The Secret of Contentment, Part Two

There are three things taught in these two verses: covetousness, contentment, and confidence. As Christians, we are to avoid covetousness, we are to learn to be content, and we are to have confidence in God. In this study we will examine the first two points, covetousness and contentment.

Avoid Covetousness

In Hebrews 13:5 we read, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.” I want to give you nine reasons why Christians must avoid covetousness.

1. The Bible tells us that covetousness is idolatry. This means God is very angry at a person who is covetous. Why? God is a jealous God, and he will not give his glory to another. A covetous man is opposed by God because he is an idolater.
2. Covetousness is the exact opposite of contentment. When you look at a covetous man, he is always unhappy and restless. A covetous man will never be content.
3. A covetous man is a deceived person. The Bible speaks about the deceitfulness of wealth and that those who trust in it are deceived. The devil tells us that if we can only make more money, we will be very happy. But when we will have made more money, we find that we have failed to become truly happy.
4. Covetousness chokes one’s spiritual vitality. In Mark 4:19 Jesus tells us, “The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” A covetous person is not fruitful toward God.
5. A covetous person is an arrogant person. Why? The money and possessions a covetous person acquires delude him, making him proud and arrogant. Thus, he becomes unable to receive God’s word, mercy, and grace.
6. A covetous man may make money but his money is uncertain. It develops wings and flies away. The other day I heard of a man who made six million dollars. A financial counselor told him to sell his stock in a company because all this money was tied to the one company’s stock. He did not pay any attention to his adviser, and the stock went down from $32/share to $2/share. This man lost everything. Money has a way of disappearing.
7. Covetousness, or the love of money, is the root of all evil. We read this in 1 Timothy 6:10.
8. Covetousness can bring a person to the condition called apostasy. Again, we read about this in 1 Timothy 6:10 as well as 2 Timothy 4:10.
9. Covetousness can bring about one’s destruction. In 1 Timothy 6:10 Paul describes a covetous man. He says such a man is like a wild animal that leaps at bait hung over a pit. The animal falls in, impales itself on a sharp stake below, and is totally destroyed.

In light of these reasons, I hope that we will pay heed to this biblical counsel to avoid covetousness.

Learn to Be Content

Second, Hebrews 13:5-6 tells us learn to be content with what we have. In our earlier study we said that the Greek word for contentment is autarkeia. Auto means self and arkeia means sufficiency, so autarkeia means self-sufficiency. We also said that Christian self-sufficiency is totally different from the self-sufficiency of the ancient Stoics and those who practice the religion of Buddhism. Christian contentment has no regard for circumstances in which we find ourselves. Come what may, Christians are sufficient in themselves, but this is only through God’s abounding grace. Christian contentment means a self-sufficiency due to the absolute sufficiency of God’s abounding grace that he pours out in plenty to everyone who looks to him.

The skill of self-sufficiency is something which we as disciples are to learn, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself teaches us this skill through our Christian experience. When we learn it, we will possess a wonderful skill. It is similar to becoming a pilot. If your goal is to pilot a Boeing 747, you will go to school and learn well, and eventually you will have the skill it takes to pilot this complicated plane.

The Lord taught this skill of self-sufficiency to Paul and he learned it well. We read about that in three scriptures, which I urge you to study very carefully: Philippians 4:11-13, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, and 2 Corinthians 9:8.

Content in Troubles

In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 we read about an experience of Paul in which God himself gave Paul a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment him. Paul prayed three times, asking the Lord to remove the thorn in his flesh that tormented him, just as the Lord Jesus Christ had prayed three times in the garden of Gethsemane. The Lord did not speak to Paul on this issue until he finished his third prayer. What was God’s answer? “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9).

What was Paul doing? He was learning not only to put up with troubles but also to rejoice in them. He was learning to glory in his troubles and weaknesses, and even to boast in them. Such is the amazing skill that Paul learned from the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we examine this passage in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, we also learn a few principles from which we can learn to be content.

First, we learn that we will have troubles. That is a promise from God. As Christians we are guaranteed to have troubles.

Second, we can do something when we have troubles. What is that? We should emulate Paul who prayed to the Lord in his weaknesses and troubles. We can pray.

Third, what will happen when we pray to the Lord in our weaknesses? God will cause us to break through the clouds of weakness and rise to the heavenlies into the sunshine of God’s grace. It is like flying through the clouds until you reach an altitude of thirty-nine thousand feet. What will you see? The sun will be shining and everything will be all right. As a result of your prayer you will be brought up high and given God’s grace. God allows you to break through the clouds of your own weaknesses and miseries and enter into the sunshine of his grace.

Fourth, we find a definition of grace here. Grace is the power of Christ, the covenant Lord.

Fifth, we are told that this power came to rest on Paul even as the Holy Spirit came and rested upon Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism, and that we also can have such an experience.

Sixth, we learn that this power is the power of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Peter 4:14 we read, “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and God rests on you.” Well, being insulted is trouble, isn’t it? But what else does Peter say? “You are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” This grace, this power, means the Holy Spirit is resting upon us in a way that we realize it.

Peter experienced the Holy Spirit coming upon him in times of trouble. In Acts 4:8 we find Peter facing the Sanhedrin, which means trouble. But the Spirit of God came upon him and filled him, as we read, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them. . .” Grace, the power of Christ, was given to Peter and he spoke boldly to these rulers. In the same way the Spirit of God will come and rest upon us when we are weak, empowering us and making us able to do the will of God.

So in 2 Corinthians 12:10 we read, “When I am weak,” and in the Greek it is tote dunatos eimi, “then strong, able, I am.” Paul is emphasizing the phrase “I am.” If you are interested in contentment, you must realize that Christian contentment is something that we experience by God’s grace. It is the power of God, the Spirit of God, coming and resting upon us, releasing to our being all that is necessary to deal with the problems, insults, persecutions, or whatever other troubles we must face.

Strength through Weakness

In 2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul tells us this paradox: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” The weaker you are, the greater will be the display of God’s power upon your life. That will result in greater glory being given to God.

Whenever I see a believer who is clothed with humility, I see by faith the Spirit of glory and of God resting upon that person. What happens when you stop receiving grace? You stop growing in God. (PGM) Therefore, may God help us to glory in our weaknesses that the treasure of God’s power and the light of the knowledge of God may rest upon us.

Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, he gives us the power necessary for us to live a Christian life. So in Philippians 4:13 Paul could write, “I can do everything”–all things– “through him who gives me strength.”

God’s Abundant Grace

In 2 Corinthians 9:8 we are told “God is able to make all grace abound to you. . .” Now, the Greek word for able is dunatei, taken from the verb dunateo. which means mighty. So we could also say God is mighty–mighty to save. Which God is Paul writing about? Our God. He alone is mighty enough to make all grace abound to you.

You see, our Christian self-sufficiency is related to the sufficiency of God’s grace. So Paul continues “so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” In other words, abounding grace is poured into you so that you will abound in obedience and righteousness. The mighty God pours out grace in abundance to believers–a special grace which an unbeliever cannot possess.

Paul uses the words “all grace,” meaning grace to give, grace to suffer, grace to love your wife, grace to submit to your husband, grace to train your children, grace to bear children, grace to drive to work, grace to work, grace to study, grace to fly, grace to bear witness to Jesus Christ, grace to be happy with little, and grace to die. God gives us all grace, multifaceted grace, which is adequate and sufficient for every situation that we face.

What is the purpose of God’s pouring out this abounding grace? Paul continues, “so that in all things,” in every situation and condition, “at all times,” when you are young, when you are old, when you are a teenager–there is no limitation, “having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

I was speaking to some young people the other day and I said, ” You need grace to deal with all the pressures you have. As young people you have drives for sex, drives for achievement, drives for recognition and so on. But you need a drive that is infinite so that you can live triumphant, powerful lives. I am interested in introducing you to this abounding grace of God. When the Spirit of God rests upon you, you will have grace for every situation.” So Paul writes of having all sufficiency, and there we see this word contentment, autarkeia–having all sufficiency.

What is the end result of receiving God’s grace? You will do righteousness. You will do the will of God, and not only will you do it, but you will do it with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. “You will abound in every good work,” Paul writes. So God gives abounding grace so that we have all-sufficiency and then we will abound in the performance of every good work. A child of God delights in the law of the Lord.

In 1 Corinthians 15:58 we read, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Grace gives sufficiency which leads to abounding in doing God’s work.

The Example of Elijah

We can see a clear illustration of this from the life of Elijah. In 1 Kings 17 we read how the Lord sent Elijah to stay at the Kerith Ravine beyond the Jordan. No doubt Elijah wondered what he was going to eat and drink there, but God said he would take care of everything. And we are told that God sent ravens who brought bread and meat both morning and evening, and Elijah drank from the brook that was there.

When the water dried up, God told Elijah, “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there.” Elijah obeyed and met a widow who was preparing to die because there was no food. God multiplied her flour and oil so that it fed not only the widow and her son but also Elijah. There was sufficiency through God’s provision.

In 1 Kings 19 we find Elijah depressed, full of fear, and running away from King Ahab and his wife. Elijah traveled south all the way to Beersheba, where he prayed that God would take his life. He wanted to die. After praying Elijah fell asleep and while he was sleeping the sufficiency of God’s grace came to him: God sent an angel to him with freshly baked bread and water. “Get up and eat,” the angel told him, and Elijah rose, ate and drank. Then he went back to sleep and the angel came again. “Get up and eat,” the angel said, and Elijah did. From that food Elijah received strength to travel forty days and nights to Mount Horeb.

On Mount Horeb Elijah met with the Lord, and we are not told that he was given bread. Why? There was no need for it. Remember how Moses also spent forty days and forty nights in God’s presence? We are told that Moses also neither ate nor drank when he was in God’s presence. Why? God sustained Moses as he did Elijah.

What To Do

What, then, should you do when you are weak? You should pray and rejoice. When you do that, God will transport you beyond the clouds of your own weaknesses and introduce you to the sunshine of the abundance of his grace. He will give you an abundance of grace that you may become self-sufficient, capable, adequate, and competent to do all that God requires you to do.

May God help us to avoid covetousness and learn contentment. And may we realize that although we will have troubles in the world, we can rejoice in tribulations also because we have the Lord of the covenant with us. We can pray to him and he will make all grace abound to us so that we at all times in everything, having all sufficiency, will delightfully do with all our hearts and souls everything God wants us to do. If we do this, we will shine as stars in this crooked and perverse generation and bring great glory, honor, and praise to the Lord of the church, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.