CONTENTMENT

 

Having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

1 Timothy 6:8

 

Ah, contentment.

Latin: con/with plus tenere/hold – to hold with, to be satisfied.

 The follower of Jesus the Christ is familiar with the word contentment – if not always with the experience of it. The New Testament word (arkeo) occurs five times[i], and is linked with “satisfaction” (John 6:7). Its opposite is “covetousness.” Over the last several days I have been more and more intrigued with the implications of this word; and I have camped on the role contentment should play in my self-analysis before worship. Since I am writing this on a Saturday evening, I thought it would be worthwhile to jot some thoughts about what I’m discovering. Basically, there are two, and the second one surprised me.

Thought # 1 Contentment, Covetousness, Complacency.

Somewhere I have read that Spurgeon confronted one of the most covetous men he knew and asked, “Why do you suppose so few messages are preached on covetousness?” The reply, so the story goes, was, “Well, perhaps because it’s so rare.”

When I have had opportunities to preach on contentment and covetousness, I have almost always been asked if contentment does not lead to complacency. In other words, had Thomas Edison been content with candles we might never have had light bulbs. Over time I have realized a difference between wanting to find a way to improve a situation and wanting to have the most brightly lighted house on the street.

I believe the most vivid description of a contented life is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12. Paul tells the church to, “aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands…that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.”

 

Thought # 2 Contentment and Independence

I am indebted to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones for the discovery of a second word for “contentment” in the New Testament. It is the word for content coupled with the prefix for self (autararkes) – self-contentment. In the very last section of his book, Spiritual Depression: It’s Causes and Cure, Lloyd-Jones tackles Paul’s assertion in Philippians 4:11 – “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.”

The expression has to do with a sense of personal, God-given independence from whatever circumstances may be unfolding (good or bad) at any time. It can speak to having financial security sufficient to give a kind of disinterest in finances (2 Corinthians 9:8).  In First Thessalonians 6:6, Paul links this self-satisfied state as a companion to godliness. This enables simple contentment to exist in times of need or abundance (verse 8).

And what is this self-satisfied state? It has to do with our relationship to God in Christ. No matter what events are whirling around us at any given time, none of those touch who we are in Him (Romans 8).  Self-contentment silences Job’s comforters and confronts our obsessive tendency to equate circumstances with acceptance, or lack thereof. This is fleshed out in Paul’s own confrontations with distress (2 Corinthians 7:5-6).

Self-contentment is not self-TRUST. It has to do with confidence in God to maintain my grace-given status as a justified sinner, redeemed, and sanctified in Jesus. He is the Author of my new “self” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

 

Why this appears in a book about depression should be obvious. Many of us are plagued with an obsession for interpreting bad times as testimonies of rejection. Paul’s answer to such thoughts is clear and it gives us a healthy (indeed a holy) boldness: “Who is he who condemns? … Who shall separate us?” (Romans 8:31-36) Because it is all of redeeming grace, we are independent of the temptation to boast. Because it is it is of God, we are independent of the temptation to despair.

 Before I go to church this Sunday, I’m going to do a contentment check. Will you join me? Are we content with what we have while but not becoming complacent about needs in our lives and the lives of others? Are we growing in contentment with the truth of who we are in Christ regardless of the circumstances of our pilgrimage on planet earth?

 

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[i] Luke 3:14; John 6:7; 14:8; 2 Corinthians 12:9; 1 Timothy 6:8;  Hebrews 13:5;