{"id":90772,"date":"2021-03-12T12:03:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T17:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/contentment\/"},"modified":"2023-10-07T22:17:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T02:17:25","slug":"contentment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/contentment\/","title":{"rendered":"Contentment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201c<strong>Godliness with\ncontentment is great gain<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>1Timothy 6:6<\/strong>). First Timothy is a letter from the\napostle Paul to his young prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Timothy, to encourage him in his new role as\na church leader. Chapter 6 begins with a description of true godliness. He\nwarns Timothy about those who \u201c<strong>think that godliness is a means to financial gain<\/strong>\u201d\n(<strong>verse 5<\/strong>).\nHe describes corrupt teachers who will divert believers from true faith in\nChrist by arguing over words, creating trivial controversies, and pursuing\nget-rich schemes. Paul clarifies the meaning of godliness and emphasizes that\nit is the opposite of what these trouble-makers portray it to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The\nheretical teaching that infiltrated the church in Timothy\u2019s day is still\nprevalent in modern Christianity. We commonly hear of preachers and Christian\nfigureheads using their positions of influence to amass unimaginable wealth so\nthat they can live opulent lifestyles. They then teach that their success is\nthe norm and a worthy goal that every believer in Christ should seek. They take\nGod\u2019s promises of blessing (<strong>Deuteronomy 28:2<\/strong>; <strong>Psalm 21:6<\/strong>; <strong>128:2<\/strong>) and create a religion out of\nthem. In some instances, Jesus is portrayed as a means to achieve all our hopes\nand dreams. Yet this is the very mindset we are warned against in <strong>1Timothy 6:9\u201310<\/strong>:\n\u201c<strong>Those who want\nto get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful\ndesires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. . . . Some people, eager\nfor money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many\ngriefs.<\/strong>\u201d&nbsp; <strong>Proverbs 22:2<\/strong> is clearly forgotten:\n\u201c<strong>The rich and\nthe poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Rather than consider amassing wealth as great gain, Paul states that \u201c<strong>godliness with contentment is great gain.<\/strong>\u201d Christ-followers should focus their effort on pursuing holiness in conduct, attitude, and thought. They should choose to be content in whatever circumstances God has given them, just as Paul himself had done while in prison (<strong>Philippians 4:11\u201312<\/strong>). We are told to \u201c<strong>flee from all this<\/strong>, <strong>and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>1Timothy 6:11<\/strong>). Contrary to what many popular health-and-wealth proponents would have us believe, the Bible warns us against pursuing riches (<strong>Proverbs 23:4<\/strong>; <strong>Matthew 6:19<\/strong>). It is impossible to be content when our hearts are set on gaining more. We will not remain godly for long if we are not content with what God has given us. A desire for godliness is quickly eroded by a greedy, covetous spirit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The\nBible never says that it is a sin to be rich. There are examples in Scripture\nof God blessing His servants with tremendous material wealth (<strong>Genesis 39:2<\/strong>;\n<strong>1 Samuel 18:14<\/strong>;\n<strong>2 Chronicles\n1:11\u201312<\/strong>). But <strong>1 Timothy 6:17<\/strong> instructs the wealthy this way: \u201c<strong>Command those who\nare rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in\nwealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly\nprovides us with everything for our enjoyment.<\/strong>\u201d The difference is in\nthe heart. Both greed and contentment are states of the heart. When we choose\nto be content with the riches of Christ (<strong>Colossians 1:27<\/strong>; <strong>Ephesians 3:8<\/strong>) rather than pursue\nmaterial riches, our lives will be more in line with God\u2019s desire for us,\nbecause \u201c<strong>where\nyour treasure is, there will your heart be also<\/strong>\u201d (<strong>Matthew 6:21<\/strong>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cGodliness with contentment is great gain\u201d (1Timothy 6:6). First Timothy is a letter from the apostle Paul to his young prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Timothy, to encourage him in his new role as a church leader. Chapter 6 begins with a description of true godliness. He warns Timothy about those who \u201cthink that godliness is a means to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Contentment - Grace Evangelical Free Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Contentment - Grace Evangelical Free Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cGodliness with contentment is great gain\u201d (1Timothy 6:6). First Timothy is a letter from the apostle Paul to his young prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Timothy, to encourage him in his new role as a church leader. Chapter 6 begins with a description of true godliness. 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