talked about how, to much of the rest of the world, America is known for two things: Christianity, and Materialism. And we talked about how for many non-Christians in the rest of the world, it is American materialism that colors their view of Christianity. In other words, American wealth and consumerism is so prominent, they just assume that all American Christians are obsessed with wealth.
And maybe they’re right?
The risk is that we’ll use Jesus to baptize the American Dream. We’ll go to church on Sundays, and check the box marked “Christian” on the census report, but we’ll spend our time playing the same game of material accumulation and chasing after bigger, better stuff. We’ll tell ourselves that we love and serve the LORD, even as we bow our knee to Mammon.
Godliness with Contentment
Which leads us to our third way of life, the way of life being called for in this passage. It’s not Contentment without Godliness. It’s not Godliness without Contentment. Rather, it’s Godliness with Contentment.
This is the approach that says if we have God, we have enough. Verse 6 again:
But godliness with contentment is great gain
There is a way to get ahead, and it has to do with wanting less.
There is another saying that says, “There are two ways to be rich. One is to have all you want. The other is to be satisfied with what you have.” That’s what this verse is saying. It is great gain for us when we are marked by godliness with contentment. John Piper has said:
Godliness that overcomes the craving for material wealth produces great spiritual wealth. So what verse 6 is saying is that it is very profitable not to pursue wealth.
A seventeenth century English Puritan named Jeremiah Burroughs wrote a book called “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.” He wrote:
A Christian comes to contentment, not so much by way of addition as by way of subtraction… Contentment does not come by adding to what you have, but by subtracting from what you desire. The world says that you will find contentment when your possessions rise to meet the level of your desires… The Christian has another way to contentment, that is, he can bring his desires down to his possessions.
I heard a story about a little girl who taught her grumbling father an important lesson about contentment. She was talking to her mother and said: “I know what everybody in this family likes. Johnny likes hamburgers, Janie likes ice cream, Willie likes bananas, and Mommy likes chicken.”
The father, irked because he had not been included in the list, asked, “What about me? What do I like?”
The innocent little one replied, “You like everything we haven’t got.”
When we are always thinking about what we are lacking, constantly casting our eyes at the greener lawns on our neighbor’s side of the fence, we lose sight of what we do have. When we nurse our discontent, we fail to appreciate the blessings we do have.
But when we focus on the spiritual riches Christ provides us, we can be satisfied even with the bare necessities. As verse 8 says:
8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
Paul says that if we have Godliness with contentment then when we have food and clothing we will be satisfied. That is pretty basic, isn’t it? We don’t need a certain model of car, a large bank account or a brand new home to be content. We can be content if we have the basics.
We have been blessed in this country. Most of us have far more than just food and clothing. John Piper again:
… we can be content with the necessities of life because the deepest, most satisfying delights God gives us through creation are free gifts from nature and loving relationships with people. After your basic needs are met money begins to diminish your capacity for these pleasures rather than increase them. Buying things contributes absolutely nothing to the heart’s capacity for joy. There is a deep difference between the temporary thrill of a new toy and a homecoming hug from a devoted friend. Who do you think has the deepest most satisfying joy in life, the man who pays [hundreds of dollars] for a fortieth floor suite downtown and spends his evening in the half-lit, smoke filled lounge impressing strange women with ten dollar cocktails, or the man who chooses the Motel 6 by a vacant lot of sunflowers and spends his evening watching the sunset and writing a love letter to his wife?
One of my favorite illustrations comes from Leadership Magazine. I’ll close the sermon today with this story:
Leadership Magazine carried a story about 4 young men, Bible College students, who were renting a house together. One Saturday morning someone knocked on their door. When they opened it, there stood this bedraggled-looking old man. His eyes were kind of glazed over, and he had a silvery stub of whiskers on his face. His clothes were ragged and torn. His shoes didn’t match. In fact, they were both for the same foot. And he carried a wicker basket full of unappealing vegetables that he was trying to sell. The boys felt sorry for him and bought some of his vegetables just to help him out. Then he went on his way.
But from that time on, every Saturday he appeared at their door with his basket of vegetables. As the boys got to know him a little bit better, they began inviting him in to visit before he continued on his rounds.
They soon discovered that his eyes looked glazed over not because of drugs or alcohol, but because of cataracts. They learned that he lived just down the street in an old shack. They also found out that he could play the harmonica, that he loved to play Christian hymns, and that he really loved God.
Every Saturday they would invite him in, and he would play his harmonica and they would sing Christian hymns together. They became good friends, and the young men began trying to figure out ways to help him.
One Saturday morning, the story says, right in the middle of all their singing and praising, he suddenly said to them, "God is so good!" And they all agreed, "Yes, God is so good." He went on, "You know why he is so good?" They said, "Why?" He said, "Because yesterday, when I got up and opened my door, there were boxes full of clothes and shoes and coats and gloves. Yes, God is so good!" And the roommates smiled at each other and chimed in, "Yes, God is so good."
He went on, "You know why He is so good?" They answered, "You already told us why. What more?" He said, "Because I found a family who could use those things, and I gave them all away." (Melvin Newland, Sermoncentral.com)
Godliness with contentment is great gain. If we want to be good at being rich, we have to learn to be content with what we have.
