Godliness & Contentment

1. Godliness & Contentment 1 Timothy 6:6-10

2. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. • 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. • 8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

3. HISTORY OF 1 TIMOTHY • Written by Paul towards the end of his long, rugged life, to Timothy, a convert of Paul while on his 1st missionary journey. Timothy is first mentioned in Acts 16:1-3. • Some commentators (such as Barnes) believe Paul wrote 1st Timothy after his extended stay at Ephesus and departure to Macedonia on his third missionary journey around 58-59 A.D. The general consensus is that Paul wrote this epistle from Macedonia, following his first imprisonment in Rome.

4. PURPOSE OF 1 TIMOTHY • Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus with the awesome responsibility to Pastor in that region. He challenged him to stand for anything that was contrary to the preaching of sound doctrine. • Fulfilling this charge was made difficult by Timothy's youth and natural timidity. • While Paul hoped to return, and wrote this letter as guide in the meantime.

5. THEME OF 1 TIMOTHY • This letter is addressed to a young evangelist charged with the responsibility of working with a congregation and guiding them in the right way. Everything that is written is designed to aid both him and the congregation in doctrine and conduct.

6. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. • Godliness = εὐσέβειαeusebeia : reverence, respect; piety (a strong respectful belief in a deity or deities and strict observance of religious principles in everyday life); a devoutness, virtue, goodness or faithfulness towards God.

7. 1Timothy 2:23 • …for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. This is good, and pleases God our Savior.

8. 1Timothy 3:16 • And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.

9. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. • Contentment = αὐτάρκειαautarkeia: a perfect condition of life in which no aid or support is needed; sufficiency of the necessities of life; a mind contented with its lot.

10. Definition of Contentment A state of mind in which one's desires are confined to his lot whatever it may be. It is opposed to envy, avarice, ambition, anxiety, and repining. It arises from the inward disposition, and is the offspring of humility, and of an intelligent consideration of the rectitude and benignity of divine providence, the greatness of the divine promises, and our own unworthiness; as well as from the view (that) the gospel opens up to us of rest and peace hereafter. -Easton’s Bible Dictionary

11. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. • Gain = πορισμόςporismos: • acquisition, gain; to cause a thing to get on well; to bring about or procure for oneself.

12. EPHESUS • The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis, the goddess of fertility who had her chief shrine there, the Library of Celsus, and its theatre, which was capable of holding 25,000 spectators • Ephesus was an important center for Early Christianity from the AD 50s. From AD 52–54, Paul lived in Ephesus, working with the congregation and apparently organizing missionary activity into the hinterlands. • He became embroiled in a dispute with artisans, whose livelihood depended on selling the statuettes of Artemis in the Temple of Artemis (Acts 19:23–41).

13. EPHESUS

14. Literal Translation of 1 Timothy 6:6 (But godliness with contentment is great gain.) • “But, moreover, reverence, respect and piety in the direction of God, with a perfect condition of life in which no aid or support is needed, in which sufficiency of the necessities of life and a mind contented with its lot, is a thing to be highly esteemed on a grand scale and a splendid acquisition to carry on well.”

15. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. • All we brought with us into this world is our sin, and yet we are now in such happy circumstances as before. A Godly person should be content with what they have. • Neither can we carry anything out — To what purpose, then, do we heap together so many things? O, give me one thing,-a safe and ready passage to my own country! (Wesley’s Explantory Notes) • An eternity in Heaven should be our focus!

16. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. • “As man came into the world, so will they go out of it; nor will they need their worldly substance after death, any more than they did before they were born; and what they now have, and use not, will then be lost to them, whatever gain it may be to others: wherefore it becomes them cheerfully to use what they have, and be content therewith.” (John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible)

17. Ecclesiastes 5:15-16 • 15 Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb,and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands. • 16 This too is a grievous evil: As everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind?

18. Job 1:20-21 • 20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said: • “Naked I came from my mother’s womb,and naked I will depart.The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

19. Luke 9:58 • 58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

20. 8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. • There is very good reason why the saints should be content; since more than these things cannot be enjoyed; and these they have with a blessing, and as a fruit and token of the love of God to them; these were all that Jacob desired. • Christ directs his disciples daily to pray for; and which to have, is to have enough, a proper sufficiency and competency: the words may be rendered, "we shall be content with them"; which the apostle could say for himself, Timothy, and others, who had been content.

21. 8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. • “Here it intends such a sufficiency as a man himself judges to be so; for this phrase does not so much design the thing itself, which is a sufficiency, as the opinion, the sense which the godly man has of it, who himself judges it, as Jacob did, to be enough; and such a man is content with what he has, and thankful for it, submits quietly to the will of God, and patiently bears every adverse providence: and this is now the fruit and effect of godliness, or true grace, and is a considerable part of that gain which godliness brings with it; and such a man is a happy man indeed, let his circumstances be what they will.” (John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible)

22. Genesis 28:16-21 Jacob’s Contentment • 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” • 18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. • 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel;[a] but the name of that city had been Luz previously.

23. Genesis 28:16-21 Jacob’s contentment • 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, • 21 so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.

24. Philippians 4:11-13 Paul’s Contentment • 11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. • 12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. • 13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

25. That We May Gain Christ! • 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ • 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. • 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.