Contentment

Series: Gospel Shaped Church 11/15/20

Week 11: 1 Timothy 6:1-10

False teachers minimize Jesus Christ and who He is, therefore, true teachers place emphasis on who Jesus is and what He has done and taught.

The crux of this passage is this:

There are all kinds of “religious” teaching out there - all kinds of religious ideas that are promoted that can cause all kinds of bad reactions and behavior. These are ways that steal our true contentment and produce a false contentment. What it really does is create an angst, not a contentment.

You can tell for yourself. Are you focused on teaching and issues that bring you contentment or angst and tension? Do you cause angst and tension in others by constantly focusing on issues rather than the solution?

Is your own sense of contentment dependent on getting others to agree with you and your divergent ideas or is it based first on Jesus Christ? Is Jesus the focus - the beginning and the end of your quest? Or does your quest for contentment start and end with an issue – trying to gain contentment by demanding others’ acceptance of a certain view of an issue? Maybe even demanding God accept your view?

Or put another way, do you try and get to God (gain contentment) by first arguing issues and demanding acceptance of them (by either arguing with God or with others)? Paul reminded us already in chapter two that there is only one mediator between man and God and that is Christ Jesus. There is one way to God and it is not through arguing for doctrine that does not conform to godliness.

The irony is that when we try and get to God, not by starting with Jesus or going through Jesus by our arguments, access is denied. If your own contentment relies upon this rather than on Jesus read verse 3 and 4 again, and again. Does Jesus Himself bring you contentment? Is He the way you’re trying to get to God? To gain contentment? If not, your focus is on something that will bring just the opposite of access…