First Timothy 6:6

The Bible says in First Timothy 6:6-8, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing let us be content.” The spiritual is more important than the material, and more valuable. Those who value the spiritual will gain those things that cannot be purchased with money. They will gain godliness. Jesus said, “God is a spirit, and they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” In order to worship God in such a way, the spiritual must be more important to you than the material. Some people are never content. Those who value the material and the physical more than the spiritual cannot find contentment and they cannot find peace. There are many things that money cannot buy. Money cannot buy love. Money cannot buy happiness. And money cannot buy contentment.

In this passage of scripture we are promised food and clothing. That is all. That is all that it takes to sustain life. Remember that God has given you life, and He will sustain your life. In Matthew 6:31 Jesus said, “Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or with what shall we be clothed.” Again what Jesus promised was food and clothing. To the vast majority of us in our society He has given much more than just food and clothing. Many Americans live in great anxiety not over food and clothing, but over the other things that are not really necessary if you have the kind of contentment that is being spoken of here. I wonder how many of us could be content if God took everything away except the food and clothing? There is nothing wrong with having wealth, if it is the will of God; but we should also ask God for the grace and the spirituality to be content with only food and clothing if that be His will.

Those who think that money is the answer to life have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. First Timothy 6:9-11 says, “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Money itself is not evil. Some of the great believers of the Bible were very rich such as Abraham, David, and Solomon. But the love of money is another thing. There are many evil things in this world and many sins that if you went back and looked at the cause you would often find this common thread: the love of money. Many times when someone has gone wrong and gone bad, if you went back to the start; you would find the love of money.

Even Christians can fall under the sway of the love of money. That is why Paul wrote this. He was concerned about this happening to some believers, and he knew the destructive effects it would have in their spiritual life. Because of the love of money, some “have erred from the faith.” If you are a believer, there is nothing more valuable than your faith. One of the great goals in life is to start a life of faith through Jesus Christ, to continue that life of faith, and then to say with the apostle Paul at the end of your life, “I have kept the faith.” Anything that will keep you from doing that must be avoided at all cost. One of the things that will keep you from it is the love of money. Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Desire to know the riches of God’s Word. If the desire to be rich has gripped you, according to First Timothy 6:9 you have been snared. You have been snared by the very same thing that causes many people in this world to lose their own soul. Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” If you have escaped the loss of your soul through faith in Jesus Christ, God wants to do more than save your soul. He wants you to have life and have it more abundantly. You will not be able to have that abundant spirit-filled life if you are led and controlled by the love of money. Do not believe the lies of the world concerning what the love of money will bring you. Verse nine says it results in “foolish and hurtful lusts.” Verse ten says that those who have coveted after have “pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

The Bible says in First Timothy 6:11-12, “But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” In these two verses we are given something to flee, something to follow, and something to fight for. If you want to be a person “of God,” you must know what to flee. There is a time to flee. There is a time to go away from where you are and to go somewhere else. Paul said to flee “these things.” In these verses he was talking about the love of money. Too bad that more people did not flee the love of money when they had the chance to do so. They would have kept the faith instead of erring from it.

Make sure that you understand the importance of fleeing. Paul told Timothy to flee the love of money. In Second Timothy 2:22 Paul said to Timothy, “Flee youthful lusts.” In the Old Testament Joseph fled when he was tempted by Potipher’s wife. This same concept is found in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus told us to pray and ask, “Lead us not into temptation.” The best way to never fall into sin is to not be in the place of sin. Some people think that the best way to avoid falling into temptation is to be very, very strong against temptation. But there are some temptations that you will never be strong enough to fight against. It might be much wiser for you to go out of the place of temptation with God’s help and leading.

If you are wise, you will learn to flee what you ought to flee and you will learn to follow what you ought to follow. Paul told Timothy to “follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” To “follow after” means to diligently pursue. Follow after righteousness. There are two types of righteousness: positional righteousness and practical righteousness. If you have been saved through faith in Jesus then you have positional righteousness. Because you have repented and placed your faith in Christ, God has credited the righteousness of Christ to your account. Practical righteousness refers to the things that you are actually doing. If God now regards you as being righteous through Christ, then your goal should always be to have practical righteousness in your own life. “Be ye holy for I am holy.” Always make it your goal to do the right thing. Do right until the stars fall.

Diligently pursue godliness. Godliness refers to your attitude towards God and towards spiritual things. To be godly means to be devout, pious, or reverent towards God. Jesus was speaking of this attitude that we should have towards God when He told us to pray, “Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Partly due to the influence of the bad part of Hollywood, we live in a society that is often too gross, too vulgar, and too irreverent. We are told to reject that life-style and to pursue having a godly and reverent attitude.

We are also told to pursue faith. There are two ways to live life. The normal human way is to live life by sight without faith. Such a person believes only what they see. Such a person tends to worry or get angry or suffer some other extreme emotion that will come easily to human nature. But the just shall live by faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” More than once Jesus became displeased with the disciples and he said to them, “O ye of little faith.” Peter warned believers in First Peter 1:7 to expect a “trial” of our faith. He also said that our faith is “more precious than of gold that perishes.” If you value your faith and if you understand how important it is that your faith grow and be strong, then you will diligently pursue faith and you will do the things that must be done to stay strong in faith such as the reading and studying of God’s Word. You will follow after faith.

You will also follow after “love.” We are talking about the agape love: the love that God showed to mankind by sending His Son to die for us on the cross. We have been called to a great challenge. It is essential that we become grounded in sound doctrine. That takes study, and time, and the knowledge of God’s Word. What is more important than learning to life by faith? That takes experience and time to grow in the Lord. That takes knowing the promises of God in order to trust in those promises. What is more important than being a witness for the Lord in this world? That takes consistency, and it takes dedication, and it takes courage. It also takes time and wisdom to learn when to speak and what to say. But if we learn all these things and more and have not love, we are nothing. “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son.” “God is love.” God loves us even when we are unlovely. Are we able to love like that? Love covers a multitude of sins. We should follow after love. We should pursue it and seek it.

And Paul told Timothy to also follow after “patience.” You will be able to know how much faith you have by measuring the amount of patience that you have. You will only have patience if you know to wait upon Jesus and to wait upon God’s time. And you will only be able to wait upon God’s time if you are truly trusting that He knows best and that Jesus is all powerful. If you want something based upon your own will and your own time, you will not be able to wait upon God and you will not have patience.

The last thing that Paul told Timothy to pursue diligently was “meekness.” Meekness refers to gentleness and kindness in contrast to aggressively pursuing one’s own desires. Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God.” The world thinks that human aggression to grab and to clutch power and possessions is the way to be. But such a way will have short-term results only and will come to nothing at the appearing of Christ, if not before. Anyone who is aggressively seeking position and power will not be doing the work of the Lord, especially not in a congregation of believers.

We are told what to flee, what to follow, and what to fight for. Paul said, “Fight the good fight of faith.” He said to follow meekness, and then he said to fight. One might think that these two ideas are contradictory, but not if we understand what is actually being talked about. To be meek does not mean to be a milk-toast. It simply means that you do not push forward your own will in what you do. Instead of your own will, you seek God’s will. You do what you do with energy and enthusiasm, but it is not your own will that you are pursuing. You are to follow after meekness, but there are things to put your energy into.

One of them is to fight the good fight of faith. Notice that it is called a “good” fight. There are things that we must say are bad fights. To physically fight another human being with your fists would be a bad fight. One of the requirements for a pastor is that he not be “a striker.” To fight other brothers in Christ would not be a good fight either. Christians should learn how to work together for the cause of Christ. The Christian life that we have been called to is a war and a battle and a fight. It is not a fight against flesh and blood, but it is a fight. It is a spiritual warfare. This good fight involves more than anything else our faith. “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” In order to fight the battle, we use our faith: faith in the person of God and in the person of Jesus Christ the Son of God, and faith in the many great promises of God.

That is why we must do everything we can to strengthen our faith and to use the principles of faith in each situation that comes our way. If we do not use faith, then we will end up doing what the people of the world do who have no faith: we will react with anger, fear, impatience, and frustration. If we do not use the principles of faith, we will use the fleshly principles of fallen human nature. It is definitely a fight that we are involved in, but it is a good fight. It is the good fight of faith.

Timothy was told to fight the good fight of faith, and he was told to “lay hold of eternal life.” Paul is referring to the practical side of eternal life. There is the side to eternal life that is a free gift. The Bible says in John 3:15, “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Jesus said in John 10:28, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” To be saved and to have eternal life is a free gift given by Jesus. The free gift becomes yours the moment you repent of your sins and trust in Him for salvation. But when Paul told Timothy to “lay hold of eternal life,” Paul was talking about something after salvation.

Someone might get saved, but then drift away later. Someone might repent and put their faith in Christ and be born again, but fail to stay in the kind of spiritual life that God has planned for them. Someone might have life, but not have the more abundant life. Paul was telling Timothy that there was something Timothy could do to make sure that such a thing did not happen to him. Timothy could “lay hold on eternal life.” Instead of the love of money Timothy could pursue the love of God. Instead of minding earthly things, Timothy could mind heavenly things. He would have to desire it, though. He would have to reach out for it and take hold of it. There is human effort and human desire involved in becoming a spiritual person. Being born again is just the start. I hope you have been born again through faith in Jesus Christ, and I hope that after being born again you have learned to “lay hold on eternal life.”

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