GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 1, 2025 under 2024 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday Sermon Message
June 1, 2025
1 Timothy 6:6-10

Theme: We must pursue godliness with contentment, because godliness cannot be mixed with greed.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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Count Leo Tolstoy was one of literary history’s great storytellers. I sometimes wish that he had lived another fifty years or so longer than he did, because I believe he could have written some really good stories for The Twilight Zone. One of his famous short stories would have certainly made a great episode. It was titled, “How Much Land Does A Man Need?”

As the story goes, a poor, hard-working peasant farmer overheard a conversation between his wife and her sister. The two women were arguing about the differences between their two lives. The sister was the wife of a wealthy merchant; and she boasted of the benefits she and her husband enjoyed while living in town. But the poor peasant’s wife spoke of how much better life was on a country farm. As the poor peasant farmer listened, he thought to himself that his wife was certainly right. It was much better to have a simple country life and to avoid all the conflicts and fights and temptations that come with wealth. But the trouble for him was that they just didn’t have enough land. “If I only had as much land as I wanted, I shouldn’t be afraid of anyone—even the devil.”

But unbeknownst to him—in true Twilight Zone fashion—the devil was listening. He heard the man’s challenge; and crafted a plan to defeat him through the very thing he wished for—more land.

The story goes on to tell of how the man acquired small pieces of land here and there; but it all only resulted in more conflicts and fights with neighbors, and more discontent with his situation. If only he could get as much land as he truly wanted, he thought, then he would be happy. Finally, he heard about a community of simple folk nearby who were willing to sell a very large tract of very fertile land. And so, gathering up what savings he had, he went to them and asked how much the land would cost. But the answer they gave surprised him. They told him that it was only ‘one thousand rubles a day’. “’One thousand rubles a day’”, he wondered; “What could that mean?” He was confused until they explained that if he would lay his hat down at the beginning of the day at whatever spot on the land he chose—and from there, walk around and mark off the land with a hoe—he could go around and make the circle of the land as large as he wanted, and it would all be his. Just one thousand rubles for as much land as he could walk around and mark out for himself in one day. But the only stipulation was that, in order to seal the purchase, he needed to be back before sunset to the very same place he first laid his hat. If he failed, he’d lose both his thousand rubles and the land.

“What a deal!” the man thought. He knew he could easily mark off a great deal of land in one day. He’d finally be rich! And as the story unfolded, he kept walking further and further, eagerly drawing an ever larger circle across the land—claiming more and more of it for himself. But as the day went on, he began to panic. He had become greedy for too much land. He was running out of time, and he was much further away from his starting point than he intended to be. So he hurried back as fast as he could—making marks with his hoe as he ran. The sun was beginning to go down; and he knew that if he didn’t get back to the place where his hat lay, he’d lose everything. He rushed to pick up his pace; desperately marking the land with his hoe. His arms and legs began to ache with the strain. The sweat was pouring from him, his heart was pounding like a drum. His lungs were pumping like billows. And just at sunset, with the sellers of the land standing by to cheer him, he made it back to where his hat lay. With what little strength he had left, he dropped his hoe and reached his hand out to his hat … and fell down dead. The devil had used his own greed against him.

On seeing how the poor man died, the sellers of the land sadly took up his hoe and dug a grave for him seven feet long … about the length of his body … ironically answering the question of the title of the story: “How Much Land Does A Man Need?”

And let me add one more thing from my own imagination. This would be the point in the story when Rod Serling would walk up, gesture down to the grave, and say, “How much land? Just enough to lay down his hat … in the Twilight Zone.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; the sobering fact is that the enemy of our souls does make many people stumble—and even brings them to eternal loss—through means of their own sinful passion for ‘more, more, more’. I often think of that story from Count Tolstoy when I read this morning’s passage of Scripture. It’s found in 1 Timothy 6:6-10; where the apostle Paul wrote,

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 (1 Timothy 6:6-10).

When the apostle Paul penned these words, he was writing to his younger ministry colleague Timothy. He had left Timothy in the city of Ephesus to serve as the pastor of the church there. And as we have seen so far in our study of this letter, most of it has been taken up with instructions that Paul gave to Timothy about the care for the church, and for the protection of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ that the church was to proclaim to the world. But as we draw near the end of the letter, we find that Paul also took the time to lovingly give Pastor Timothy some instructions about the care of his own spiritual well-being … all so that he could remain effective in his ministry to God’s people.

In our last time together, we saw how he warned Timothy about those who would come into the church in order to cause disputes and contentions over non-essential things—’useless wranglings’, as he called them, that would set God’s people at odds with one another. And at the end of verse 5, he warned that those who cause such disturbances “suppose that godliness is a means of gain”. In other words, he warned that some would come into the church who pretended to be fighting for the cause of ‘godliness’ but who, in reality, were only using the cause of ‘godliness’ as a means to rob God’s people and to advance their own selfish ambitions and desires. Paul was warning Timothy that the church family—and the church’s leaders—always need to be on guard against such people.

But Paul wanted to make sure that Timothy understood that genuine godliness truly was a thing worth pursuing. It indeed is a ‘great gain’ … but only if it’s accompanied by a heart of genuine contentment before God. If Timothy wasn’t careful, even he could lose the benefits of godliness by being distracted with that ever-dangerous craving for ‘more, more, more’.

These words were written to a pastor and are especially applicable to those who are in fields of ministry for the Lord. As we all know, many ministry leaders have fallen from their place of service to the cause of Christ through inordinate longings for—and a greedy pursuit of—earthly wealth, prosperity, and luxury. But this is also meant to serve as a warning for all of us as God’s people. We all need to make sure that we live for the Lord Jesus without being pulled away by an inordinate love of the temporary wealth of this world.

As these words show us, we must pursue godliness with contentment, because godliness cannot be mixed with greed.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; let’s take a moment to consider the important word ‘contentment’—the opposite of greed. You’ll find it mentioned twice in this passage. But in the original language, two different words are being used. And it’s very important that we understand the difference between them.

One is the Greek word arkeō. It’s a word that means “sufficient” or “enough”. You’ll find it in verse 8; where Paul told Timothy, “And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” It’s the word that was used in Luke 3:14; when John the Baptist told the soldiers that came to be baptized by him, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.” It simply means that, if we have food and clothing, we should consider these to be enough and should be satisfied with what God has given us. It’s a word that you’d use to speak of being happy with your position in this world and with the outward circumstances in which you live. It would mean you should improve your situation if you can; but if you can’t, you should be happy with what you have.

But the other Greek word that’s used in this passage is the one that’s found at the beginning in verse 6; where Paul told Timothy that godliness with “contentment” is great gain. In the original language, it was a word that was made by combining the word arkeō with the prefix autos … which is the Greek word for “self”. So, the word that’s formed by putting these two words together—autarkēs—means “to be ‘sufficient’ or ‘enough’ within one’s self”. It’s the word Paul used in Philippians 4:11 when he wrote, “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content” … that is, ‘sufficient within himself’ … even while sitting inside a dark prison cell. It’s a word that you’d use to speak of being completely satisfied within your inner being before God without any dependency upon the outward circumstances or surrounding situation. It’s not describing a prideful sense of ‘self-satisfaction’, but rather a profound sense of complete ‘enough-ness’ within one’s soul as a gift of God’s grace to those who trust in Him. It’s something that Paul said that he was able to experience because—as he put it—“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

And it’s that kind of ‘contentment’—a complete sense of satisfaction within one’s self—that Paul was speaking of when he said that “godliness with contentment” is great gain. To live a godly life with a sense of complete satisfaction and contentment within one’s self before God is to be truly rich indeed. But without that contentment, an inordinate longing for the riches of this world can begin to set in. And true godliness cannot coexist with a craving for ‘more, more, more’ of the things of this world.

The Lord Jesus—who was truly the greatest Storyteller that there ever was—once told a parable about this. Luke 12:13-21 says;

Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:13-21).

Our Lord wasn’t saying that it’s wrong to have the things of this world. Nor was He telling us that we shouldn’t store things up and provide for ourselves as a matter of good stewardship. Rather, what He was telling us was to beware of the deceitful power of greed—of thinking that our life consists of having an ‘abundance’ of things … and of not of allowing God to fully have us.

So; how did Paul set this out in our passage? First, he showed that …

1. GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT IS
A THING WORTH POSSESSING.

In verses 6-8, Paul wrote, “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.” And in these words, we can see three important principles that emphasize to us how great a treasure it is to have godliness with contentment.

First, he shows us that contentment is a characteristic of true godliness. In verse 6 he said, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.” It’s possible for someone to be somewhat ‘godly’ in the sense of being a pious and devout believer without having a sense of contentment within themselves. But they couldn’t really be godly in the sense of being truly ‘God-centered’ and ‘God-focused’ in the way that the heavenly Father would want them to be. They must first have given themselves completely over to Him so they can say, as Paul did,

… I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:11-13).

To be able to say this truthfully as Paul could—and to truly have ‘godliness’ accompanied by ‘contentment’ as he did—means that we would be able to be absolutely happy and fulfilled even if we were made to suffer for our obedience to the Lord Jesus … as Paul was. That truly is a ‘great gain’.

Second, Paul shows us that such contentment is in keeping with a truly eternal perspective. In verse 7, he wrote, “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” Paul may have been thinking of the words of Job. Job, you’ll remember, was the most prosperous and righteous man of his day; and God allowed the devil to strike him and take all his riches away. But Job proved how much of a godly man he was when he responded to it all by saying;

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20).

Whatever we have now, we didn’t bring in with us. And when we finally leave, we won’t be able to take any of it out with us. Why, then, should we build our lives on what we never came with and will never be able to keep? It’s all only ours to use now to be used in preparation for our eternal home in heaven—which is where our true treasure should be stored. So, godliness with contentment truly is in keeping with an eternal perspective of things.

And finally Paul shows us that—with all this in mind—we should be satisfied with God’s provision of the basics. In verse 8, he wrote, “And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” The words that he used to describe these two provisions are very broad in meaning. To have “food” means to have basic sustenance—not fancy fare, but the simple food that God promises to us and knows that we need on a daily basis. And to have “clothing” means to have a basic covering—not the latest styles from Paris and an expensive home to keep them in, but the necessary clothes to keep warm and a roof over our heads to keep dry. As Jesus taught us;

“… do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:31-33).

Our heavenly Father has promised us these basics if we will put His priorities first in our lives—not necessarily the best possible versions and the most luxurious forms of these basics that the world has to offer, but just enough of these basics to meet our needs. And if we have them with true thanksgiving to Him and with true devotion to His kingdoms’ cause, we should be ‘satisfied with enough’.

* * * * * * * * * *

So, that kind of ‘godliness with contentment’ is truly ‘great gain’. We should consider it very much worth pursuing. But we must beware of falling into the trap of wanting more of the things of this world than sincere godliness would allow. We must beware of behaving like that man in Tolstoy’s story who wasn’t satisfied with what he could reasonably have, but greedily grasped after more than he could take … and ended up losing everything.

Paul went on then to issue the warning that …

2. GODLINESS CAN NOT BE MADE
TO MIX WITH GREED.

In verses 9-10, Paul wrote, “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.” And here again, we can see three important principles that emphasize how dangerous greed is to our souls.

In verse 9, Paul shows us that the desire to be rich leads people to fall into many sins. He wrote, “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.” It’s not that ‘being rich’ makes this happen. There are many people to whom God entrusts great wealth and who go on to live godly lives. In fact, some of the greatest saints in the Bible were wealthy. Rather, it’s the covetous desire to be rich in this world’s goods from out of a heart of discontent before God that causes someone to fall. Some figuratively ‘drown’ in sin because of it. In fact, the way that Paul puts this in the original language suggests that those who ‘ongoingly desire’ to be rich ‘ongoingly fall’ as a habit of life.

Have you ever heard of a man named Gehazi? He was a servant to the Old Testament prophet Elisha. Elisha had healed a powerful man from a foreign land named Naaman from leprosy. In gratitude, Naaman offered a gift to Elisha; but Elisha said, “As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing” (2 Kings 5:16). Even though this foreign man Naaman insisted, Elisha refused. And so, Naaman—healed of his leprosy—went on his way back to his own land, praising the God of Israel.

But Elisha’s servant Gehazi overheard all this. When Elisha wasn’t looking, Gehazi ran after Naaman and said that the plans had changed. He lied to Naaman; saying that two unexpected visitors had come, and that Elisha needed some silver and two sets of clothing for them. Naaman gladly gave them to him—and Gehazi deceitfully hid them in his own house. When he stood before Elisha—to whom God had revealed what had happened—the prophet confronted him and said;

“Did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants? Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.” And he went out from his presence leprous, as white as snow. (2 Kings 5:26-27).

What a picture of how easily we can fall into many temptations and snares and foolish and harmful lusts through the desire to be rich!

Paul went on to stress another principle; that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. In verse 10, he wrote, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil …”; and those words are often quoted wrongly by people. It’s important that we quote them correctly. For example, notice that Paul didn’t say that “money” is the root of all evil—as some folks have often put it; but rather that “the love of money” is a root of all evil. Money in itself isn’t a sinful thing; but the inordinate love for it is. And notice that he didn’t say that the love of money is the root of all evil, but rather that it is a root of all evil. There are other such ‘roots’; and the love of money is only one of them.

When Paul said that the love of money is a ‘root’ of all evil, he meant that it’s a source of it. And just think of how often in this world the inordinate love of money is the immediate cause of all varieties of evil—such things as fraud and deceit, falsehoods and lies, slander, robbery, cheating, theft, cruelty and acts injustice, acts of enslavement and kidnapping, crimes of human trafficking, the manufacture and sale of drugs and pornography, corruption, quarrels and fights, malice and hatred, acts of murder … The list is long; isn’t it? Truly “all kinds of evil”!

Or think of the dreadful condemnation that Pastor James spoke in James 5:1-6;

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 5:1-6).

Being rich itself wasn’t the cause of those evils. It was the inordinate love for those riches—a love so strong that it resulted in great acts of injustice toward others—that was a root of it all.

And notice one more principle that Paul mentions; that greediness has led many to stray from the faith. At the end of verse 10, he wrote that it was for the love of money that “some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows”. They started off faithful to the Lord Jesus and in His service, but had been lured away from their devotion and service to Him by the love of money.

This may have been something that broke Paul’s heart personally. In his second letter to Timothy, he wrote, “Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia” (2 Timothy 4:9-10). It seemed that some of Paul’s most trusted co-workers were being drawn away from faithfulness to the work of the gospel by the love of this world’s goods. A love for riches and a devotion to God cannot coexist together. Even our Lord warned 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” (Matthew 6:24).

* * * * * * * * * *

Many years ago—very early in my Christian life—a friend of mine in my church youth group took up calligraphy. She knew I had recently placed my trust in Jesus; and so she created a little poster for me. It was the words of Psalm 73:25-26;

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:25-26).

I have always loved those words; because they remind me of where my true treasure is. And even today, I want to be very careful to keep my contentment in Him.

Let’s not let the love of money draw us away from Him who is our true treasure. Let’s not get deceived into chasing after the wrong treasure … and end up losing everything in the pursuit.

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