Contentment is the greatest gain

In 1 Timothy 6:6, Paul writes to Timothy, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.”

In the previous verse, he had said that the teaching of the church was already being twisted, turned, and corrupted so that people were beginning to think that following God would lead them to financial reward, riches, and wealth.

But not so, he said. Even if you do find yourself with great riches, the greater thing, literally “the greatest gain” is to be content with whatever you have: much or little, wealth or meager means.

Are you content with what God has given you? Content with the job you have? The spouse you have? Your abilities? Your home? Are you content to merely belong to the family of God?

In the verses that follow, Paul gives two primary reasons for our contentment. In this post, we’ll explore the first, found in 1 Timothy 6:7.

 “We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.”

Last week one of my friends from work had a baby. The next day one of our students that we had worked with when I was in campus ministry at CMU, she had a baby. On Friday, one of my friends from college and his wife had a baby.

You know what all three of those babies had in common when they were born? They all came out naked, empty handed, with no jewelry or headphones. They had no iphone, no house, no car, no land, and no job. Just a baby.

And for all of them, for all of us, when we die someday, we may have accumulated those things, but they don’t go with us. So, weather you have a fat roll of hundreds in your pocket, or just a pocket, it doesn’t belong to you. You have those things for just a little while and have been given them by God to use, to manage, to enjoy, and to bless others with. And someday when you leave this world, none of it will go with you.

If I asked you to give away a twenty dollar bill to a stranger on the street today—to stop at an ATM, make a withdrawal from your account, and then just give it away—you would feel it. It’s hard to give away what is yours, what you’ve worked hard for, scrimped and saved to accumulate.

But what if I handed you a dollar of mine? What if I asked you to hold a dollar bill for me? Unlike the twenty, it’s not yours; it’s mine. I’m just asking you to hold it for a while.

Holding it in your hand, you realize, it’s still my dollar, not yours. If you gave it to someone else, It’s still my dollar, don’t get greedy. And if they passed it on, and that person to another, it’s still my dollar. If I took it back for a while, just to hold it, it’s still my dollar. If I gave it to another, it’s still my dollar. It doesn’t matter where you pass it, who hangs on to it, it’s still my dollar.

God has given us so many things for our use and enjoyment, but they are still his. It doesn’t matter how long or how tight we hold on to these things. They’re still his. Still his dollar. Have a nice looking 401k? Still his dollar. New car? Still his. Old car? His too.

Whatever we’ve been given, we don’t own it. We brought nothing with us, we take nothing with us. All we have, great or small, belongs to God.

This kind of mindset has the power to change your behavior.  When it isn’t your dollar, it’s easier to give it away. Not my dollar? Ok, give it to him? Not a problem. It’s not my dollar. Contentment is the greatest gain because it frees you to give away what was never yours in the first place.

Is there something you’re holding too tightly? How will this new mindset change your giving behavior today?

 

My next post will address the second reason for contentment found in 1 Timothy 6:8, “If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” How much is enough?