THE LOVE OF MONEY 1 Timothy 6:6-10
We are, this morning, again in the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 6. Last Sunday we dealt with, from that book and chapter, the topic of slavery. But this morning we are going to deal with a much more prevalent problem than slavery. Indeed, the topic for this morning is, without question, one of the greatest problems to ever plague the human race. You can see by the sermon title what I am talking about: THE LOVE OF MONEY. Let's read the text…
1 Timothy 6:6-10
I guess it is quite natural that a section that began (back in verse 1) with the topic of slavery should soon find us reading about those who are rich for historically slaves have generally ended up in the hands of the rich.
Thomas Jefferson, our third president, was known for being a brilliant man. Through his life he amassed a great deal of land and money and, altogether, close to 600 slaves. The use of slave labor allowed him to build and maintain his vast estate which he called Monticello. The fact that by the time of his death Jefferson was basically broke suggests that maybe he wasn't quite as brilliant as he was thought to be.
But poor people don't own slaves. For how can one feed a slave if one doesn't even have the means to feed oneself?
But, anyway, Paul here has moved the conversation away from slavery and on to the topic of riches and the desire for riches (which, ironically, is but another form of slavery!)
It was some 25 years ago or so when Ruth and I had a single fellow named Paul Gray over for supper. Paul was a very smart computer programmer who was working for a company on a program that would guide the handling of luggage at a new airport that was being built in Denver, Colorado. Paul had, some years earlier, come to faith in Christ and now he was attending the church I pastored.
So while sitting around eating dinner, the topic of riches came up. It was at that time that I said something like, "Yes, Paul warned, somewhere in his writings, about how we should be content with what we have and how it is 'great gain.' Immediately Paul said, "Yes, that's found in 1 Timothy 6:6."
"What?" I said. "Godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Timothy 6:6," Paul said.
I immediately left the table, went over and grabbed my Bible and opened it to 1 Timothy 6:6. It was an NIV Bible. There it read,
"But godliness with contentment is great gain." I never forgot that evening's conversation. I was IMPRESSED!
1 Timothy 6:6 is really a summarization of where Paul is about to go. He's talking here about GAIN…real gain…lasting riches…what it is that makes a person truly WEALTHY. And here Paul suggests that a person who is both GODLY and CONTENT is a rich person.
We tend to, of course, equate RICHES with financial wealth. And so we will speak of a Bill Gates, or a Warren Buffet or the world's newest man at the top, Jeff Bezos. They say of Bezos, that he personally has enough wealth that he could LITERALLY purchase the entire city of Seattle, Washington or that he is personally worth more than the Ford Motor Company and Delta Airlines, combined. It is almost impossible to grasp how much wealth this is. If Jeff Bezos had been born with that much wealth and spent over 2.7 million dollars every day of his life for 90 years, he would still have money left over at the end of it all.
THAT'S WEALTH
And because there are actually people like this (it is estimated that there are now nearly 2,000 BILLIONAIRES in the world and some 15 MILLION millionaires)…because there are people with EXTREME WEALTH…it is difficult to see how the rest of us fit in. Compared to most people in the world, even the poorest of us is doing well. But compared to these people of extreme wealth, we don't even register. And what is true of us is true of most Americans, where one in four workers have less than $1,000 saved, where 1 in 3 have no retirement savings and where over 50% will retire broke. But, rich or poor, let's talk about money today.
So, last week was SLAVERY; today it is MONEY; and next Sunday is the vigorous, disciplined life. FIVE PRINCIPLES REGARDING WEALTH from 1 Timothy 6…
1. (from verse 6) GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT IS GREAT GAIN (or TRUE and LASTING WEALTH).
People can lose money…a lot of money…in a day.
We have all heard the stories of the men who were jumping out of windows following the stock market crash of 1929. These were those who were highly leveraged and who had borrowed beyond their capacity to pay back their debt. They had trusted that the market would continue to rise and then, quite suddenly, it collapsed. Seeing no way of paying back what they owed they ended their lives.
Money can come and money can go.
Or as is often said, "You win some and you lose some."
But godliness with contentment is lasting wealth. It can't be lost; it can't be taken away. Philippians 4:10-14
Paul knew what he was talking about. He had lived in both camps: the camp of the plenty and the camp of little to nothing. And he had learned through it all that it isn't the amount of money that one that brings peace and satisfaction. Rather it is the peace that one has in one's heart.
Couples often get married with little to no money. They may live in a small apartment with crates for furniture. When Ruth and I were starting out, it was common for young couples to have book shelves made out of cinder blocks and boards.
anyone else) had in the bank. Happiness was rooted in the simple fact that we were together.
You will often hear that FINANCIAL PROBLEMS are the principle cause of divorce but this is not true. If that were the case we would not be seeing people who are wealthy divorcing. Money or a lack of money is not the reason for divorce. HARDNESS OF HEART, Jesus said in Mark chapter 10, is the reason why people divorce.
But to pursue a godly life and to learn to be content with what we have – ah, there is GREAT WEALTH in that, and that is a wealth no one can take away.
2. (from verse 7) ULTIMATELY WE OWN NOTHING.
We into this world with nothing and we're going out the same.
My dad (who, Lord willing, will be here in just over a month)
spent a LOT OF YEARS and a LOT OF TIME collecting things. He has now sold EVERYTHING. And now that everything is gone it has made it easier for me to look at all that time and money and effort that went into that collecting. And, honestly, the more I think about it the less it makes sense. I understand that he ENJOYED THINGS. I have a 1959 Austin Healey Sprite that I restored years ago. I enjoy it. And I have a 1936 Farmall tractor that I enjoy firing up. It is great to get behind the wheel of something that is over 80 years old and get it moving down the road (which is probably how some older women think about their husbands!)
But so much time on my father's part was spent on that STUFF. And I think, to what end?
The irony of it all is that it was my dad who drilled into my two sisters and me, even from the time that we were young, this truth that I'm putting forward that ULTIMATELY WE OWN NOTHING. He would say to us, "You know, if you go to an antique shop, at one time, someone said of everything in there 'this is MINE' or 'That is MINE.' And yet, here it now belongs to a dealer who will end up selling it to someone else who will then claim it is theirs. But it's not theirs. For NOTHING IS OURS. We just USE stuff for awhile. That's all we do."
And he was right.
So don't fall in LOVE with stuff. Because it doesn't truly belong to you anyway. You'll use it and then someday someone else will use it, and then…eventually, someone else. And so on. It is just STUFF. 3. (from verse 8) SO LEARN TO BE CONTENT WITH WHAT YOU HAVE.
Now, there is a real tension here.
For, in truth, no one is absolutely "content" with what they have. If we were absolutely "content" then
• we would never make another trip to the grocery store • we would never stop at another gas station to buy gas • we would never purchase new or even used clothing
• we would eat out of dirty dishes, and
• we would cease to shower or brush our teeth or comb our hair
Indeed, if we were truly "content" with the way things are naturally we would not be here this morning, and if somehow we had come to be here it would follow that we would all stink, we would all be unhealthy and we would all be stark naked!
So this issue of being "content" needs to be taken in some context, and I think it is the next verse that gives us that context…
verse 9
4. (from verses 9-10) BE CAREFUL IN WANTING MORE
Now Paul here speaks about wanting to be RICH, but I think that far short of being "rich" is the simple problem of NEVER BEING SATISFIED.
There is that rather famous quote (that has been attributed to a long list of rich tycoons from the early 20th century). I believe I have found the actual source of the quote. It is that quote about having
enough.
Here's the quote…
When asked once, "How much money is enough money?" John D. Rockefeller replied, "Just a little bit more."
Some years ago I heard a broadcast on the life of Warren Buffet. They said that from the time Buffet was a young boy, he made it his objective to collect money. Just as some kids might have collected baseball cards or stamps, he collected money. He could never get enough. He always wanted more.
I think this gets down to what occupies your mind, time and life.
I mentioned my dad with his collecting of things – horse drawn carriages in particular. God will be his judge, but I'm not convinced it was a good thing.
For this collecting of anything, or trading of anything (think of the stock market) it can become such a DRAIN on one's life.
It can occupy a person's time and mind in a way that is simply not spiritually healthy. Some years ago I spent a LONG TIME with a man in a discipling relationship that lasted for over two years. Each week I would faithfully meet with him. Initially I tried to get him to memorize some Bible verses and the order of the books of the New Testament, but after several months of trying I gave up. I concluded "I think drugs and alcohol destroyed his ability to remember much of anything." And then one day, in passing, I mentioned to him that I had lived near Detroit in 1968 - the year the Detroit Tigers won the World Series. "Oh," he said, "against the Saint Louis Cardinals. Denny McLain won the Cy Young award that year." As one who grew up in Michigan, I actually knew a little bit about the Tigers of that era and I said, "You're right!" He then continued, "And Al Kaline and Norm Cash…" I stopped him, pulled out my smartphone and
looked up the '68 Tigers and then said,
"Who was playing center field that year?" "Mickey Stanley" he said. He was right.
I then quickly looked up the roster for the 1982 New York Yankees and asked, "Okay, '82 Yankees. Who played first base?"
"Ken Griffey." Again he was right So again I switched teams and years…
"In 2001 the Arizona Diamondbacks beat what team to win the world series?
And he said, "That was the first and only time Arizona made it to the World Series. They beat the Yankees 4 games to 3." Again he was right. And that day I learned that this man, who I had thought was not all that bright, was actually BRILLIANT AT WHAT HE WANTED TO KNOW. Baseball was his passion. And he knew baseball (better, in fact, than anyone I had ever met). But his knowledge of God and the scriptures was on an infantile basis, because that is not what he cared about. It is not what he gave his time to. The old line is that people will find the time and money for the things they truly WANT to do. But here, in this passage, Paul warns about how a constant desire for more…a constant love of money… will only result in the soul of that person being plunged "into ruin and destruction" (verse 9). Oh, they may gain wealth alright, but that's about all they will gain.
For we all become what we meditate upon.
What we eat and drink and think about is what we become.
That's why Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after RIGHTEOUSNESS, for they shall be satisfied" (Matthew 5:6)
5. (also from verses 9-10) Lastly, THE SEEKING AFTER WEALTH CAN LEAD TO A WANDERING FROM THE FAITH.
Paul could not be more clear in saying exactly that in verse 10… v. 10
Again, this is tied into what it is that we think about…what we meditate on. 1 Corinthians 15:33
Every Christian should have this verse UNDERLINED in their Bible.
The point of that is that who we surround ourselves with will affect how we live. And in the same way, 1 Timothy 6 is teaching us that WHAT we surround ourselves with will also affect how we live.
If your constant companions are those who have no interest in the things of Christ, unless you are of an INCREDIBLE FORTITUDE, your faith will likely eventually be beaten into the ground.
gaining of more things and stuff (or knowledge about baseball), your faith will likely eventually be beaten into the ground.
And so there is a very easy decision that stands before all of us who call Jesus our Savior and it is this: how much do we truly want CHRIST? Do we desire him MORE than anyone else and more than ANYTHING else?
Is he our "all in all"?
Or are we trying to just keep him in the air, like a good juggler, that has family, job, house, paying bills, and a keen interest in baseball all being juggled at the same time and JESUS is just one more ball to throw into the mix?
That's not what this life is about, my friends..
May JESUS CHRIST be our VISION…our BEST THOUGHT BY DAY AND BY NIGHT. And may nothing come between Him and us.
