Contentment! We find that word at the heart of our passage.
Paul says in v.6, “Now there
is great gain in godliness with contentment”.
To the Philippians he writes, “ ... I have learned in whatever situation I
am to be content.” To be
content means to be in a state of happiness or satisfaction. What a satisfying word that is, and yet, what an elusive word that is. Can you say with Paul, “... I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content”? An answer to
this question would be multifaceted, as I have realized when in recent times I had made a study
of the subject of contentment.
Here then is
a further contribution to that
investigation, and my further thought
on the matter, as it arises from our text, is this: False teachers or false teaching
are a major source of our discontentment, whereas the sound
words of our Lord Jesus Christ are the true source of real contentment! This text teaches me that there are thoughts and ideas promoted by false teaching that lead to discontentment and there are thoughts and ideas promoted by the sound words
of our Lord Jesus Christ that
lead to godliness with contentment.
In our recent studies in Paul’s first letter to Timothy we
have seen that Paul has stressed the importance of the maintenance of good
relationships in the church. He does
this in a number of interesting ways. In Chapter 5 we have seen how he counsels
Timothy, pastor at Ephesus, to deal well and wisely with older men and women,
and also with younger men and women in the church. In particular, he stresses the importance of
looking after genuine widows in the church, whilst helping families also to
take care of their widows. He counsels
younger widows to remarry and so to become settled, and not restless and
problematic in the church. He also counsels that the fulltime elders of the
church, those that labour in preaching and teaching, should be well looked
after. Too many pastoral families have
had their relationships soured
because the church did not obey this basic injunction which underlies
the support of those who work
for the church: Don’t muzzle the ox while it is treading out
the grain.[1] Furthermore,
Paul teaches that good relationships between Christian slaves and their
masters (or between employees and
employers) were needed to reflect the worthy name of God.
Nothing adds more to our discontentment than unstable
relationships fostered by unstable teaching or emphases. Paul teaches us that
it is important to promote stable relationships in the church at many
levels through wise, biblical counselling that leads people to godliness with
contentment.
And now Paul says: “Timothy,
teach and urge these things”[6:2b].
These few things or matters that we have
considered in chapter 5 and into chapter 6 are of course illustrative and not exhaustive, and it is in
this context that Paul provides
further counsel for maintaining sound
and stable relationships.
Stable relationships must be built on sound, balanced
doctrine. Balance means that biblical truths are taught in context and that
these truths are weighted appropriately. Terms such as ‘law’ and ‘grace’, for
instance, must be understood against the entire emphases of the Bible. Wrong
emphases here can easily lead to lead to legalism (Galatians) or antinomianism
(Corinthians). Furthermore, sound doctrine must not only be believed. It must
be practised. Otherwise it becomes hypocrisy. Paul has already reminded Timothy
(and us) in 4:16 to “keep a close watch on yourself and
on the teaching” (doctrine). It is not just doctrine (correct belief). It
is also yourself, how you live out to that sound doctrine! There are people
that are thoroughly orthodox in their beliefs, but they themselves live and
behave in contradiction to the doctrine which they say they believe. This contradiction always produces conflict
in the church, in the home and at work.
I needed to remind you of this as we now come to the next
statement: “If anyone teaches a
different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord
Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness…”.
Let us
stop there for a moment! Paul makes a
contrast between different doctrine
and the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ. What
is the difference? The outcome
is different:
(i)
The different doctrine (Gr. heterodidaskaleō), in Paul’s own words leads to this: “he is puffed
up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy
craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy,
dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant frictions among people who
are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is
a means of gain.” [6:4,5].
Three things are characteristic of
false teachers: pride, ignorance, and preoccupation with obscure things. All
you need to be a heretic is a little pride, and a little intelligence plus the gift of speaking, and
you've got the perfect ingredient for heresy. But there’s more to be considered. In vv.9-10 Paul adds this : “But
those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare,
into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and
destruction, For the love of money is a
root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered
away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
The outcome of
‘different doctrine’ is that it produces an unhealthy desire for
financial gain. The false teacher thinks of godliness in a very different way than Christ had intended. For them “godliness is a means
of gain”. And so we find that prosperity
teachers have a very different
goal in mind in their teaching. They
redefine terms. Godliness to them means, being healthy , happy and wealthy. Thus they
are successful because they give people what their depraved
hearts want to hear (6:5)
and in
the process they get very rich from their conferences and
books they sell. A visit to the local bookshop confirms this. The religious
section carries by far more books by false teachers. The irony is that although these authors outwardly promote the pursuit of contentment, yet in very real
terms they actually breed discontentment by replacing Christ with
material emphases! If you were to turn on the television today or any
day of the week, most of the so called Christian TV channels do exactly what
Paul is speaking about here. They are turning Christianity into a means of
gain. And they teach that that God wants you to be physically healthy
and materially wealthy and that if you’re not, it's because you don't’ have
enough faith or because you haven't
yet bought the holy anointing oil or
water, consecrated by the apostle from
them. So, it was very common then, 2000
years ago. It is common now. . Paul makes
it clear that that is not what Christianity is about. The gospel in fact does bring great gain ,though not the kind false teachers are looking for.
(ii)
The sound words of our Lord Jesus, by way of contrast, “accords with godliness”(v.3)
or “godliness with contentment”(v.6). This is
the sound doctrine that
Paul and the other apostles taught. It
is true apostolic teaching. It is Jesus’
teaching . The apostles were literally
the messenger boys (Gr. apostellō) of Jesus. They had nothing
new or novel to say. They spoke the
balanced truth and in the tone that
Jesus taught them. This teaching leads
to godliness with true contentment, and it applies whether you are rich
or poor, healthy or sick, happy or in emotional turmoil. The sound words of our
Lord Jesus transform your life so that
the truth is lived out in godliness. It leads to a life of true holiness, in commitment to God in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And
it leads to contentment.
EXHORTATION
I remind you again that the
NT epistles constantly warn us to be on the watch against false teachers – those who
would rob us of our true peace and
contentment in the Lord Jesus. Paul, in
his three so-called “pastoral epistles”
has a lot to say about false teachers and teaching[2]
and the outcome of their teaching. And its’s all focused on stuff that Jesus never focused on: “myths, endless genealogies which promote
speculations… certain persons … have
wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without
understanding either what they are saying, or the things about which they make confident assertions” [1 Tim 1:4-7]. They are led by
“deceitful spirits and teachings
of demons…” [1 Tim 4:1]. They are
focused on material gain [1 Tim
6:9,10,17] and engage in irreverent
babble and quarrel about words in the
name of wisdom and godliness. They are fixated
on controversial questions and disputes about words. This was the problem of the Pharisees. Jesus said that they would strain out a gnat
and swallow a camel. They get fixated on some aspect of truth and make that
secondary or tertiary aspect a major aspect of their teaching. One man tells the story of how he
was once introduced to someone in the congregation and as he struck out his hand to greet him
the man said, not “Hi,
Hello, I'm Peter...” but, “What do
you think about the little horn of Daniel?” There are people who fail to read the moment. They have an unhealthy interest
in the obscure. But mostly, they oppose
true, sound doctrine [2 Tim 3:8].
Paul says: “They profess to know God,
but they deny him by their works “ [ Tit. 1:16]
Sound doctrine is plain. Its results are plain. It leads to
godliness with contentment.
False doctrine leads to personal ungodliness and
discontentment at many levels: home, work and church. Please note that whereas
sound doctrine is plain and straightforward in appearance, this different
doctrine has many ugly tentacles and faces (see vv. 4,5)
Now, we are not suggesting that sound doctrine is easy to
grasp. Many struggle with it, and we must struggle. We are fallen beings. The gospel is
contrary to our sinful nature and
therefore contrary to our natural thinking. Sin must be unlearned, and replaced
with biblical gospel thinking. That takes time, and it takes repeated
reminders and sitting under the teaching of the sound gospel as long as we live. And how do
we know that we have it? When sound
doctrine leads to sound living.
Our fundamental concern must be that the truth as it is in Jesus should lead us to transformed lives [see Romans 12:1,2] characterized
by love for God, and by loving service
for one another and by loving service to a lost world.
True godliness may be firm and bold, because it believes the
truth as it is in Jesus, but is not
contentious for the sake of being contentious. It is not quarrelsome. It is
kind and gracious and patient. One way to guard against sliding into
false doctrine is to consistently
check
whether the truth produces more
Christ-likeness in us , leading us to more godliness and true contentedness. The
gospel does bring great gain, but it's not the kind of gain that the false
teachers are talking about.
May the Holy Spirit be
pleased to deeply embed the truth in our hearts , to make us able to discern different doctrine from
the sound words of our Lord Jesus. Amen !
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