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| 1 Timothy 6:06 |
But godliness with contentment is
great gain.
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1 Timothy 6:6-8
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.
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Let us first look at the Barclay commentary on
verses six through eight:
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THE CROWN OF CONTENTMENT
1 Timothy 6:6–8
.
And in truth godliness with contentment is great
gain. We brought nothing into the world, and it is
quite clear that we cannot take anything out of it
either; but if we have food and shelter, we shall be
content with them.
.
THE word here used for contentment is autarkeia.
This was one of the great slogans of the Stoic
philosophers. By it, they meant a complete
self-sufficiency. They meant a frame of mind which
was completely independent of all outward things,
and which carried the secret of happiness within
itself. Contentment never comes from the possession
of external things. As the poet George Herbert
wrote:
For he that needs five thousand pounds to live
Is full as poor as he that needs but five.
Contentment comes from an inward attitude to life.
In the third part of Henry VI, Shakespeare draws a
picture of the king wandering in the country places
unrecognized. He meets two gamekeepers and tells
them that he is a king. One of them asks him: ‘But,
if thou be a king, where is thy crown?’ And the king
gives a magnificent answer:
My crown is in my heart, not on my head;
Not deck’d with diamonds and Indian stones,
Nor to be seen; my crown is call’d content –
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.
The great men and women have always been content
with little. One of the sayings of the Jewish Rabbis
was: ‘Who is rich? He that is contented with his
lot.’ In his commentary, Walter Lock quotes the kind
of training on which a Jewish Rabbi engaged and the
kind of life he lived: ‘This is the path of the law.
A morsel with salt shalt thou eat, thou shalt drink
also water by measure, and shalt sleep upon the
ground and live a life of trouble while thou toilest
in the law. If thou doest this, happy shalt thou be,
and it shall be well with thee; happy shalt thou be
in this world and it shall be well with thee in the
world to come.’ The Rabbi had to learn to be content
with enough. E. F. Brown quotes a passage from the
great French Dominican preacher Henri Lacordaire:
‘The rock of our present day is that no one knows
how to live upon little. The great men of antiquity
were generally poor . . . It always seems to me that
the retrenchment of useless expenditure, the laying
aside of what one may call the relatively necessary,
is the high road to Christian disentanglement of
heart, just as it was to that of ancient vigour. The
mind that has learned to appreciate the moral beauty
of life, both as regards God and men, can scarcely
be greatly moved by any outward reverse of fortune;
and what our age wants most is the sight of a man,
who might possess everything, being yet willingly
contented with little. For my own part, humanly
speaking, I wish for nothing. A great soul in a
small house is the idea which has touched me more
than any other.’
It is not that Christianity pleads for poverty.
There is no special virtue in being poor, or in
having a constant struggle to make ends meet. But it
does plead for two things.
It pleads for the realization that it is never in
the power of things to bring happiness. E. K.
Simpson says: ‘Many a millionaire, after choking his
soul with gold-dust, has died from melancholia.’
Happiness always comes from personal relationships.
All the things in the world will not make people
happy if they know neither friendship nor love.
Christians know that the secret of happiness lies
not in things but in people.
It pleads for concentration upon the things which
are permanent. We brought nothing into the world,
and we cannot take anything out of it. The wise of
every age and faith have known this. ‘You cannot’,
said Seneca, ‘take anything more out of the world
than you brought into it.’ The poet of the Greek
anthology had it: ‘Naked I set foot on the earth;
naked I shall go below the earth.’ The Spanish
proverb grimly puts it: ‘There are no pockets in a
shroud.’ Simpson comments: ‘Whatever a man amasses
by the way is in the nature of luggage, no part of
his truest personality, but something he leaves
behind at the toll-bar of death.’
We can take only two things to God. We can, and
must, take ourselves, and therefore our great task
is to build up a self that we can take without shame
to God. We can, and must, take that relationship
with God into which we have entered in the days of
our life. We have already seen that the secret of
happiness lies in personal relationships, and the
greatest of all personal relationships is the
relationship to God. And the supreme thing that we
can take with us is the utter conviction that we go
to one who is the friend and lover of our souls.
Contentment comes when we escape the slavery to
things, when we find our wealth in the love and the
fellowship of others, and when we realize that our
most precious possession is our friendship with God,
made possible through Jesus Christ.
~Barclay commentary
Now to the commentaries.
But godliness with contentment
is great gain. - The inseparable companion of
true, vital religion. Is great gain - Brings
unspeakable profit in time, as well as eternity.
~John Wesley
Explanatory Notes
But godliness with contentment
is great gain. - Those that make a trade of
Christianity to serve their turn for this world,
will be disappointed; but those who mind it as their
calling, will find it has the promise of the life
that now is, as well as of that which is to come. He
that is godly, is sure to be happy in another world;
and if contented with his condition in this world,
he has enough; and all truly godly people are
content. When brought into the greatest straits, we
cannot be poorer than when we came into this world;
a shroud, a coffin, and a grave, are all that the
richest man in the world can have from all his
wealth. If nature should be content with a little,
grace should be content with less. The necessaries
of life bound a true Christian's desires, and with
these he will endeavour to be content. We see here
the evil of covetousness. It is not said, they that
are rich, but they will be rich; who place their
happiness in wealth, and are eager and determined in
the pursuit. Those that are such, give to Satan the
opportunity of tempting them, leading them to use
dishonest means, and other bad practices, to add to
their gains. Also, leading into so many employments,
and such a hurry of business, as leave no time or
inclination for spiritual religion; leading to
connexions that draw into sin and folly. What sins
will not men be drawn into by the love of money!
People may have money, and yet not love it; but if
they love it, this will push them on to all evil.
Every sort of wickedness and vice, in one way or
another, grows from the love of money. We cannot
look around without perceiving many proofs of this,
especially in a day of outward prosperity, great
expenses, and loose profession.
~Matthew Henry Concise
commentary
But godliness with contentment
is great gain. - Piety; religion. The meaning
is, that real religion should be regarded as the
greatest and most valuable acquisition. “With
contentment.” This
word, as now used, refers to a state of mind; a calm
and satisfied feeling; a freedom from murmuring and
complaining. The idea is, that “piety, connected
with a contented mind - or a
mind acquiescing in the allotments of life - is to
be regarded as the real gain.” Tyndale gives
substantially the same interpretation: “Godliness is
great riches, if a man be content with that
he hath” Coverdale: “Howbeit, it is of great
advantage, who is so godly, and holdeth him content
with that he hath.” The word which is used here -
a??ta´??e?a autarkeia - means,
properly, “self-sufficency,” and is used here, in a
good sense, to denote a mind satisfied with its lot.
If there be true religion, united with its proper
accompaniment, peace of mind, it is to
be regarded as the true riches. The object of the
apostle seems to be, to rebuke those who supposed
that property constituted everything that was worth
living for. He tells them,
therefore, that the true gain, the real riches which
we ought to seek, is religion, with a contented
mind. This does more to promote happiness than
wealth can ever do, and this is what
should be regarded as the great object of life.
~Barnes Notes
But godliness with contentment
is great gain - The word godliness, ευσεβεια,
here, and in several other places of this epistle,
signifies the true religion, Christianity; and the
word
contentment, αυταρκεια, signifies a competency, a
sufficiency; that measure or portion of secular
things which is necessary for the support of life,
while the great work of regeneration is
carrying on in the soul. Not what this or the other
person may deem a competency, but what is necessary
for the mere purposes of life in reference to
another world; food, raiment, and
lodging. See 1 Timothy 6:7. So, if a man have the
life of God in his soul, and just a sufficiency of
food and raiment to preserve and not burden life, he
has what God calls great gain, an
abundant portion.
It requires but little of this world’s goods to
satisfy a man who feels himself to be a citizen of
another country, and knows that this is not his
rest. ~Adam Clarke
But godliness with contentment
is great gain. - He properly dismisses the
name of gain and lucre, confessing that godliness is
great gain, but in a far different manner, that is,
because it
brings true sufficiency.
~John Darby Synopsis
He mocks the folly of those who do so greedily
hunger after frail things, who can in no way be
satisfied, and yet nonetheless cannot enjoy their
excess. ~Geneva Bible
Translation Notes
But godliness with contentment
is great gain. - By "godliness" is not meant
any particular grace, but all the graces of the
Spirit of God; as faith, hope, love, fear, &c. the
whole of internal
religion, as it shows itself in outward worship, and
in all acts of holiness of life and conversation;
and which the doctrine that is according to
godliness teaches and engages to; and this is
gain, very great gain indeed. A man possessed of
true godliness is a gaining, thriving, man: such as
are godly, or truly gracious, they are come into
good and happy circumstances, and are
possessor of the true, solid, satisfying, durable,
and unsearchable riches of grace; all their debts
are paid, they are richly clothed, and deliciously
fed, and are in a good family, even the
household of God, who before were in debt, arrayed
in rags, were in a starving condition, and strangers
and foreigners; yea, they are heirs of God, joint
heirs with Christ, and have both
a right and a meetness for the heavenly inheritance;
they are now made kings and priests to God, and, in
the present state of things, have God to be their
portion, and exceeding great
reward; they have an interest in Christ, and in all
spiritual blessings in him, and have the Spirit as
the earnest of their future inheritance; they are
rich in faith, and in good works; their
souls, which were lost, are gained, and shall be
saved with an everlasting salvation; and ere long
they will be possessed of all the riches of glory,
signified by a house not made with
hands, a city which has foundations, whose builder
and maker is God, an incorruptible inheritance, and
a kingdom and glory: how great is the gain of
godliness! And what adds to this
gain, and now goes along with it, is "contentment";
for this is not to be considered as the condition of
godliness being great gain, as if it was not so
without it; but as the effect of
godliness, what that produces, and as a part of its
gain.
The word here used signifies "sufficiency"; and so
it is rendered in the Vulgate Latin version: it
designs a competency of the good things of this
life; and what that is, is expressed in 1
Timothy 6:8 and such God gives to them that fear
him, his godly ones, who shall lack no good thing
convenient for them; for godliness has the promise
of this life, as well as of that which
is to come; and God does give to such all things
pertaining to life and godliness, even all things
richly to enjoy. The word indeed properly signifies
"self-sufficiency", which in its strict
sense, only belongs to God, who is "El-Shaddai", God
all-sufficient and self-sufficient; but 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. The
Jews have a saying (n), that
"he is a rich man whose spirit rests in, or is
contented with his riches;''
that is, as the gloss explains it.
"who rejoices in his portion, be it little or much:
thus, though godliness is not gain, nor gain
godliness, in the sense of the false teachers, yet
is it true gain in a spiritual sense.''
Quoted verse:
1 Timothy 6:8
And having food and raiment let us be therewith
content. ~John Gill
From the mention of the abuse which some put upon
religion, making it to serve their secular
advantages, the apostle,
I. Takes occasion to show the excellency of
contentment and the evil of covetousness.
1. The excellency of contentment, 1 Timothy
6:6-8. Some account Christianity an advantageous
profession for this world. In the sense they mean
this is false; yet it is undoubtedly true
that, though Christianity is the worst trade, it is
the best calling in the world. Those that make a
trade of it, merely to serve their turn for this
world, will be disappointed, and find it a sorry
trade; but those that mind it as their calling, and
make a business of it, will find it a gainful
calling, for it has the promise of the life that now
is, as well as of that which is to come.
(1.) The truth he lays down is that godliness with
contentment is great gain. Some read it, godliness
with a competency; that is, if a man have but a
little in this world, yet, if he have but
enough to carry him through it, he needs desire no
more, his godliness with that will be his great
gain. For a little which a righteous man has is
better than the riches of many wicked,
Psalm 37:16. We read it, godliness with contentment;
godliness is itself great gain, it is profitable to
all things; and, wherever there is true godliness,
there will be contentment; but those
have arrived at the highest pitch of contentment
with their godliness are certainly the easiest
happiest people in this world. Godliness with
contentment, that is, Christian contentment
(content must come from principles of godliness) is
great gain; it is all the wealth in the world. He
that is godly is sure to be happy in another world;
and if withal he do by contentment
accommodate himself to his condition in this world
he has enough. Here we have,
[1.] A Christian's gain; it is godliness with
contentment, this is the true way to gain, yea, it
is gain itself.
[2.] A Christian's gain is great: it is not like the
little gain of worldlings, who are so fond of a
little worldly advantage.
[3.] Godliness is ever accompanied with contentment
in a great or less degree; all truly godly people
have learned with Paul, in whatever state they are,
to be therewith content,
Philippians 4:11. They are content with what God
allots for them, well knowing that this is best for
them. Let us all then endeavour after godliness with
contentment.
Quoted verses:
Psalm 37:16
A little that a righteous man hath is better than
the riches of many wicked.
Philippians 4:11
Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have
learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be
content. ~Matthew Henry
commentary
Let us finish with the Treasury of Scriptural
Knowledge:
Godliness:
1 Timothy 4:8
For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness
is profitable unto all things, having promise of the
life that now is, and of that which is to come.
Psalm 37:16
A little that a righteous man hath is better than
the riches of many wicked.
Psalm 84:11
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will
give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly.
Proverbs 3:13-18
13 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man
that getteth understanding.
14 For the merchandise of it is better than the
merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than
fine gold.
15 She is more precious than rubies: and all the
things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto
her.
16 Length of days is in her right hand; and in her
left hand riches and honour.
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her
paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon
her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.
Proverbs 15:16
Better is little with the fear of the LORD than
great treasure and trouble therewith.
Proverbs 16:8
Better is a little with righteousness than great
revenues without right.
Matthew 6:32-33
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles
seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added
unto you.
Luke 12:31-32
31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all
these things shall be added unto you.
32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
2 Corinthians 5:1
For we know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of
God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens.
Hebrews 13:5
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and
be content with such things as ye have: for he hath
said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Contentment:
Luke 3:14
And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying,
And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do
violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and
be content with your wages.
Philippians 4:11-13
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. |
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