April 25, 2025 - 1 Timothy 6:6 - "Godliness with Contentment"

1 Timothy 6:6

"But godliness with contentment is great gain."

This verse teaches that true spiritual profit is not found in earthly riches but in the gracious work of God in Christ for the sinner, and in the sinner. “Godliness” here refers to the life of Christ formed in the believer by sovereign grace, producing true reverence for God and trust in His Son the LORD Jesus, when the Spirit of God produces life in the sinner. “Contentment” flows from resting in Christ and His finished work, knowing that all things are ordered by God’s sovereign will on behalf of those chosen by God the Father and given to His Son from eternity. The sinner who has been justified by the LORD Jesus in His death on the cross is kept in Him and therefore lacks nothing in Him. This union of godliness and contentment, wrought by the grace of God, is the believer’s true treasure, far surpassing worldly gain (Matthew 6:19).

This being so, why is it that we, as professing believers, are still so discontented with who we are and what we have? Have you ever asked yourself what it would take for you to be truly contented? Contentment, much like happiness, fluctuates like temperature—you sit there one minute, and you're hot, then after a while, you think, now I’m too cold. That’s just the way we live our lives. And really, it all boils down to being finite creatures. The only One Who is truly immutable is God Himself. Everything that is created is finite, and that’s why there’s a fall. Man in his best state is altogether vanity, as the Scriptures teach (Psalm 39:5,6). Not only are we finite creatures, but also depraved in our fallen flesh. Therefore, even being regenerated by the Spirit of God, this still does not remove our depravity (Galatians 5:17). God has purposed that we still live in this flesh, day in and day out, and therefore we experience these changes, the ebbs and flows between hot and cold, contentment and discontentment, depending on our circumstances.

Because we are finite and fallible, God's Word calls us not to build our lives around the tides and seasons of the whims of our flesh, but rather to rest. And where is that resting place? It is in the Lord Jesus Christ—the Rock—resting by God’s Grace in what He has accomplished on our behalf at Calvary. Each day, we need to have our eyes turned, and our hearts tuned to sing God's praise, rather than murmuring and complaining about His providential dealings in our lives. Our hearts are depraved, and therefore naturally discontented. How much we need the reminder of God's Word: "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:31–32).

That is where our minds must be turned again and again, especially as we get caught up in daily living and find our thoughts torn by the turmoil of circumstances, which God has ordained for our good and His glory. We must be brought to look again to the God Who does not change, and Who, by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, has given all things to those that He has redeemed.

What, then, is godliness with contentment? By definition, godliness means reverence toward God—therefore, being God-fearing. The word contentment is the word sufficient, and it indicates the state of one having all they need, not necessarily all they want.

First, it begins with the very revelation of God's character by the Spirit through His Word and attributes: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). Until we have been taught the knowledge of Who God is as a holy God, we have never truly learned to fear Him. We must deal with a holy God—that is where the Spirit begins to teach sinners, when the Lord is pleased to begin a work in their hearts concerning His holiness. We are brought to understand that there is nothing we can do that could ever satisfy Him.

Second, this godliness continues with the revelation that God's mercy and justice are met together. It is not about us trying to satisfy Him. Much of the discontentment people experience stems from their refusal to bow to the One Righteousness that God has already established in His Son and imputed to the account of His people. They reject that Righteousness, and in their discontentment, they continue trying to work out their own righteousness (Romans 10:1–2). But there is nothing other than the satisfaction that Christ has made that will ever satisfy a holy God.

When the Scripture speaks of godliness with contentment, we are not to understand it as contentment being something added to godliness, as though they were two separate virtues joined together. Rather, the sense is that contentment is the fruit—the effect—of godliness. It flows from being God-fearing, from being taught of God, Who He is and how He has already been satisfied on our behalf by the blood and righteousness of Christ. Therefore, we are content and at rest in His finished work. There is a resting in Him, full satisfaction in Who He is and in all that we possess in Him. We desire nothing more and will receive nothing beyond Him, for He is ALL.

Where contentment is lacking, it is a sure sign that we need again to cry out for mercy—to look afresh to Christ alone, to His blood and Righteousness. He alone is our Peace and Satisfaction before a holy God (Colossians 1:20).