Why is godliness with contentment great gain

New American Standard Bible But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. NASB But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. NASB But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment.

Amplified Bible But godliness actually is a source of great gain when accompanied by contentment [that contentment which comes from a sense of inner confidence based on the sufficiency of God]. Christian Standard Bible But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Holman Christian Standard Bible But godliness with contentment is a great gain. American Standard Version But godliness with contentment is great gain: Aramaic Bible in Plain English For our profit is great, which is the worship of God while having the necessities, for we have enough. Contemporary English Version And religion does make your life rich, by making you content with what you have. Do we understand the implications of this?

Contentment is not a matter of personality. The apostle does not say that some godly people are also blessed with contented dispositions. He himself was not by nature an easygoing man. Far from it: he was an absolute bundle of energy, impatient, irritable, impulsive, forceful and driving. That was his temperament, but that was not how he was when his parents disinherited him, nor how he behaved in the Philippian jail, nor how he was when he wrote his last letter to Timothy from Rome.

He had become a contented man. We have to realise that we cannot justify our own depressiveness and melancholy by pleading that that is our own particular temperament. I may have a lazy temperament by nature. I may have a boisterous temperament. I may be naturally egotistical. I have to get to grips with my temperament.

The Holy Spirit is determined to make us godly and that means we are on course for change. Every single Christian has a personality problem — a certain awkwardness of temperament, and none of us has the right simply to justify what we are. We have to commit ourselves to the sweet gentle changes that the Holy Spirit works in all his people. We learn through the seasons of a Christian life to be contented. Leaning contentment also means that not all our impatience and anxiety and discontentment are overcome in one dramatic experience.

Some may plead their temperament as an excuse for not being discontented. Others may teach that all that is needed is one great experience and everything will change — conversion or the second blessing.

Would that it were so! But we cannot say that a church member who is not feeling contented today is not a Christian. We cannot say that in every real conversion contentment is bestowed upon a believer. We do not believe that at conversion every problem goes away. We do not believe that if a Christian gets an experience of the Spirit of God that he becomes instantaneously contented. For years after the Damascus Road Paul was not living at this level.

He did not pick up pure abiding contentment when he first met Christ. He did not pick up pure abiding contentment through speaking in tongues more than others. How does the godly man gain contentment? He learns it from the Bible. He deals with it through the long discipleship of the Christian life. I mean it very simply and literally. He goes to a church and sits under a ministry which periodically teaches him that contentment is a Christian duty.

He learns it in a sermon. I think that that is very important. Are you learning from sermons? Have you learned that God expects you to be contented? Have you learned that being discontented is a sin? Sometimes we justify our sulking, and silences in prayer meetings, and becoming passengers in a church, and obvious boredom with God because we do not think that such attitudes are sinful in the sight of God. But more than that, when Paul tells us that he had learned contentment he is saying to us that it was a lesson that he had actually learned.

He had not failed in this school. He had gained contentment by learning. Not by upbringing, and not because of his personality, but through learning he had become a contented man. How had Paul learned contentment? How can this be our attainment too? I think it is in two or three ways. A] Firstly, in the seventh verse of our text, in recognising the transitoriness of every material object in the world. We are often discontented because of our materialistic expectations.

So the apostle asks us, What did we bring into this world? Absolutely nothing. Naked and helpless we took our first breath. We were utterly dependent upon people we did not know or understand. They had to provide for us. And what can we take out of this world?

When we die and are buried we are naked and penniless again. As far as our earthly possessions are concerned our entry and our exit are identical. So all of us here today are at a point on a brief pilgrimage between two moments of nakedness, bringing nothing with us and taking nothing away with us. John Stott refers to a minister taking a funeral service of a wealthy woman, and someone asked him in a half whisper how much she had left. That is the perspective that is going to influence you if you are gripped by it — and you should be.

It does not matter how long I live, short or long, but when I die I will leave all my possessions behind. They are all the luggage of time. They are not the stuff of eternity. So travel light! The Lord Jesus commanded us not to accumulate selfishly treasures on earth. Think of the uncertainty of every earthly treasure. You have accumulated wealth, and yet how vulnerable all that is. You invest in grain, and you build your barns and hoard it all, and there the mildew and virus and vermin attack it, and all of it has to be destroyed.

You purchase some antiques, a painting, some 17th century books, an Egyptian statue, some choice pieces of silver, but those are all liable to breakage and theft. You possess some earthly treasure and it is so vulnerable to the forces of destruction and greed and revolution and war. During this last century, whose very essence was change and decay, there was so little that could be guaranteed.

Then let me be content with food and clothing, the apostle says v. The linking of godliness and wealth had been seen for years. Paul told Timothy to withdraw from men like this and avoid their destructive teaching. He countered their belief with one of his own in the following verses by saying,. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. This concept of contentment may not seem like a big issue to you. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, we are not hurting anyone by making more money and providing for our needs, right?

In the end, it all rests in our desire. Our equation for great gain involves godliness. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Those are very haunting verses. Money riches leads to a whole host of problems for the wealthy. In the verses above, we read the following potential outcomes to those who pursue wealth apart from contentment:. Wealth opens up access to many things that those without money do not have. It would appear that is not necessarily a good thing. The risks seem to outweigh the rewards.

In that respect there may be nothing much to gain. The issue really boils down to contentment, not riches. Paul was a missionary and a single man. He had little need for money because the churches he helped start raised money to support his travels although he did make money on the side from time to time as a tentmaker. Our society pretty much demands we have our own roof over our head.

Our careers demand commutes and proper attire. We have families and kids to feed. There are bills to budget for and college to fund. We live longer after our career is over and must support ourselves during that time. There obviously exists a need to create more wealth to fund these issues — most of which are necessities for us. This whole issue of contentment hinges on that phrase.

I have other desires that draw my attention day in and day out. Most importantly among those is living a godly life. Additionally, I desire to love my wife and kids, impact the students I teach every day, encourage others and be a good friend.

He says that people who want to become rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful desires that can plunge them into ruin and destruction. He says that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Notice, he does not say that money is a root of evil, but the love of money.

Money in itself is not sinful, but a "creature" of God. Paul brings up this matter in speaking of people who were teaching false doctrine and thinking that godliness was a means for financial gain.

We have come to the fall season of the year, the thanksgiving "season. Many farmers and others whose income is related to farming have suffered.

It is fitting that they, and we also, see how the Scriptures speak of contentment. The word contentment brings to mind its opposite, covetousness and discontent. People complain and grumble.

People also complain about their work, pay checks, homes, and a hundred other things. The word "murmuring" brings to mind the history of the Israelites in the desert on the way to Canaan. How bitter they often were. They criticized Moses in the very beginning of their journey when they stood at the banks of the Red Sea and they saw Pharaoh coming with his army of chariots and horses. Weren't there any graves in Egypt that they had to die here?

Soon after crossing the Red Sea by God's miracle, they complained about the bitter water, and later they wished they had stayed by the "flesh-pots" of Egypt.