Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs…
As for the rich in this present age, charge
them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches,
but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do
good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing
up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they
may take hold of that which is truly life.
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Living
in a consumer society, the discontent we often feel is often the result of
persuasive advertising and sales talk and not because of what we ourselves
lack. We may think of ourselves as not too well off, and so be discontent, but
so long as we have enough for a healthy lifestyle, we probably would not feel
that way if everyone around us were less
well off than us.
Would it be true of you that, if nobody had more than you had, you would probably
be very well satisfied with what you have?
This
means, in part, what it is to be ‘dead to the world’. That may seem a rather
old-fashioned notion, something that past generations of Christians might have
comforted themselves with during hard times, but it should be no less true of us. We should not be inordinately taken up with comforts and
luxuries. When we have them, we should enjoy them, but we should not come to
depend on them as if they are a right.
Jeremiah
Burroughs likens Christian lifestyle to deer in a park. While the deer keep
within the fences, no dogs go after them, and they can feed quietly; but if the
deer get outside the fences, then every dog in the area will hunt them.
So it
is with us: if we keep within the bounds of the command of God, of the way of
life that he has explained in the Bible, we are protected. We may go about our
business in peace and cast all our cares upon God.
We
therefore need to seek employment based on our aptitudes and talents, rather
than on the expectation of a good salary, and limit our careers to the sorts of
jobs that we can do for the benefit of others. We should then do that work in
God’s way, loving our neighbours as ourselves and working for their good as
readily as for our own.
I
will return to this theme of contentment in a consumer society next weekend.
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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