Bethany Bible Church Sunday Sermon Message
June 29, 2025
1 Timothy 6:17-19
Theme: There’s a spiritual danger in having riches … and certain spiritual resolves will protect us from it.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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This morning, we’ll be looking at a message from God to the rich.
Now; before you automatically decide to turn your attention elsewhere, dear brothers and sisters, let me remind you that—in terms of this world’s goods—you and I are far richer than we tend to think that we are.
If you live in a building with a roof over your head, and if you have a car, if you have some form of health care, if you have clean running water and controlled heat in your home, if you can go down the road to buy a variety of groceries, come home and watch television or look something up on the Internet or talk to someone on your mobile device, read your own personal Bible in your own language, and go to sleep in safety on a mattress at night with food in your stomach—even if you are doing all those things while being among those with the lowest of median incomes in our culture—you are still among the wealthiest people in the world. One study done a few years ago concluded that if the poorest 20% of Americans decided to form their own nation—based just on consumption of goods and services alone—they’d still be one of the richest nations on earth.1
This really came home to me once when, many years ago, I got to spend three weeks in Eastern Europe as part of a short-term mission trip. In order to connect with the people that we were ministering to, we were encouraged to bring photos of our families and friends. But we were urged to be careful not to bring any photos with pictures of the places where we lived in the background or inside our homes. It would only end up discouraging the people we were serving—and would make them think we were boasting of how much wealthier than them we were. And before we left to return home, we were encouraged to leave some of our extra pieces of clothes and books behind; because the people who received them would be deeply grateful to have them.
It’s obviously true that, if you compared yourself with others around you, you probably wouldn’t feel as if you were all that rich. And it may even be that, this morning, you’re feeling the particular weight of certain financial burdens. But taken as a whole in comparison to so many in the world—even after all the troubles our nation has gone through over the past few years—we are all far more wealthy in the things of this world than we think that we are. I choose to be thankful to God for the blessings that He has poured out so richly upon us. But with all those blessings comes certain responsibilities – and also certain spiritual dangers.
I say all of that to appeal to you not to ignore what this morning’s passage tells us. These words of exhortation to those who are rich in this world’s goods are legitimately for you and me. In 1 Timothy 6:17-19, the apostle Paul wrote to Pastor Timothy and told him;
Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life (1 Timothy 6:17-19).
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Now; let’s remember the larger context of these inspired words from the apostle Paul. He was writing to a younger pastor to whom he had entrusted the care and nurture of the church in the ancient city of Ephesus. Ephesus had many of the kinds of problems that many modern cities face. There were many folks who were poor and needy in that city. Paul, as you may remember, spent a good deal of time in this letter writing to Timothy about the care that the church needed to provide for the widows in their midst—those he called ‘widows indeed’ because they had no other family and no other tangible means of support.
But there was also a great deal of prosperity in the city. When we read about Paul’s ministry to the Ephesians in Acts 19, we find that many of the people who believed the gospel gathered up all their books on magic and the occult and burned them in a public fire—and the total value of them all was estimated at fifty thousand pieces of silver. Depending on the particular currency that was used, that could have been worth $2,000,000 or more in today’s value—just in books on magic! Paul’s preaching of the gospel in that city once almost caused the whole city to go into a riot; and the chief reason for the trouble—the main charge that was being brought against Paul—was that his preaching of the gospel was causing economic harm to the world-famous idol-manufacturing business!
Ephesus was a very beautiful port city. It had lots of commerce and had built many great temples and structures and civil works. And so; there were many citizens of that ancient city who could boast of having much of this world’s goods. Some of those who were wealthy had believed on the Lord Jesus, repented of their paganism, and had become members of the church over which Timothy was serving as pastor. And many of those who were members of the church family who were not necessarily wealthy also desired to become wealthy and coveted the things of this world. In 1 Timothy 6:17-19, the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy to warn the people of God in the Ephesian church;
Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (vv. 6-10).
Those are temptations that all Christian people are in danger of falling victim to. But I wonder if they were temptations that may have been a particular danger to Christians living in the prosperous city of Ephesus. And with the fact that the poorest of us Americans are able to consume more goods and services than most people around the world, these things are also a particular danger to those of us who are living as Christians this prosperous culture today—whether we are considered ‘poor’ or ‘rich’ by the average standard.
And what’s more, because these words were written specifically to a pastor of a church, it highlights a particular responsibility of pastors to warn the people of God about these things. That’s a responsibility that falls on me. As this passage shows us, I have a responsibility to tell you—and you have a responsibility to remember—that there’s a spiritual danger that comes along with having riches … and there are certain spiritual resolves that will help protect us from that danger.
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Now; look at how Paul began these words to Timothy. He told him, “ Command those who are rich in this present age …” The word that he used for ‘command’ is one that we’ve already encountered in our study of this letter. In fact, it shows up five times in this letter. It means to give a solemn and serious order or an earnest entreaty. It means to ‘urge’ someone in a strong way to do something. And here, Timothy was to strongly and earnestly urge those who were rich in the church to think rightly about their riches.
Notice also how Paul refers to those whom Timothy was to give this command. They were those who were “rich in this present age”. That specifies that the kinds of ‘riches’ he was talking about were temporal in nature. They were the riches that someone can accumulate for themselves only on this earth and that they can only enjoy while they are living upon the earth, and that can only last during the time that they are on the earth in this present period of God’s redemptive history.
But it’s important to remember that the Bible nowhere condemns the possession of wealth as a thing in and of itself. Sadly, many condemn the possession of riches today. But the fact is that there are many saints in the Bible who were people of significant wealth, and who did great good with the riches they possessed. And there are many godly people who are wealthy today, and who also do great good with what God has given them. In fact, in the Bible, one of the spiritual gifts that God gives to His church is ‘the gift of giving’; and obviously, to be able to exercise that gift for the good of God’s people, the giver must first have been blessed by God with the resources from which to give.
I have learned—and perhaps so have you—that not every Christian has the ability to be rich and remain godly. For some believers, becoming rich would be one of the worst things that could happen to their souls. It would easily lead them astray into the things of this world; and it would tempt them to turn from the Lord and to suffer terrible spiritual loss. Many of us who are not ‘rich in this present age’ really ought to be thankful to the heavenly Father that He has not allowed us to have great earthly riches. He knows us better than we know ourselves; and He loves us too much to allow us to have the kind of wealth that would inevitably tempt us away from our commitment to Him … and that would eventually rob us of the even greater riches in heaven that He wishes for us to enjoy. Quite frankly, very few of us as Christians would have the spiritual maturity to honor and serve God with great wealth.
I think here of the wise words of prayer we find in Proverbs 30:8-9;
Give me neither poverty nor riches—
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God (Proverbs 30:8a-9).
We should be content with were God has placed us in the economic scale; and to recognize that it may be more for our own good than we realize. But with regard to those to whom God has seen fit to entrust with riches “in this present age”, Paul commanded Timothy in this passage to urge them to follow four basic principles that would keep them from falling into harm to their souls.
First, Timothy was to earnestly charge them …
1. DON’T LET RICHES MISGUIDE YOUR THINKING.
In verse 17, Paul told him, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches …”
In the original language of Paul’s letter, the word translated as “haughty” is one that means to be ‘high’ or ‘lofty’ in one’s thinking. It describes an attitude that causes one to pridefully think of themselves as superior to others because of the wealth that they have—and because of the supposed power over others that comes from that wealth.
In James 1:1-6, Pastor James wrote about such people. He was writing about the ‘ungodly’ rich—those who had hoarded their wealth to the loss of other people, who had gained their riches in evil ways, and who used their position to rob and suppress others—when he said;
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you (James 1:1-6).
We may look upon such wicked ‘rich’ people with contempt. But just think: Have you ever arrogantly scolded a clerk at the store, or made unreasonable demands of someone you hired to provide some kind of service to you? This morning’s passage is a warning to us to beware: The ‘haughty’ attitude into which those wicked rich people fell is one into which all of us could easily fall.
What’s more, Paul urged that we who have some measure of wealth not to “trust in uncertain riches”. What a great way to describe the riches of “this present age”! They’re “uncertain”! Because of the realities in this fallen world of theft, or unexpected economic turns, or national or global crises, or sudden devastating expenses, or even our own foolishness and recklessness, we can have an abundance one day … and see it all lost to us the next.
Think of what we’re told in Proverbs 23:4-5;
Do not overwork to be rich;
Because of your own understanding, cease!
Will you set your eyes on that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings;
They fly away like an eagle toward heaven (Proverbs 23:4-5).
I’ll bet you didn’t know that the cartoonish image of a dollar bill flying away on wings came from right out of the Bible! It also represents the truth. As someone once said, “Money talks … and it usually says, ‘Goodbye’.” And no matter how long we may have wealth in our hands while we live, it’s all lost to us when we die and go to our eternal destiny. As the Lord Jesus Himself once asked,
“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works” (Matthew 16:26-27).
On the day of our Lord’s return, the only thing that will matter to us will be the security of our relationship with Him. So; here’s a resolve that we need to embrace. We must not let riches misguide our thinking. We must remember that possessing it cannot make us better than anyone else; nor can having an abundance of it secure our soul before God on the day of judgment. We must not let a trust in riches turn us from a whole-hearted devotion to our Savior Jesus.
Another principle that Paul mentioned is one that flows directly from the last; and that is to …
2. KEEP YOUR ULTIMATE TRUST WHERE IT BELONGS.
Paul wrote to urge wealthy Christians not to trust in uncertain riches “but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.” Since earthly riches can be so easily lost to us, we need to be careful to keep our trust in the God who is always reliable and who never changes, and in the Lord Jesus by whom we are able to have a relationship with Him.
In Matthew 6:19-21, we find that the Lord Jesus told us this in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
If we have our trust in riches that can be easily lost to us, then our heart will always be as unstable as our bank account, or our IRA, or our portfolio of property and possessions. It’s not wrong to have those things. But it’s wrong for them to be made into the security of our hearts. But if we keep our treasure in heaven, then our hearts will be there too—and will be as secure as heaven itself.
And have you ever thought of the very next thing that Jesus said in that sermon?
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (vv. 22-23).
You may have thought that those words were unrelated to the subject of riches. But they are, in fact, very much related. Jesus was telling us that if we constantly have our eye on our riches, then our eye is a divided eye. It doesn’t let the light of God in, because it’s being obscured by something else. And so, in verse 24, He went on to tell us;
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (v. 24).
I read something the other day from the great old preacher, Dr. Harry Ironside. He said that, if you may be afraid that the love of money has too tight a grip on you, try giving some of it away. See how you feel. If you’re really glad that you did it and if you feel blessed in the act of giving, then you’re still safe. But if it becomes too hard to do, and if it fills you with fear, and if it almost breaks your heart to part with it, then you’re discovering that your trust is in the wrong place. That would be the time to get on your knees and ask for deliverance. That’s one very effective way to test and see whether or not we are keeping this second principle; and are making sure that our ultimate trust is in God—where it truly belongs.
Now; that doesn’t mean that we should not also enjoy what God has given us. Do you notice that Paul described our heavenly Father as ‘ the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy’? We aren’t merely conduits through which God passes on all our riches to someone else. He also loves us and invites us to be blessed in what He gives to us.
But that personal enjoyment and blessedness isn’t to be the only purpose for it all. And that leads us, naturally, to another principle that the apostle Paul urged Timothy to pass on to those who were rich; and that is to …
3. DO GOOD WITH WHAT YOU HAVE WHILE IT’S YOURS.
In verse 18, he told Timothy, “Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share …” There is an unspoken understanding that stands behind this word of instruction; and that is to remember that whatever we have has been given to us by a loving heavenly Father; and that He gives it to us—in part—in order to enable us to serve others. Whatever gift we may have from Him is not for ourselves alone, but is meant to be shared for the edification of our brother or sister in Christ.
Now; a part of our responsibility, and of our stewardship of that gift, involves the exercise of good, practical wisdom. We mustn’t misuse what God gives us or give it away recklessly, and we must also make wise and prudent use of what God gives us for our own provision and care. And just as it may harm us to have too much wealth, it may also harm someone else for us to share our wealth with them thoughtlessly. We must be discerning. Nevertheless, when the need is clearly evident, and when it has been shown to be genuine and beneficial to the cause of Christ and to the good of our brothers and sisters, and when we clearly feel the call of the Holy Spirit upon us to use it for His cause, we must release it and let it be used for the reason God had entrusted it to us.
Think of what the apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 8. He was writing to the Corinthians—many of whom were also wealthy Christians—and was urging them to become part of a large relief campaign to help suffering Christians in Jerusalem. He pointed to the example of the generosity of other churches—and even of the Lord Jesus Himself—and wrote to them and said;
I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. And in this I give advice: It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago; but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened; but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack—that there may be equality. As it is written, “He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack” (2 Corinthians 8:8-15).
Look once again at verse 18 of our passage this morning. With respect to those who have the ability to do so, Paul urges that they should “do good” with what they have. That means that they need to consider what they have been given by God as the means by which to ‘do’ that ‘good’. They’re to be “rich in good works”; which is the same word that was used to describe how they were ‘rich’ in this world’s goods. They’re to let their true ‘portfolio’ be filled with the works of service they made possible by what they gave. They’re to be “ready to give”; which in the original language means to be ‘liberal’ or ‘bountiful’ or ‘generous’. They’re not just to give the minimum they would have to give to be noticed by this world, but rather to give to the pleasure of God Himself. And finally, they’re to be“willing to share”; which has the idea of being a partner in the needs of others in such a way that their ‘need’ becomes their ‘provision’. It’s a matter of imitating our Lord; because as Paul pointed out in 2 Corinthians 8, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, so that we through His poverty might become rich.
The riches we have—no matter how much or how little they may be—are ours only for a short time. And they are given to us in order for us to do good. And so, we must do good with what has been given to us while we can. And that naturally leads us to a final principle that Paul urged Timothy to pass on; and that was to …
4. ‘LAY UP’ FOR WHAT IS TRULY ‘THE GOOD LIFE’.
In verse 19, Paul told Timothy that in doing all these things, the rich believers in the church would be “storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life”.
Now; when it says that they may thus “lay hold on eternal life”, we shouldn’t take this to mean that they can ‘earn’ eternal life by their generosity. Eternal life is only given as a gift of God’s grace through faith in Jesus. But that’s not even the best way to understand what Paul said. Some ancient versions of Paul’s letter have it that they ‘lay hold on eternal life’; but the best and most reliable versions of the ancient text have it as it’s translated in the New American Standard version: that they may lay hold of “that which is life indeed”. In other words, the ‘life’ that comes from earthly riches—the so-called ‘good life’ that many people in this world struggle and strive to obtain—is not really ‘life’ at all in the truest sense. The ‘true’ life—that which is ‘life indeed’—is given by God and is eternal. And by doing good with what God has given them, they put the ‘earthly good life’ in low priority and pursue the ‘true good life’ that can never be lost to them.
We’re given a wonderful picture of this in our Lord’s parable in Matthew 25. We’re told of how, when He comes to this earth to take up His reign, He will—like a chief shepherd—place the sheep at His right hand, and the goats at His left. Verses 34-40 tell us;
“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’” (Matthew 25:34-40).
That’s a picture of what it means to ‘store up’ for one’s self ‘a good foundation for the time to come’; and to thus ‘lay hold on eternal life’. That’s the true “good life”. And that’s what we’re to pursue with the use of the riches that God has given us.
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So; this passage, dear brothers and sisters, has a call to give to me personally. It’s a command for me, as the pastor, to teach these things to the people of God who are wealthy, and remind them of what God requires, and to urge them to follow these resolves of heart.
But it’s a passage also for me to follow; and also for you to follow. Even though we may not think of ourselves as ‘rich’ in this world’s goods, we nevertheless truly are richer than we think we are. And we must use what God has given us wisely.
And this is especially a passage for those in God’s household who have been entrusted with wealth in the things of this world. They must not let the possession of riches misguide their thinking, but instead keep their trust where it ultimately belongs—that is, in the God who gives those riches to enjoy and use. They must do good with what God has given them while they have it; and they must do so in such a way as to ‘lay up’ for themselves that which is ‘life indeed’.
As one wise old preacher said, a believer can be rich in this world and even richer in the next … if he or she will do the right thing with the riches God has given them.
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1James D. Agresti, “The Poorest 20% of Americans Are Richer on Average Than Most Nations of Europe”, Just Facts, August 26, 2019, https://www.justfacts.com/news_poorest_americans_richer_than_europe