True Gain Refrains

6/24/2009

1 Timothy 6:6 6 But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.

New American Standard Bible

The contrast is between godliness and wealth and hinges on the focal word ‘gain’. It appeared to Paul that many so-called teachers were about and they were using their knowledge as a financial means to live, and some apparently quite luxuriously. But Paul’s response to this was to define the word ‘gain’ and to show that true gain is only when godliness is partnered with contentment. Wealth usually drives us to want more and more wealth; contentment tempers that desire and allows us to accept what we have from God without fearing or mistrusting that He is somehow going to forget us or leave us wanting…we can only learn that from Him.

As I read these words today, I realize the magnitude of my own mistakes with money and possessions and realize that I have resisted contentment. The pull of our materialistic society is very strong and my fight against it must be fierce or else I’ll make the same stupid mistakes all over again. The gain I now seek these days is to live and serve the Lord and to be content with what I have, where I am, and what the Lord gives me.

Father in Heaven,

You give big things to those who have been taught by You to handle it. I pray for more teaching and learning at the throne of grace to use contentment in whatever I do and to use the Holy Spirit’s power to fight against the pull of my culture to amass myself more and more of what delivers less and less – I pray in Jesus’ Name, amen.