Chapter Seven: Contentment
CHAPTER SEVEN
Contentment
Godliness with contentment is great gain.
1 TIMOTHY 6:6
Contentment is one of the most distinguishing traits of the godly person because a godly person has his heart focused on God rather than on possessions or position or power. As William Hendriksen has observed so well, “The truly godly person is not interested in becoming rich. He possesses inner resources which furnish riches far beyond that which earth can offer.”[16]
The words rendered as “content” or “contentment” in our English Bibles actually mean “sufficiency.”[17] The same word translated “contentment” in 1 Timothy 6:6 is rendered “all that you need” or “all sufficiency” in 2 Corinthians 9:8. When God said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9), He used the same word translated elsewhere as “be content” (see Luke 3:14; 1 Timothy 6:8; Hebrews 13:5).
The contented person experiences the sufficiency of God’s provision for his needs and the sufficiency of God’s grace for his circumstances. He believes that God will indeed meet all his material needs and that He will work in all his circumstances for his good. That is why Paul could say, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” The godly person has found what the greedy or envious or discontented person always searches for but never finds: He has found satisfaction and rest in his soul.
The idea of contentment in the Bible is most often associated with possessions or money, but there are other areas of life in which we need to be content. After possessions, probably the most common need is to learn contentment with our place in society or in the body of Christ. Still a third area that demands our practice of contentment is the providence of God in such varied circumstances as physical limitations and afflictions, privations, unpleasant neighbors or living situations, trials, and even persecutions. These circumstances often cause the natural man to murmur and complain and to question the goodness of God in his life.
The very first temptation in the history of mankind was the temptation to be discontent. God had provided for Adam and Eve far beyond all they needed. Genesis states, “God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground —trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.” God withheld only one tree from Adam and Eve as a test of their obedience to Him. And Satan used that one tree to tempt Eve by sowing seeds of discontent in her heart. He questioned the goodness of God to Eve, and that is exactly what discontent is: a questioning of the goodness of God.
Satan tried the same strategy with Jesus in the wilderness. He sought to make Jesus discontent over His lack of food and covetous for position and power over the kingdoms of the world. If Isaiah 14:13-15 is a veiled reference to Satan, as many scholars believe, then we can conclude that Satan’s own downfall was occasioned by his discontent —his unwillingness to accept his God-ordained position in the hierarchy of angelic beings.
We should note these incidents carefully. Discontent is one of the most satanic of all sins, and to indulge in it is to rebel against God just as Satan did.
To be content with one’s possessions is one of the most strongly worded exhortations in Scripture. God deemed it important enough to include a prohibition against covetousness together with prohibitions against the more abhorrent sins of murder, stealing, and adultery (see Exodus 20:13-17). In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He dwelt more extensively on the principle “You cannot serve God and money” than on any other subject. While later addressing a dispute over an inheritance, He said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). His double warning to us —“Watch out! Be on your guard” —alerts us to the extreme danger of being discontent with our possessions.
Paul has a similarly strong warning for us in his first letter to Timothy as he urges us to be content with food and clothing because the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. He warns Timothy to “flee from” this love of money and discontentment with possessions (see 6:11). The writer of Hebrews frames his admonition in the form of encouragement as he urges us to keep our lives free from the love of money and be content with what we have because God Himself has promised never to leave or forsake us (see 13:5). So Scripture both warns us of the dangers of discontent and encourages us to pursue contentment on the basis of God’s promise to provide for us.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us that everything written in the past was written to teach us (see 15:4). The historical events recorded in the Old Testament, then, are not merely interesting anecdotes; they were written that we might learn from them. With this truth in mind, we need to give careful heed to the result of covetousness in the lives of Achan and Gehazi, as recorded in Joshua 7 and 2 Kings 5. Achan’s covetousness at the battle of Jericho resulted in the defeat of the army of Israel at Ai and his own untimely death by stoning. The covetousness of Elisha’s servant Gehazi resulted in the affliction of the dread disease of leprosy on Gehazi and his descendants forever. In the New Testament, covetousness was the root of sin that brought down God’s judgment upon Ananias and Sapphira (see Acts 5:1-11).
It may be true that God’s judgment upon covetousness and discontentment is not as severe or obvious in our day as it was in the days of Achan, Gehazi, and Ananias and Sapphira. Yet God’s attitude toward discontentment has not changed, and the spiritual danger of loving the things of this world is far more serious than the judgment of a dreaded disease or an untimely death. John says very plainly that if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. In other words, he is not a Christian! John makes it clear that a craving for possessions is being in love with the world.
In view of such strong biblical warnings against covetousness and the earnest exhortations of the New Testament writers to be content with what we have, we must take seriously the need to earnestly pursue contentment as a dominant character trait in our lives. It is not a spiritual luxury. Contentment with what we have is absolutely vital to our spiritual health.
How then can we pursue an attitude of being content with what we have? What are some practical steps we can take? As with every other character trait, begin renewing your mind by memorizing and meditating on one or two passages of Scripture you find especially helpful in this area. You may want to use Luke 12:15, 1 Timothy 6:6-8, or Hebrews 13:5, or perhaps some other passages from your own personal study. As you meditate on these verses, ask God to bring to your mind any specific areas in your life in which you are discontent with what you have. Decide on what definite steps you can and should take to deal with that area, and begin to take those steps.
Keep in mind, however, that only the Holy Spirit can work a lasting and fundamental attitude change deep in your heart, so make contentment a matter of regular, earnest prayer. I often pray as David did in Psalm 119:36-37, “Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; renew my life according to your word”(emphasis added).
Prayer and meditation on Scripture passages are essential to developing contentment about possessions. I’ve also found the following scriptural principles especially helpful in this area.
Our focus should be on the true values of life. In Mark 8, Jesus teaches that eternal life is more valuable than all the world. David declares in Psalm 19 that the Word of God is more precious than gold. Solomon tells us that wisdom (an understanding and application of the moral principles of God) is more profitable than silver or gold or precious jewels (see Proverbs 3:13-15). These statements all reflect God’s value judgments about what is truly important in life. We have to decide whether we will accept them and make them our own values. To the extent we do, we are well on our way to experiencing contentment about possessions.
Service to God through service to mankind is the only motivation acceptable to God for diligence and hard work in our vocational calling. We must avoid selfish ambition (the desire for more money or prestige) and instead make it our ambition to please God in all of our work. We should, therefore, look at our job or our business not in terms of larger salaries, greater commissions, or increased sales, but in terms of how we may best please God. Vocational success should be measured not in terms of one’s bank account or material possessions but in terms of service to others that is acceptable to God. Such an attitude, rather than fostering indifference to work, should promote greater diligence. Paul told the Colossians that slaves were more accountable to God for their work than they were to their earthly masters. This principle obviously applies to employment relationships of today.
All that we have comes from God as a result of His grace. As David so wisely acknowledged, “Wealth and honor come from you. . . . In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all” (1 Chronicles 29:12). As in developing humility, we can learn contentment by remembering that it is God who gives anyone the ability to produce wealth (see Deuteronomy 8:18). Humility toward God and contentment toward possessions, in fact, are handmaidens of each other. If I accept all I have now as a gift of God’s grace and am thankful for it, I will not be secretly feeling that I deserve more and longing for greater possessions.
God in His sovereign good pleasure has seen fit to give some people more wealth and possessions than others; consequently we are not to envy them. In an effort to teach that all reward is of grace, Jesus told the parable of the workers in the vineyard. He described the situation of workers who labored for only the last hour of the day receiving the same pay as those who labored all day. Those who had worked all day became envious of the generous treatment accorded the workers who came later, and they began to grumble. But the master of the vineyard silenced them with the statement, “Don’t I have a right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” With this parable Jesus teaches us that God, who owns everything, has a right to dispense the material possessions of this world as He desires, and we are not to question Him or envy the recipients of His favors.
For those whom God has blessed with wealth or an abundance of possessions, with privilege comes responsibility. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48). Paul told Timothy to “command those who are rich . . . to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share” (1 Timothy 6:17-18).
This principle applies to most people who will read this book, because we are in fact wealthy in terms of the vast majority of the people of the world.
We’ll find that contentment comes when we share what we have with others. It is in this context of sharing with those in need that Paul declared in 2 Corinthians 9 that God is able to make all grace abound to us so that we will feel sufficient —or content —in every respect.
Some may feel that we should encourage one another toward a “simplified lifestyle,” or one as unencumbered by material possessions as possible. This subject can easily degenerate into legalism, however, in which we begin judging one another by perhaps arbitrary standards of what is and is not acceptable in the way of material goods and possessions. Instead, we should concentrate on being content in all our circumstances and on living lives that are pleasing to God. The result of this kind of focus will be that our lifestyles will be the kind that God wants us to live.
CONTENTMENT WITH POSITION
Having to some degree won the battle of contentment regarding possessions, many Christians all too often fail in the battle of contentment regarding position in the body of Christ. Like Diotrephes of old, we love to be first (see 3 John 9). And if we are not first, or at least prominent, either we envy those in positions of prominence, or else we adopt the attitude, “I’m just a nobody. God can’t use me.” It was to guard against this type of thinking that led Paul to write to the Roman Christians, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith that God has given you” (Romans 12:3).
Paul recognized, and wanted the Christians at Rome to recognize, that God has placed each of us in the body of Christ as it pleased Him. Our duty is not to decide what we want to be or do but to discover on the basis of our capabilities and gifts what God wants us to do and be. Contentment lies not in being first but in being faithful to fulfill the function God has called us to in the body of Christ.
The greatest single help to me in learning to be content about position is to come to terms with the fact that all positions in the church are given by the sovereign grace of God. Paul said, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us” (Romans 12:6). We have not only different gifts but also different capacities for the use of those gifts. In the parable of the talents, one servant was given five talents, another two, and a third only one. The accountability was proportionate to the number of talents. The servant entrusted with only two talents, who used them to get two more, received the same commendation and reward as the servant entrusted with five talents, who used them to get five more. Presumably, the servant entrusted with only one talent would have been similarly rewarded if he had been faithful to use it to get even one more instead of burying it in the ground.
Whether we have several gifts or only one, whether our gifts put us in a position of prominence or keep us always behind the scenes, the important truth is that those gifts have been given to us by grace. We did not deserve them; we did not earn them; they were sovereignly bestowed upon us. I don’t deserve to be where I am in the body of Christ, and the prominent person doesn’t deserve to be where he is. We are each in our place by God’s grace.
And God is sovereign in the bestowal of His grace. Paul again makes this very clear in the ninth chapter of Romans when he asks, “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” Although Paul wasn’t asking this question within the context of the bestowment of gifts, the principle still applies. God has the right to put each of us where He pleases. He not only has the right, He exercises it, as 1 Corinthians 12 shows us: “All these [gifts] are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.”
How does my acknowledgment of God’s sovereign grace in placing each of us in the body of Christ help me to be content? First, I realize that I am where I am not by chance, nor by the favor or disfavor of other people, but by the decision of an all-wise and all-loving heavenly Father. And He has plans for me, plans to prosper and not harm me, plans to give me hope and a future (see Jeremiah 29:11).
Second, I realize I do not deserve to be where I am. However obscure a position it might be, I identify with Paul when he said, “Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given to me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8). I may not be a missionary as Paul was, but whatever my position in the body, it was given to me by God’s grace.
Third, I realize that each part of the body is indispensable. Paul says the body grows “as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:16). I am important to God, and I am important to the body. This is true of every single Christian in the world!
As I realize and accept these truths, I find not only contentment but also excitement. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:10 that God has prepared in advance good works for each of us to do. As we accept our place in the body of Christ and seek to do these good works, we do find the fulfillment and contentment of a life lived in accordance with the purpose of God.
Along with accepting our position in the body of Christ, we also need to learn to be content with our position in society —our vocational calling. Vocational calling usually determines status as well as wealth. And because of the world’s preoccupation with status, we often face the temptation to be discontent with our position in society. Just as we are tempted to covet possessions, so we are tempted to covet position.
Here again we must go back to the sovereignty of God in all of life. God ultimately rules in the natural realm, just as He does in the spiritual, even though this aspect of His sovereignty may not always be apparent to us.
It is God who has created some to be farmers, some physicians, some building tradesmen, some salesmen, some bus drivers, and some airline pilots. If God did not rule in this manner, even in the lives of unbelievers, the world would be a chaotic place in which to live. We would have an oversupply of workers in some vocations and a critical shortage in others. The vocational imbalances that God does allow to occur arise out of man’s greed in constantly pursuing higher-paying jobs and professions.
The principles of contentment with our position in the body of Christ will apply with equal force to our vocational position if we realize that our vocational calling is just as much a trust from God as is our spiritual responsibility.
In an excellent article on the Puritan work ethic, Leland Ryken said,
The Puritans declared the sanctity of all honorable work. In so doing, they rejected a centuries-old division of callings into ‘sacred’ and ‘secular.’ . . . This Puritan rejection of the dichotomy between sacred and secular work has far-reaching implications. It judges every honorable job to be of intrinsic value, and integrates every vocation with a Christian’s spiritual life. It makes every job consequential by regarding it as the arena for glorifying and obeying God and for expressing love (through service) to a neighbor.[18]
Not only are some jobs more prestigious than others, some are more challenging and exciting than others. What are we to do if God places us in a vocational responsibility that seems dull and unchallenging? We go right back to the principles of contentment in the body of Christ: I am where I am by God’s sovereign but loving appointment; I do not deserve to be even here; and my job, however dull, is necessary to the ongoing of society. If I will look to Him, God will give me the grace (in the sense of divine enablement) to be faithful and content in a dull and unchallenging situation.
Does this mean that contentment is incompatible with ambition —that we should never aspire to more responsible or challenging jobs? Not at all. Paul’s counsel to the Christian slaves at Corinth provides a principle for us today: “Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you —although if you can gain your freedom, do so” (1 Corinthians 7:21). Whatever your situation is, be content —don’t let it trouble you. But if you have an opportunity to improve your position, do so (unless, of course, doing so would violate the will of God in some other respect).
Every Christian should pursue excellence of workmanship and service in whatever vocational calling he finds himself. But he should do so to please Christ and to glorify Him, not for the sake of personal ambition. In many instances such faithful service will result in promotion, for even the unbelieving world respects and rewards excellence. But faithful service is not a guarantee to a better position. God is sovereign over our position in society, and He places us and keeps us where He wants us to be. As the Scripture says so eloquently, “No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man. But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another” (Psalm 75:6-7).
PAUL’S SECRET OF CONTENTMENT
A Christian may be winning the battle for contentment with regard to possessions and position and still lose the struggle for contentment with the providence of God in his life. We live in a sin-cursed world, where even creation itself is subjected to frustration (see Romans 8:20). Christians are not immune from the frustrating, irritating, often overwhelming circumstances of life.
But as Christians, we believe that all circumstances come to us not by chance but through the often unfathomable will of an all-wise, all-powerful, and all-loving heavenly Father. Because of this we refer to our circumstances as being under the providence of God, the word providence basically meaning God’s care of and control over all the universe.[19] That the Bible teaches such care and control is affirmed over and over again in the Scriptures. For example, Psalm 33:10-11 says, “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”[20]
But God’s providence does not always appear favorable toward His children. We are at a loss to understand many events and circumstances that appear to cast doubt on His wisdom and love. As God Himself said through Isaiah, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. . . . As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Other circumstances, though perhaps not severe or tragic, can be perplexing and frustrating. We experience varying physical limitations, chronic illnesses, and nagging injuries. We are placed with an inconsiderate roommate or find ourselves next door to annoying neighbors. We live in a city that is too large and crowded, or in a remote community that is too dull and boring. The climate is too dry or too humid. There are a thousand and one such circumstances that can make us fretful and discontented.
To make matters worse, our unbelieving neighbors often appear to have no problems. With Asaph of old, we look at them and say, “This is what the wicked are like —always carefree, they increase in wealth. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence” (Psalm 73:12-13).
With such situations as these surrounding us, how can we learn, as Paul did, “to be content whatever the circumstances” (Philippians 4:11)? “I have learned the secret of being content,” Paul said, “in any and every situation.” What “secret” had Paul learned?
The Bible never tells us, but perhaps 2 Corinthians 12 gives us the answer. That chapter records Paul’s experience of being caught up into heaven and hearing inexpressible things that man is not permitted to tell. To keep Paul from becoming conceited over these surpassingly great revelations, there was given to him “a thorn in the flesh,” a messenger of Satan, to torment him. Three times Paul pleaded with the Lord to take away the thorn, but God said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” As we noted earlier, the Greek word translated “is sufficient’’ is the same word rendered elsewhere as “be content.”
This must be the secret Paul had learned: God’s grace is sufficient, whatever the circumstance. And because God’s grace is sufficient, we can be content. But to experience contentment we must, as Paul did, accept that God’s grace is in fact sufficient. By acceptance I mean not just theological assent to a truth but an authentic faith in His grace in the face of trying circumstances.
Since early childhood, I have suffered a vision impairment that is often frustrating, and a total hearing loss in one ear that is often embarrassing (as when people speak to me and I don’t hear them and thus appear to be ignoring them). But those are not my only physical problems. One day I stood before the bedroom mirror and named seven distinct things that were “wrong” with my body —things I had often fretted about and murmured over. That day I said, “Lord, I accept the fact that You made me the way I am and that Your grace is sufficient for all these limitations.” I cannot say I have not fretted over these problems since then, but I can now say I know how to be content with them: by accepting that God’s grace is sufficient. Although I do not always apply this wonderful fact, it is true and it is always available. The choice to accept it and experience contentment is mine. And the choice is yours in your particular circumstances.
In all of the areas in which we are called upon to be content —whether possessions, position, or the providence of God —the grace of God is the ultimate solution for our discontent. Grace, as used in the New Testament, expresses two complementary thoughts: God’s unmerited favor to us through Christ, and God’s divine assistance to us through the Holy Spirit. An understanding and appreciation of both of these meanings is necessary for us to be content. First, we must learn to live by the realization that whatever our situation might be, it is far better than we deserve. Actually, we deserve God’s eternal judgment. It’s been said, “Anything this side of hell is pure grace.” This statement is true, and we must accept it and adjust our attitude accordingly.
Second, we must learn that however difficult and frustrating our circumstances might be, God’s divine assistance through the Holy Spirit is available to help us respond in a godly manner and be content. When Paul said, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13), he was referring to God’s divine enablement. He could have said, “I can do everything by His grace,” and he would have been saying the same thing.
This is the secret to being content: to learn and accept that we live daily by God’s unmerited favor given through Christ and that we can respond to any and every situation by His divine enablement through the Holy Spirit.