Thursday, April 14, 2011

Be Content

Paul deal with the issue of slaves and masters in I Timothy 6. He says that servants are to honor their masters so that God’s doctrine isn’t blasphemed. When we work for someone, they should be glad they have Christians working for them, not sorry they hired us. But he also says servants shouldn’t despise their believing masters. Fortunately, slavery is outlawed in America, so I don’t think we would see a situation with believing masters, but in Paul’s day it was a way of life. The economy was such that if the Christians had suddenly turn their slave free, they would have gone broke and the slaves probably wouldn’t have a way to make a living either.

Paul begins to write about people who suppose that “gain is godliness.” He tells Timothy to withdraw from such people. There have always been people who equate wealth with godliness because they see it as verification that what they are doing is pleasing to God. Paul turns that around and says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.”

We were broke when we were born and we’ll be broke when we die. We have money for a while, but it just isn’t that important. Coveting money can cause us to do things we shouldn’t. So Paul says to put godliness first and be content with what we have. If you’re doing what God has called you to do and you aren’t making much money at it, be content. If you’re doing what God called you to do and you are making a lot of money from it, be content. Either way is better than being stressed out because we aren’t making as much money as we would like.

Then Paul ends the letter in much the same way he began it. He reminds Timothy not take care of the important things and to avoid these pointless discussions that do nothing more than waste time. Avoid the oppositions of science that isn’t really science at all. Some people are drawn away from the faith by those things. We should not allow ourselves to be.

“Grace be with thee. Amen.”