Read 1 TIMOTHY 6:3–10
John the Baptist preached a message of repentance in preparation for the coming of God’s kingdom and Messiah. He clearly called people to repent from the sins of greed or the love of money. For example, he told tax collectors not to use their positions of power for personal gain. And soldiers were told not to extort money but instead to be content with their pay (Luke 3:7–14).
The truth is that the love of money destroys godly contentment. It is the ally of worry and anxiety, turning it into a habit or lifestyle. People can be governed by the love of money at any financial level when they are consumed by what they own or don’t own and obsessed with what they want.
This describes the false teachers in today’s reading (vv. 3–5). Their aim was “financial gain” (cf. 2 Cor. 2:17). They were also marked by pride, a tendency toward quarrels and controversies, and a lack of faithfulness to Christ’s and the apostles’ teaching.
By contrast, godly contentment is rooted in a proper balancing of the temporal and material with the eternal and spiritual (vv. 6–8). As they say, you can’t take it with you—therefore, all we should need for contentment is to have our basic material needs met. In light of what we’ve already studied this month, this is clearly a call to faith in God as our Provider.
Paul’s warning here is a strong one (vv. 9–10; cf. Luke 16:13). The desire to get rich is a temptation and a trap. The inevitable result is spiritual destruction; such people wander from the faith. As we’ve seen, the “love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,” a doorway to many other sins (v. 10). It is the enemy not only of contentment but also of righteousness and fruitfulness.
APPLY THE WORD
On this Election Day, let’s pray for our nation! Remember state and local elections as well as the national one. Prayer is a far better option than worry or anxiety, for it acknowledges God as the Sovereign of the universe and Lord over all human leaders, including the new president of the United States (Prov. 21:1)!
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