As I was listening to last Sunday’s message I was reminded of my friend Scott Rubin, who passed away two years ago. Scott had a heart transplant at age 35 and his life changed completely. For the rest of his life, he had to be within an hour’s drive of Stanford Medical Center. He had to constantly carry a pharmacy with him. Within a few years, the meds had ruined his liver and he had to a have a liver transplant. Then, when his second heart failed, he had a second heart transplant. One day, as I was telling him what I thought were serious troubles in my life he looked at me and said with a smile “I’ll trade you any second.” Despite the fact he had to live with the possibility of dying every day, he was content.
I want to talk about being content. Paul shares with Timothy the following in 1 Timothy 6:6 “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” I addressed the issue of godliness last week so let me examine the issue of contentment. Contentment is defined as being satisfied with one’s current life situation and state of affairs. If you are content, you are at inner peace with your situation and how the elements in one’s life are situated.” I like this definition. From a human perspective, it sounds like arriving to a state in life where you feel things are fine. Furthermore, as we see here, the Bible says we need we will gain much in our lives of we can combine both godliness and contentment.
It is crucial to understand that Paul begins this section with the word “But.” He is making a contrast with what he had been saying in the previous verses. Contentment with godliness is the antithesis of the corrupt people in Ephesus who thought (and taught) that wealth was a equivalent of being godly.
I have encountered many ambitious individuals throughout my life. There is nothing inherently wrong with ambition or wealth. In fact, there are instances in Scripture where God bestows substantial material blessings upon His servants (Genesis 39:2; 1 Samuel 18:14; 2 Chronicles 1:11–12). But what is troubling is seeing people who, in the pursuit of wealth and achievements, do not have peace. I knew a Christian leader like that. When I was younger, I saw him as a mentor, but as I grew up, as I became a father and a family, I saw that zeal for achieving things was not something to be proud of, but rather something to run away from. There was never peace, there was never contentment for this person; everything was a race that would never end.
Are you at peace with God? Are you at peace with the life He has given you? Are you at peace with yourself? Or are you at odds with everything? Can I encourage today to give a hard look at everything going in your life and say, like the apostle Paul in Philippians 4: “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want”? May God give us the wisdom to be content.
Add Your Comment