I Timothy 6:6-19 is a section offering some parting advice around the theme of wealth.
In context, the passage contrasts God’s true servants with shameless ministers who imagine that “godliness is a means of gain” (1 Timothy 6:5b). These greedy pretenders of the gospel are arrogant, lack understanding, and relish the opportunity to engage in fruitless debates. Despite well-conceived schemes to impress others with their knowledge of the faith they claimed they had, they nonetheless display a multitude of unsavory attributes such as “envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling” (1 Timothy 6:3-5a). Yet, why do the persons who are teachers in the church engage in this behavior? Here, we see the temptation that wealth represents. Very simply, they seek above everything else to increase their own financial status. In short, the adage — “by their fruits you will know them” — proves to be true yet again.
After describing these ungodly teachers, the author will offer an alternative model for how honorable teachers and ministers of the faith ought to live. Through a series of contrasts in verses 6-19, he instructs Timothy and other believers in the art of righteous living. As he puts it in 6:3b, he offers “teaching that is in accordance with godliness.”
I Timothy 6:6-10 becomes a homily on moderation. 6 Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment [αὐταρκείας, self-sufficiency in a positive sense]. The only other time we see “contentment” in the New Testament is in II Corinthians 9:8. Thus, the first attribute that characterizes genuine believers is that they are content with daily provisions. We want what we cannot have instead of wanting what we already have. Paul argues that contentment is a key to health, that happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have. Contentment is recognizing that we are dependent on God's provision ("our daily bread" as Jesus puts it). It is not something we earn but is a gift from God. False teachers appropriately think, “godliness is a means of gain” (v. 5b), for it is, but they are wrongheaded about the type of gain that godliness brings. True believers know that godliness brings gain — even “great gain” — but only when “combined with contentment.” False teachers are never content — as evidenced by their multiple maladies (e.g., conceit, envy, slander, etc.). Discontent is a life that bends toward overconsumption. One always wants what one cannot have instead of wanting what one already has. Contentment is a key to health and happiness. It recognizes that we depend on God for our daily bread. When we are content with what we have, our appetites bend toward satisfaction. One will have less temptation to seek satisfaction in the things that are more like junk food. 7 for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it. Then, the author offers a bit of wisdom that had already become a popular proverb in his day and is part of our common wisdom today. The author is recalling the words of Job, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21). Faithful people understand this fundamental reality of a human life. Birth and death are the basic parameters of a human life. Not only that, earthly goods cannot satisfy a human's soul (cf. Luke 12:15-31). Wealth is not essential to one’s well-being. Wealth is not the proper vocation of the Christian. Consequently, it is senseless to invest one’s time and energy with no restraint to pursue that which cannot last. He then applies this wisdom in a specific way. 8 But if we have food and clothing (if we have what is necessary to meet the needs of the body), we will be content with these. The false teachers obviously wanted more than just food and clothing; otherwise, they would not have been envious and mistakenly thought that godliness was a way to secure additional income. Interestingly, he does not mention shelter as a basic physical need. Beyond that, the passage reminds us that most of us want more than the basics. 9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. The desire for material riches is senseless and hurtful. Recognizing harmful desire is an important part of our spiritual growth. The desire for worldly wealth is a challenge for the Christian community. The desire to be rich leads to other temptations that trap humans. One craving gives way to others, and soon satisfying oneself plunges the self into destruction.
Junk food, if it becomes a steady diet, is harmful to the body. It can be addicting. The same is true with harmful desire. In this context, the empty promise of material gain is that it will be the source of happiness. One can think of many testimonials of those who dedicated themselves to the pursuit of wealth, only to realize their lives were poorer for it. If it was and remains a monumental challenge for believers — both ancient and contemporary — to put these exhortations into practice, the next words serve to highlight the contrast between the false teachers and true believers even further. False teachers who think that godliness is a means for material gain and “those who want to be rich” incur greater consequences than just envy, conceit and the like.
In the Greek, this verse has a recurring letter whose alliteration helps to fix this verse in the mind and drive home the point that these cravings lead to ruin and destruction, instead of the "great gain" of verse 6. Those who desire to be sick fall into temptation. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. All this reflection leads to another bit of proverbial wisdom, both then and now. Money itself is not the problem. To use an example from another part of our lives, sugars and fats are not the problem. The problem is our intemperate use of them. We need them to live. In an analogous way, we need money. However, we need it in moderation, and we need it in perspective. He is not arguing that the love of money is the one and only root of all evil under the sun. The definite article does not occur in front of the word "root." There are other derivations of evil besides the love of money. Money will lead to many forms of evil. And in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. Such eagerness toward riches leads to envy toward those who have more money than we do. Putting faith in money will lead the person of faith to wander away from the faith that has sustained the person. The verb and object progression of verse 9 serves to emphasize the full extent of a future disaster that awaits anyone who loves money. In their desire to be rich, they wander from the faith confessed by the church and harm themselves by their attitude and conduct. Though ominous, these moral warnings resonate with similar ones from other ancient philosophers.[1] He views wealth as a peril. He begins with stressing that godliness and contentment are great gains for followers of Jesus. The author knows that a godly person is not interested in such wealth, but in inner resources that are far beyond what earth can offer. The chain of events in verses 6-10 moves to its ultimate point: first it is noted that some humans desire the wrong things (material wealth), then they fall into temptation and are caught up in senseless and harmful desires, in which they are irrevocably ruined and destroyed.
One word in this passage leaped out at me: contentment. One reason it did so is that the word is rare in the New Testament. Further, I watched a movie that had the same type of message as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. The movie is Mr. Destiny (1990). Larry is a man having an unbelievably bad day, ending with the boss firing him. His car breaks down. He enters a mysterious bar. He starts telling the bartender that his life would have been so different and better if only he had hit the pitch in the big baseball game when he was in high school. Well, the bartender has the power to change what happened, so he receives a look at how his life would have been different had he hit the pitch. The momentous change in his new life was that he did not marry his wife in his other life. However, in his new life, he eventually meets her and convinces her that they had been married in another life. At the end of the day, she says to him, “Larry, if we had such a great life together, why did you want it changed?” Larry says, “I guess I just didn’t know what I had.”
Contentment is a virtue like that. It invites us to appreciate the life we have. Well, I suppose most of us want to be happy, healthy, and at least moderately wealthy. Human beings are that way. We want more of each as well, which is also quite human. I know some people who are so content they have become lazy. I am not suggesting that. I do want to suggest another dimension of reconciliation, that of God reconciling us to ourselves, helping us to be at peace with our lives.
Put more colloquially, wombs do not have closets and hearses do not tow U-Haul trailers.
I hope you do not mind a baseball story. Baseball. Gotta love it! What a game! Peanuts, popcorn, crackerjacks. Bleacher bums, passionate crowds booing the umpire. The crack of the bat. The smell of an oiled glove. The smell of spilled beer flowing between your feet from a couple rows up. Foul balls. Hot dogs with mustard and onions. Baseball's a game where miracles can happen.
Once, when a batter stepped into the box and made the sign of the cross, Hall of Fame catcher, Yogi Berra, said to him, "Let's just leave God outta this, okay?" But sometimes, God seems to interfere with the game. Take the miracle of Coogan's Bluff, for example. During this week, October 3, 1951, the time is 3:58 p.m. and it is in New York City, The Polo Grounds, also known as Coogan's Bluff, home field for the New York Giants. The Giants are playing the Brooklyn Dodgers - bitter cross-town rivals now battling in the best-of-three National League pennant playoffs. Only six weeks ago, the Giants had trailed the Dodgers by 13 games. But now it is the bottom of the ninth in the deciding game of the playoff series. Larry Janzen, the Giants pitcher, retires the Dodgers in the top half, but the Giants are behind 4-1. Dodger fans are leaving their seats leaping down the bleacher stairs to be near the field to rush out in celebration when the game ends. The Dodger pitcher, Hall of Famer Don Newcombe, is tiring. He's given up another run to make it 4-2 Dodgers. Then two more runners get on second and third, and the winning run is coming to the plate: Bobby Thomson. Manager Charlie Dressen decides to give Newcombe the hook, and brings in Ralph Branca, number 13, to face Thomson and secure the win. On deck is rookie Willie Mays. Branca's no slouch. As a 21-year-old phenom, he'd won 21 games back in '47 with an E.R.A. of 2.67. But Branca does not know that - according to credible accounts - Giant manager Leo Durocher has posted a telescope in their centerfield clubhouse to steal the catcher's signs, relaying them to the batter via the bullpen catcher. Then the miracle. Branca winds up and delivers a fast ball. Thomson hits it into the fifth row over the 315 foot sign in left field. Game over. Giants win. Dodgers, ahead most of the season, most of the playoff series, most of the game - lose. This one home run gives the Giants the 1951 pennant in the most exciting sports event in modern history. Nothing, no game, has ever come close. Fifty years later, it is still news.
But that moment haunted Ralph Branca, who was sighted after the game still in uniform, lying face down, fully prone, head hidden in his hands. In Branca's family, "You separate church and state, not church and sport." Cleanliness may be next to godliness, but so is baseball. God plays ball, or at least loves the game. For the faithful Brancas of the game, every ball sailing into legend, every pitch bouncing past a catcher, can be to a degree attributed to an unseen force, the Almighty Umpire, deciding who is lucky enough to win, and who is strong enough to lose.
What is it like to be on the other side of someone else's miracle? Is it a place you have been? Paul wrote to his number one fan, "there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment" (I Timothy 6:6). But how do you find contentment when by a fluke, by a chance, by a wrong turn, or by a mistaken choice you find yourself crushed by someone else's triumph? He wins. You lose. She cheers. You gnash your teeth. There are always winners and losers in ball games, and in life, but if you lose because an unseen force makes it so, how can you live in contentment? Can you feel at peace when what you feel cheated?
Ask Ralph Branca, a man of integrity. He knows. "Hours after Ralph Branca had thrown the most infamous pitch," recalls Sal Maiorana, "on which Bobby Thomson had hit the most famous home run to end the most famous game in baseball history, Branca stood face-to-face with a priest named Father Pat Rowley." "Pat, why me, tell me why me?" Branca asked. "I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't run around. Baseball is my whole life. Why me?" Father Pat, who happened to be the cousin of Branca's fiancée, looked at Branca's long, sorrowful face, stared deeply into his glossy brown eyes and answered, "God chose you because He knew you had faith and strength to bear this cross." The good Father Pat Rowley, Fordham dean, was assuring Branca that Bobby Thomson was not just meant to hit that homer; he was meant to hit it off one man. "Ralph, God knows your faith is strong enough to bear this cross," Rowley said. Yow! Who wants that kind of miracle? Maybe no one, but there are times when God makes it so, when God has reasons we will never understand.
Was God a Giants fan? Did God have it in for Brooklyn? Or were there bigger, unseen, unanticipated, events at stake? What if you feel victimized by quirky circumstances that leave you reeling? What if you feel life has not given you a fair shake? Like a grade school child in a recess ball game you may feel like shouting, "That's not fair!" And you shout it to God.
What if worry and bone-crushing despair burden you? Paul says: "There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment." It looks good on paper, but, at times, godliness is not enough. Branca had his faith; he had his godliness. That did not stop him from feeling the loss. Most of us have faith, too. But it is easy to grow uneasy, unsatisfied, questioning, and resentful. Life, at times, makes you want to take your ball glove, your laptop, your wrench, your schoolbook, your paperwork, and throw it to the ground in disgust. One of Branca's teammates threw down his glove, nearly all hung their heads, and in their locker room after the game, it was as silent as a morgue.
Paul links this matter, "godliness and contentment," with the love of money. Branca, like many of us, could be content with the money he had in life. But money does not bring happiness. It might bring ease, but not happiness, not contentment. Branca could have been content, but not knowing he had given up a home run in the most important game of his life. There is nothing money can do about that.
Paul says that life is the most important game, and that we should pursue righteousness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. We should "fight the good fight of the faith" (v. 12), knowing that no matter what, God is right by our side, with us through thick and thin, winning or losing, right there with us on the playing diamond, teaching us to keep our eye on the big game, which is the life to come because that life really is life.
Paul encourages us to keep a heavenly perspective, not a worldly one. In other words, we should remember the insight of Father Rowley that God knows just how heavy a cross we can bear. And that is a bigger miracle than the one at Coogan's Bluff. Your strength of faith in the face of tough circumstances - that is the biggest, best and brightest miracle of all.
Thomson and Branca may have become forgotten athletes, just two more aging ball players who once upon a time played in the big leagues, had it not been for that fateful pitch and memorable hit. The real miracle may not be Thomson's hit, nor that he and Branca baseball history will forever link them. The lasting miracle from Coogan's Bluff may just be that Thomson and Branca became lifelong friends, for a real friend is worth more than any amount of money. Real friends are ones who practice good works, generosity and sharing, which the apostle Paul says stores up "the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life" (v. 19). That is godliness. That is contentment. That is great gain.
The virtue of contentment applies to many areas of our lives. Yet, it particularly applies to money and wealth. Money is an important part of our lives. One of the responsibilities of the church is to help us consider the role or place of money in our lives. I hope you will be willing to explore this topic with me for a few moments.
When it comes to questions of what motivates human behavior, we often fall back on a bit of proverbial wisdom: Follow the money. Sadly, one needs to bring this caution in Christian life as well. What motivates us?
Contentment is the theme of a godly life. We need to reflect upon what contentment might mean.
In a piece of proverbial wisdom, “we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it.” We do not come into this world with a suitcase. We do not leave the world with a u-haul. Any gains we make in this world, no matter how important, are only temporary. We need to keep the things we possess in their proper place. We ought not to cling to them quite so tightly. The possession of such things will not bring inner satisfaction.
In another piece of proverbial wisdom, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Love of wealth is not the root of every evil, but we need to look seriously at our relationship with wealth. Although contentment with food, clothing, and shelter suggests simple living, we must admit that most of us want more. Yet, does it not seem likely that obsessively surrounding oneself with ever more stuff will strangle your desire to lead a godly life?
Godly people focus upon righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Instead of allowing wealth to entice them away from faith, they are to fight the good fight of the faith. Wealth in this world ought not to be our objective. Rather, we are to be rich in the things of God be practicing generosity with the wealth they have now.
Money is an important part of our lives. One of the responsibilities of the church is to help us consider the role or place of money in our lives.
Money can be a sensitive topic in churches. A Colorado pastor tells of being in a grocery store one day and encountering a woman that she had not seen in a long time. It was uncomfortable, but the pastor finally asked, “Is there anything our church can do for you.” The woman responded, “Yes there is. You can stop asking for money all the time.”
Eventually, the pastor responded by making it the topic of a sermon. The pastor acknowledged that the church does ask for money all the time. We never fail to pass the plate. She then enumerated the ministries and missions of the church. What would a church look like if it did not ask for money? We would all take turns cleaning the building, providing the music, preparing the bulletins, doing the preaching and teaching, and spending a year on the mission field. In winter, you would dress very warmly. It would offer no childcare, children's church, or youth program. The pastor concluded: “A church that needs no money would not be much of a church at all. I am glad to be part of a church that always needs money. It means we are doing something, going somewhere, making a difference.”[2]
Yes, you are to “love your neighbor as yourself.” You are also to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). For Christians, giving out of what we have has as much to do with the first great commandment as with the second one.
When we think about money, we need to remember that we are thinking about our own spiritual well-being. Attachment to money can strangle spiritual life. The way we use our money is part of the way we love God with all our heart, soul and mind.
The New Testament makes it quite clear that we need to handle money with care. We can too easily become greedy for it and envious of what others have. Giving fosters a healthy relationship to money. It helps us re-think the notion of ownership, for you are a steward of all the things you possess. It encourages a spirit of contentment, thankfulness, and simplicity.
A study reported in the Washington Times says that Americans who donate and volunteer in religious organizations provide three-fourths of the “secular charity” as well. It found that households that gave to a religious organization in 2000 gave 87.5% of all charitable contributions in the nation, an average of $2,100 for each household. “Givers to religious congregations are dramatically more generous than others," said the report.[3] Six in 10 American households give to a religious congregation and more than 85 percent of those gave to secular organizations as well. Beyond giving money, the influence of faith extends to volunteering. 54% of regular worshippers also volunteer, out of a population in which 32% of Americans attend. One-third of the people give two-thirds of the volunteer time in this country.
I would like you to hear a witness from what some of us might think of as an unusual source.
In 2001, popular author Stephen King gave the commencement address at Vassar College.[4] Though most people know King for his horror fiction, which many people will not touch, many readers have noticed explicitly Christian themes in his novels, and he has even acknowledged that in interviews. You can find some examples by simply googling Stephen King and Christian themes.[5] During our vacation in Sebring, FL, we made regular visits to Starbucks. We made some new friends. One was a man who was from Maine. He came from the same area as Stephen King. I became attentive, knowing I would soon have him as an illustration. He said that people in the area know King and his wife were a little off base, strange, and weird. People did not know him as a good teacher of English. If you remember his story, Pet Cemetery, the area in which King lives has one. The stories of King often involved parts of the country he knew well. He then clarified. People in the area know King as a good man and a generous man. In any case, in the Vassar speech, he made some statements that mirror something Paul said in I Timothy 6:7: “[F]or we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it.”
While walking down the road one day in 1999, a minivan struck and severely injured King. In the speech, he referred to both his accident and to the earning potential of the graduates, saying:
Well, I’ll tell you one thing you’re not going to do, and that’s take it with you. I’m worth I don’t exactly know how many millions of dollars ... and a couple of years ago I found out what “you can’t take it with you” means. I found out while I was lying in the ditch at the side of a country road, covered with mud and blood and with the tibia of my right leg poking out the side of my jeans .... I had a MasterCard in my wallet, but when you’re lying in the ditch with broken glass in your hair, no one accepts MasterCard. ... We all know that life is ephemeral, but on that particular day and in the months that followed, I got a painful but extremely valuable look at life’s simple backstage truths: We come in naked and broke. We may be dressed when we go out, but we’re just as broke. ... And how long in between? ... Just the blink of an eye.
King went on to discuss what the graduates could do with their earnings in the time they had in that eye-blink:
... for a short period ... you and your contemporaries will wield enormous power: the power of the economy, the power of the hugest military-industrial complex in the history of the world, the power of the American society you will create in your own image. That’s your time, your moment. Don’t miss it.
Then he added:
Of all the power which will shortly come into your hands ... the greatest is undoubtedly the power of compassion, the ability to give. We have enormous resources in this country — resources you yourselves will soon command — but they are only yours on loan. ... I came here to talk about charity, and I want you to think about it on a large scale. Should you give away what you have? Of course you should. I want you to consider making your lives one long gift to others, and why not? ... All you want to get at the getting place ... none of that is real. All that lasts is what you pass on. The rest is smoke and mirrors.
Finally, King mentioned a specific local charity called Dutchess Outreach, which helps the hungry, the sick and the homeless. He said he was making a $20,000 contribution to it and challenged audience members to do the same. Moreover, here is one more thing he said:
Giving isn’t about the receiver or the gift but the giver. It’s for the giver. One doesn’t open one’s wallet to improve the world, although it’s nice when that happens; one does it to improve one’s self. I give because it’s the only concrete way I have of saying that I’m glad to be alive and that I can earn my daily bread doing what I love. ... Giving is a way of taking the focus off the money we make and putting it back where it belongs — on the lives we lead, the families we raise, the communities which nurture us.
Devotional writer Evelyn Underhill would have agreed with King. She once said that the saints she knew personally were so generous that they were often unable to keep anything for themselves. Some Christians have taken this to the point of vows of poverty. Such vows clearly are not possible for most of us, but that increases our spiritual need not to hold onto wealth too tightly.
In the church, we often refer to certain practices as important for our growth in the Spirit. They include prayer, Bible study, confession of sins, worship, submission, service and others, and we sometimes refer to them as “spiritual disciplines.” The disciplines help us avoid superficiality in our faith, which Richard J. Foster, who has written a book on the disciplines, calls “the curse of our age,” adding “the doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem.” He explains that the spiritual disciplines “call us to move beyond surface living into the depths. They invite us to explore the inner caverns of the spiritual realm.”
Generosity is also a spiritual discipline, which means it helps us avoid superficiality in our faith.
So yes, the church is always asking for money. However, it is also always asking you to pray, read the Bible, confess your sins, do good deeds and attend worship. All those things are good for our souls and help us go deeper into our faith.
In terms of “Money Matters,” Church helps us to put money in its proper perspective and gives an opportunity to give generously. Yes, we do so to make a difference in the world, of course, but we also give for the sake of our own spiritual well-being and health.
I am sure many of you have heard of the joke, where one person throws money into the air, and says that whatever God wants God will keep. [After the coins fall to the ground], Well, I guess God did not want the money because God let it fall to the ground. The implication, of course, is that we get to use the money in any way we want. Looking at it in another way, however, God, who inhabits eternity, has no use for the money. Neither will you nor I, when we are with God in eternity. The lesson is that God wants us to use it right here, as one of the ways we worship and serve God. The lesson is that we need to learn to place money in its proper perspective.
I Timothy 6:11-16 is a charge to Timothy. They focus upon the requirements placed upon Timothy as an officeholder in the church. Verses 11 and 12 allude to a rite of initiation. The present time is the time between the passion of Jesus and the anticipation of his second coming as the time when the baptized are to engage the battle (II Timothy 4:7; Philippians 3:12-14; Acts 20:24, 28-32). 11 But as for you, man of God, shun all this. The second attribute that characterizes disciples is that they put away harmful desire, the focus on gaining wealth, and the love of money. Rather than seeking wealth and suffering the consequences that such a desire entails, a faithful minister like Timothy and other godly people are to make other virtues the focus of their lives: pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. This list is like the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 and to II Timothy 2:22. Gentleness was a moral ideal in the Roman world and was said to be an especially important virtue for leaders. It involved calmness and moderation as opposed to the power and dissension. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. The writer knows it will be difficult to be a Christian in a hostile world. Instead of drifting away from the faith, they are to remain true to the faith they confess in the church and fight for it. The author appropriates the language of an Olympic contest to represent the moral struggle of leading well and staying clean in a world that is dirty and fights dirty. Take hold of the eternal life. This fight is for eternal life. Rather than allowing the pursuit of wealth to consume them, faithful teachers are concerned about those matters that transcend this world. God calls every godly person into this battle, but teachers of the church engage in this fight in a personal way. In a sense, the temptation for teachers of the church is greater, precisely because they spend so much time with these matters. He stresses that eternal life is that to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. He stresses that one intentionally participates in this fight.
I Timothy 6:13 contains a creedal statement about God and then about Christ.13 In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, indeed, fighting the good fight places the godly person alongside Jesus, who made the same confession before Pilate. It also bonds the person with Jesus, since they share in a common fight.
I Timothy 6:14-15a have some of the qualities of a hymn. The result is that the writer may be recalling specific aspects of the ordination of Timothy. I charge you that instead of succumbing to temptation offered by desires and falling into calamity on account of greed, he invites godly servants like Timothy 14 to keep the commandment of righteousness without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ; 15 which he will bring about at the right time—
I Timothy 6:15b-16 concludes this section with an elaborate doxology that shows the author's familiarity with the Hebrew Scriptures. he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, (Deuteronomy 6:4; Psalm 41:12; Isaiah 49:12-26; Daniel 4:35) the King of kings (Ezekiel 26:7; Daniel 2:37; Ezra 7:12) and Lord of lords (Deuteronomy 10:17; Psalm 136:3). 16 It is he alone who has immortality (Psalm 36:9; Isaiah 40:28; Daniel 4:34) and dwells in unapproachable light (Exodus 24:17, Psalm 104:2), whom no one has ever seen or can see (Exodus 33:20); to him be honor and eternal dominion (Psalm 41:13; 72:19; 89:52). Amen.
I Timothy 6:17-19 resumes the theme of those rich in possessions. The passage contrasts with Christians rich in the age to come. The wealthy are wealthy in this age only. Because God supplies what we need, Paul encourages Timothy to show the wealthy that God can use their wealth. To do so, they will need to adjust their consideration of the role and priority of money.
17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. The author recognizes the true source of happiness in life is not wealth. In fact, we have here a good reminder that God wants us to enjoy this life, brief as it may be. The reason for the moral advice of the New Testament is not to make this life harder, but to make this life increasingly happy for those who follow this path. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works. The size of the bank account is not what truly matters. We need to be rich in the amount of good we do toward others. They are to be generous, and ready to share, 19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life. The wealthy now receive some advice. These believers are not eager to be rich but are rich already. They risk seduction by harmful desire and its disastrous consequences. They have the temptation of pride and arrogance in relation to others in the church. Their temptation is to trust riches rather than God. His advice is to keep doing good and in fact become rich in doing good, which will include generosity with their wealth and readiness to share. They need to use their wealth correctly, toward other people. They should do this in the spirit of Acts 2:42-44. The result will be the treasure that truly matters in that it lasts in eternity. They will have eternal life. At the time of Judgment, the believer will not have to give an account of his or her good works; Christ will do it for the one who uses wealth to do good works (cf. Matthew 25:34-40).
In sum, faithful ministers and believers are engaged in a dramatic contest. Two distinct qualities mark those who genuinely participate in this struggle for eternal life. The first characteristic they display is an attitude of contentment. The second characteristic entails two opposing, but related behaviors. They are to shun anything that whets their appetite for money and pursue everything that promotes “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, [and] gentleness.”
[1] (cf. I. Howard Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles [ICC; Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1999], 652, note 55).
[2] I am sure many of you have heard of the joke, where one person throws money into the air, and says that whatever God wants God will keep. [After the coins fall to the ground], Well, I guess God did not want the money because God let it fall to the ground. The implication, of course, is that we get to use the money in any way we want. Looking at it in another way, however, God, who inhabits eternity, has no use for the money. When we are with God in eternity, we will have no use of it either. Maybe the lesson is that God wants us to use it right here, as one of the ways we worship and serve God. The lesson is that we need to learn to place money in its proper perspective.
[3] Issued by Independent Sector, a nonprofit research organization, and the National Council of Churches.
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