Having
food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
For the
love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
1 Timothy
6:8
Ah, contentment.
Latin: con/with plus tenere/hold –
to hold with, to be satisfied.
The follower of Jesus the Christ is
familiar with the word contentment – if not always with the experience
of it. The New Testament word (arkeo) occurs five times[i], and
is linked with “satisfaction” (John 6:7). Its opposite is “covetousness.” Over
the last several days I have been more and more intrigued with the implications
of this word; and I have camped on the role contentment should play in my
self-analysis before worship. Since I am writing this on a Saturday evening, I
thought it would be worthwhile to jot some thoughts about what I’m discovering.
Basically, there are two, and the second one surprised me.
Thought # 1 Contentment, Covetousness,
Complacency.
Somewhere I have read that Spurgeon
confronted one of the most covetous men he knew and asked, “Why do you suppose
so few messages are preached on covetousness?” The reply, so the story goes,
was, “Well, perhaps because it’s so rare.”
When I have had opportunities to preach
on contentment and covetousness, I have almost always been asked if contentment
does not lead to complacency. In other words, had Thomas Edison been content
with candles we might never have had light bulbs. Over time I have realized a
difference between wanting to find a way to improve a situation and wanting to
have the most brightly lighted house on the street.
I believe the most vivid description
of a contented life is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12. Paul tells the
church to, “aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work
with your own hands…that you may walk properly toward those who are outside,
and that you may lack nothing.”
Thought # 2 Contentment and
Independence
I am indebted to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
for the discovery of a second word for “contentment” in the New Testament. It is
the word for content coupled with the prefix for self (autararkes)
– self-contentment. In the very last section of his book, Spiritual
Depression: It’s Causes and Cure, Lloyd-Jones tackles Paul’s assertion in
Philippians 4:11 – “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.”
The expression has to do with a
sense of personal, God-given independence from whatever circumstances may be
unfolding (good or bad) at any time. It can speak to having financial security
sufficient to give a kind of disinterest in finances (2 Corinthians 9:8). In First Thessalonians 6:6, Paul links this
self-satisfied state as a companion to godliness. This enables simple
contentment to exist in times of need or abundance (verse 8).
And what is this self-satisfied
state? It has to do with our relationship to God in Christ. No matter what
events are whirling around us at any given time, none of those touch who we
are in Him (Romans 8). Self-contentment
silences Job’s comforters and confronts our obsessive tendency to equate
circumstances with acceptance, or lack thereof. This is fleshed out in Paul’s
own confrontations with distress (2 Corinthians 7:5-6).
Self-contentment is not self-TRUST.
It has to do with confidence in God to maintain my grace-given status as a
justified sinner, redeemed, and sanctified in Jesus. He is the Author of my new
“self” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Why this appears in a book about
depression should be obvious. Many of us are plagued with an obsession for
interpreting bad times as testimonies of rejection. Paul’s answer to such thoughts
is clear and it gives us a healthy (indeed a holy) boldness: “Who is he who
condemns? … Who shall separate us?” (Romans 8:31-36) Because it is all of redeeming
grace, we are independent of the temptation to boast. Because it is it is of God,
we are independent of the temptation to despair.
Before I go to church this Sunday, I’m going
to do a contentment check. Will you join me? Are we content with what we have
while but not becoming complacent about needs in our lives and the lives of others?
Are we growing in contentment with the truth of who we are in Christ regardless
of the circumstances of our pilgrimage on planet earth?
[i] Luke 3:14; John 6:7; 14:8;
2 Corinthians 12:9; 1 Timothy 6:8; Hebrews
13:5;
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