What brings you CONTENTMENT in life?
What are the things that are good, that you sit back and say, ‘I’m happy with that, that’s a good thing.’ Circumstantial, material, what we have, who we have in our life…
Now I’ve just watched the AFL grand final yesterday – I know I throw up a lot of AFL things but there are so many images or metaphors that I find really helpful there!
There’s definitely a strong sense of CONTENTMENT on display there… Exuberant contentment we might say! Celebration, rejoicing, a lifetime goal or childhood dream has been achieved! That’s one side, the other side is sadly the opposite isn’t it… That’s sport for you.
When Port Adelaide won their first (and only) grand final back in 2004, at that time I was 13 years old and one of my teachers was invited round to our house to watch the game. Of course the other team in that grand final was the Brisbane Lions – I’m not wining any friends here am I – and my team beat them on the day, finally after the Lions had won the previous 3 in a row, one of the greatest teams of all time.
My feeling on the day was one of CONTENTMENT.
In contrast to my teacher who was understandably not happy with the result! I can’t remember exactly what I said when he asked me how I felt after the game, I think I said I was relieved that we finally got one, and he said back ‘it’s not like you were out there playing!’ No I wasn’t as a 13 year old kid, but looking back the feeling was CONTENTMENT that my team had got the job done.
Let’s take a step back from examples of contentment > what IS contentment? What does it mean to be content, what does it look like, how does God define contentment?
The original Greek for content-ment can also be taken to mean ‘satisfaction,’ ‘sufficiency’ and/or ‘competence.’
So where in life do you feel satisfied, sufficient, competent?
This is a rare word in the NT, only used in one other place > let’s go there!
2 Corinthians 9:8 – ‘And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.’
Here the sense is having all that you need, which all comes from God > not only the things we need, but where they come from, the source of all good things!
So we’ve established what contentment is, the noun version, and where it comes from too!
The word content is also used in our passage from 1 Timothy today, the adjective version. Verse 8 talks about what to be content with > food and clothing. That’s it, we don’t need much do we! Be content with the basics, the essentials. What about having a job or money in the bank, somewhere to live? Surely we need those things to be content?!
Luther’s secret to contentment is to see life not as right, but as a GIFT. He also talks about being content with the calling in which God has placed us.
This perspective can help us to see ALL the good things we have from God are not our ‘rights’ but they are gifts, Luther says this too: ‘God gives me all I have, he richly and daily provides me with all I need to support this body and life’ (exp. to 1st article of Apostles’ Creed).
So there’s a perspective shift here, to see and know the contentment God offers is not tied to worldly possessions or circumstances…
God’s perspective and our perspectives, another example of US & THEM > maybe the category is more like GOD & US there, how God sees things and how we see things.
It can definitely feel like it’s GOD versus US or US versus GOD sometimes, when we’re finding it hard to see how God is at work, or we’ve messed something up and don’t know how to fix it, when things that might cause us to feel DIS-content are happening around us.
In those times especially that’s where we rely on faith, trusting in what we know about how good and gracious our God is, hopefully finding community with the people around us – God also gifts people to us in life – to be in community with, to do life with, to support and be supported by, to have that sense of connection and belonging that we all need.
Contentment comes in connection to community, very hard to be content alone/separated from meaningful community around us. If we do find ourselves going through a difficult time, feeling isolated or alone, Paul reminds us we’re never actually alone – God is right there with us, he’s that extra set of footprints in the sand when we look back on our walk of faith.
There’s another key word in verse 6, that word is godliness. How do we understand this one?
It’s NOT about outward godliness, as in piety or reverence alone, simply put doing all the right things in the right ways.
And it’s NOT about achieving anything in God’s eyes, achieving or maintaining good status or good reputation in the eyes of those around us.
So what’s it about then?
Relationship with Jesus that changes us, inside and out. That is where it’s at, that’s what changes lives and gives us hope in this life!
Piety and reverence are only useful as responses to who Jesus is and what he’s done for us. They are useful as responses to the life-changing gospel as a means to help us know Jesus more and to help others on that journey too.
The problem with outward godliness alone, without real connection and living relationship with Jesus, is that we can end up trying to make ourselves look better than other people – and that can also lead to thinking we’re better than other people!
Not the track we want to be on.
Is that how Jesus categorises people, is that his final judgment? Does Jesus say ‘these people are better than others, end of story??’
What he actually says is none of us are good enough, no one is. So I’ll come down to you, out of my great love for you I’ll give my life for you so you can be enough, I’ll do that for you and walk with you on the journey through thick and thin. Come with me, let’s do this together. Those that know me are welcome, and those that don’t know me yet are also welcome.
This is how Jesus relates to us, just a few reasons to be in relationship with him.
So we’ve picked apart the contentment and the godliness parts there today, but of course Paul puts them together in the same sentence doesn’t he!
Contentment is to think of life as a gift from God, to have faith and hope and trust in God who is beyond what we can see in front us.
And godliness is our humble response to his great love, receiving from him, sharing in the good news of the gospel together – that’s more the real essence of godliness, not things we do or say so much as things we ARE, living the new life we’ve received.
Of course we read on a bit and we see what else goes along with this godliness > righteousness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness (v11).
We don’t just pick out a few of these, we get the whole deal! Don’t miss out on the whole package Jesus offers!
So both contentment and godliness sound nice on their own, but they are so much more coming out of a deep and personal relationship with Jesus.
Like we spoke about last week, there are things that change and things that stay the same.
Our sense of contentment and our godliness are things that change >
Anyone here who’s ALWAYS content with life? No hands up there.
Anyone who ALWAYS acts in a godly way, always being righteous, gentle, loving, faithful, enduring? Nope!
And God knows it, we can’t do it, he knows it.
Lucky we’ve got the hope of one who doesn’t change, who IS ALWAYS righteous, gentle, loving, faithful enduring, and not only god-ly but God himself!!
To close out today I want to pray some of the words from passage for us, 1st Timothy 6 verses 6-19:
Lord we know that contentment and godliness come not from us but from you.
Lead us away from love of money, harmful desires and putting our hope in wealth.
Instead lead us into righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness, where our hope is in you, our God, who gives life to everything and where true life is found, the blessed and only ruler, king of kings and lord of lords.
To you be honour and might forever. Amen.
Tom Kitson 