Great Gain

Things are relative. Six months ago, the world seemed a different place. Many of the issues we thought were important have been overshadowed by a global pandemic and widespread unrest, out of control in several American cities for months. Lives have been turned upside down, businesses and loved ones lost. Those once secure in their earthly goods have, in many cases, seen that security drain away. There exists a disproportionate and unusual level of discontentment.

The discontentment stems largely from a misconception concerning the source of contentment. There is great deception as to what brings about contentment and much of the violence and demands for change point to the fact that people seek the wrong kind of change. They are looking for what they think will supply contentment but, won’t. Whether it be the fulfillment of their ideas concerning justice, equality, reparations, power, economics, politics, or any number of human constructs, once satisfied, discontentment still lingers. Where should they be looking?

We live in a culture that has promoted a lie, and still does, that more is better. Rags-to-riches stories inspire and motivate many to work out of humble circumstances toward attaining wealth. That’s not all bad and wealth is not a bad thing. But some will go to any length to gain the levels of luxury they once associated with total success, only to find there is still discontentment at the top. We’ve heard the stories of those who have lost everything in their bid to gain what they believed falsely was everything. Because of greed and love of money, all they once held dear, in some cases even including their freedom, has been taken away.

Ironically, many of the young people protesting and rioting this summer come from families of considerable wealth. They are attending prestigious universities. Their parents have given them everything money could buy and did their best to provide them with comfortable lives. But they are not content with what their parents may have lacked in their youth and were sure would fix things for their kids. It didn’t and it won’t.

In too many cases, the pursuit of the American dream meant a retreat from biblical values. When financial advancement controls decision-making, other values can take a backseat. This is one of the major factors in the demise of many of our once conservative, Bible-believing Christian colleges and universities. Godliness becomes a dispensable commodity, traded for the false security of certain kinds of grants and the increased tuition revenue of a broadened enrollment.

The Apostle Paul wrote to his beloved believers at Philippi in part out of gratitude for a gift they had sent for his support. He was expressing his joy for them and his general joy despite his circumstances. He wrote the letter while imprisoned. Specifically, he was under house arrest. This kind of incarceration allowed him to utilize financial support to help with his daily needs.

F.B. Meyer, the great British evangelist, pastor and author of the late 19th to early 20th centuries, describes Paul’s circumstances this way:   

“Deprived of every comfort, and cast as a lonely man on the shores of the great strange metropolis with every movement of his hand clanking a fetter and nothing before him but the lion’s mouth or the sword.”   

Sub-par conditions, to say the least. Yet, as Paul wrote of the needed financial support the Philippians provided, he was able to say, “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” (Philippians 4:11). Why was he able to look at necessary monetary support that way? Because his contentment did not come from having it. As he noted to his young protégé, Timothy,

“But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either” (1 Timothy 6:6-7).

If only our society today could learn Paul’s secret of true contentment. In fact, if only I could really learn and apply Paul’s secret of true contentment.

“I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

—Philippians 4:12-13