1 Timothy 6:6–10 (ESV)
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 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. 10 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.
I’m always stunned at the cost of a television commercial during the Super Bowl. Did you know that last year’s Super Bowl charged businesses a record $8 million to run a 30-second commercial? That’s up 1 million compared to the previous year. By the way, just for comparison, the very first Super Bowl commercials cost around $37,000, but I’m sure it was just jaw-dropping to folks back then.
Those figures are stunning, but it’s obvious that people are making a profit by running those commercials; otherwise, they wouldn’t splash that kind of cash. But it raises a question for me.
Have you ever really taken time to think about commercials, specifically, what’s the “message” that’s being communicated to you? Other than a public service announcement, it really doesn’t matter what commercial it is that you are watching. All commercials have one root message. You can be happy “if.” If you buy our product, you’ll feel good. If you buy our product, you’ll look better and younger. If you buy our product, you’ll be on the cutting edge and cool. If you buy our product, you’ll be more attractive (in half the time, ha!). If you buy our product, everyone will love you; heck, you’ll even love yourself!
At the root of it all is the selling point that if you buy their product, you will be or you will find happiness.
Wave after wave, on TV, on the radio, in the papers and magazines, when you’re out driving, walking, or biking on your cell phone and computer, as well as when you listen to podcasts or watch a video! Commercials are everywhere, tapping into our desire to be happy and to be content and making themselves a tidy profit along the way.
Now, there is nothing wrong with money or even material possessions for that matter. They are God’s gifts to us and should be enjoyed in their proper context with Jesus at the center of our lives, filtering even those things through our relationship with Jesus.
However, what’s happening here in our passage is very awesome. Paul is combining the teachings about food and sex from chapter 4 with the problems of the motives of the false teachers who are looking at godliness as a means of gain, and now Paul is pointing at the heart of the problem; it’s the love of money. Not money or the material possessions themselves, but the love for these things drives people to foolishness and constantly puts them in a state of conflict and more importantly, a lack of peace because they do not know Jesus, let alone have Him at the center of their heart and mind.
The love of money causes all kinds of problems for people, including Christians, who may wander away from faith in Christ as they pursue this other “love” (verses 9-10). Paul contrasts this love of money with godliness coupled with contentment and says that this is a great blessing that followers of Jesus are to pursue.
Being content and being in that place of trusting God over everything else is an awesome place to be. It’s a place which, to be candid with you, is a place I need to find myself more frequently. It’s a good question to ask ourselves, “What matters most? Jesus or other things? Are we finding our security and identity in Christ alone, or are we letting other things compete with Jesus for that center of our lives (even good things such as family, friends, children, even Christian ministry and service)?”
I think we were wrestling with these questions early on in the COVID pandemic, with all of our restrictions, but now that we’re back to the “normal” busyness of our lives, those questions have been put on hold. But I encourage you to spend some time wrestling with those questions again.
Take some time to look at your life and consider what love you are pursuing.
What is at the center of your life? Anything other than Jesus won’t satisfy. I can testify to that from personal experience. Anything other than Jesus in biblical terms is an idol and makes us adulterous in God’s eyes, betraying our relationship with Him (ouch).
If you have entrusted your life to Jesus, the only thing that I know that will keep Jesus at the center of your life is daily times alone with Him. Every day do the most important thing by centering yourself on Jesus and then filtering every other thing, every passion, relationship, possession, and love through your relationship with Him.
As you filter everything through Jesus, you may find a couple of surprises. To be frank, there are things that have no place in your life, and the Lord may ask you to let go of them completely. Then there are those things the Lord may ask you to do a little work on to tweak or prune, making sure that they don’t become an idol for you. And there are those things in your life that the Lord may bless and multiply because it pleases and glorifies Him.
Trust the Lord in this—the Creator of all things desires to pour out His very best for you!
God bless you, and know that you are constantly in my prayers.
Scott