‏ 1 Timothy 6:10-11

Want to Get Rich

1Tim 6:6. Paul doesn’t deny that Godliness is a means of gain. Only he adds “contentment” to it. He knows what he‘s talking about (Phil 4:11-15). His contentment is the result of his dependence on God. If you are really content you are not focused on outward things, but on the Lord, Who provides all your needs. Contentment can also be a result of your own effort. In that way the Stoics didn’t want to be influenced by anything and accepted everything the way it happened. That may seem like contentment, but that is harshness and the result of their own will.

That’s why contentment should go together with Godliness. That doesn’t just deliver gain, but indeed “great gain”. That gain is not to be measured in hard currency, but refers to spiritual gain. Where things happen in fellowship with God and with a view to His honor it will make you richer spiritually.

1Tim 6:7. What did you take with you when you came into the world? Nothing. You may agree with Job, who said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb” (Job 1:21; Ecc 5:15). Is there something that you can take with you from the world if you have to leave it again? Nothing either (Psa 49:14-15).

At the beginning and at the end of life you learn to estimate what the real value is of material things. The purpose is that you understand the relativity of money and material things you could gain in this life. You can lose everything all of a sudden (Pro 23:4-5). You will have to leave everything of the world behind you any way. Maybe you know this saying: ‘A shroud has no pockets.’

1Tim 6:8. If you have “food and covering” you have the basic needs of life (Deu 10:18; Mt 6:25-32). If you are content with that (Heb 13:5) you are a happy man. It keeps you from being restlessly occupied with material things, as you see that with people of the world around you. This call for contentment you may certainly not misuse to justify laziness (2Thes 3:10). The point is that you should not frantically seek more and more luxury.

1Tim 6:9. The foregoing is not to say that it is wrong to be rich. If a person is rich it can be the result of the blessing of the Lord (Gen 13:2; Pro 22:2; 1Sam 2:7). However, it is certainly to be condemned to “want to get rich”. It is also important to see that riches can be a danger for the practical life of faith (Mt 13:22). It may even be a hindrance to be saved (Mt 19:23-24).

If it is your desire to be rich you will certainly fall “into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires”. You will surely not be the first one who falls into temptation to desire to be rich through lotteries, gambling or through speculation on the stock market. Desiring to be rich means that you let yourself be dragged by “many foolish and harmful desires”. Then you also don’t have to pray “lead us not into temptation” because you are decisively seeking to be rich.

After the ‘temptation’ and the ‘snare’ “ruin and destruction” are waiting for you at the end. You will drown in it. ‘To plunge’ here also means ‘to lead (men) to sink’. The word ‘plunge’ refers to a ship that is overloaded, which causes it to sink. In Luke 5 you have the only time where the word ‘sink’ appears and where the literal sense is used in the New Testament (Lk 5:7). Here it is about a soul that is overpowered by the desire for wealth and is now plunging further and further in the sea of his desires. The unwise use of money just to get more has already plunged many into ruin and destruction.

1Tim 6:10. “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.” You must become fully aware of what is meant in this verse. The love of money is a form of greediness which is idolatry in its essence (Col 3:5; Eph 5:5). It is not the root, but it is a root, a root from which all possible forms of evil can sprout. There are more roots from which evil sprouts, but there is no evil that cannot sprout from this root, called love of money.

The warning is serious and fundamental: if you strive for being rich, the risk is great that you wander away from the faith! Your confession that you are a Christian cannot go together with the love of money. Your love of money, in whatever form of luxury, will close your eyes to all that Christ has to offer you. All the truths of faith will mean nothing for you anymore.

If the love of money is a real danger to you, then take a look at people who were guided by it. There are cases of bitter experiences, broken family relationships, lawless and wasteful children, and a ceaseless fear for losses. This all goes together when getting rich is the target of your life. And finally think about the hereafter (Lk 12:20-21). How great the disillusionment must be to be dying and having to discover that you cannot take anything from all the earthly riches with you. These are some of the “many griefs” with which you have “pierced” yourself.

Now read 1 Timothy 6:6-10 again.

Reflection: What role does money play in your life?

The Man of God – Pursue, Fight, Take Hold Of, Confess

1Tim 6:11. Paul offers an alternative with a totally different perspective of life. He introduces this with “but …, you man of God”. A man of God is a person who shows the features of God in his life and walk in a world that is alienated from Him. This can be a man or a woman. This expression appears once more in the New Testament, in 2 Timothy 3 (2Tim 3:17). In the Old Testament this person is also called a ‘man of God’: Moses (Deu 33:1); David (2Chr 8:14); Elijah (1Kgs 17:18); Elisha (2Kgs 4:7). See also 1Kgs 12:22; 1Kgs 13:1; 1Kgs 20:28; 2Chr 25:7; Jer 35:4.

A ‘man of God’ is someone to whom God wants to connect His Name because this person stands up for His rights among His people who do not (no longer) take His rights into account. A man of God is an individual who takes care of God’s interests in the midst of a whole that is deviated from Him. In such a person God exposes Himself.

Timothy is such a person. Does it make him a person who is above all temptation? Certainly not. The first order he receives is: “Flee from these things.” He is being warned not to think to be raised above the temptations just mentioned, any more than you should think.

Fleeing is not a proof of weakness, but it on the contrary proves character and self-knowledge. ‘These things’ is the love of money that goes together with it. For you as a young believer, the call to ‘flee’ is therefore important. You are not insensitive to the abundance of commercials that are put in your letterbox and which are continuously presented to you through the media like a flash flood. You ought to resist all that and ask the Lord what you need.

You should always flee things that go together with great temptations because your sinful flesh is being addressed. In these cases, there is a great danger to your spiritual life. Therefore it is also written that you should flee “immorality” (1Cor 6:18), “idolatry” (1Cor 10:14) and “youthful lusts” (2Tim 2:22). A clear example of someone who fled sexual immorality is Joseph (Gen 39:12).

There are also cases that you should not flee but resist. That is when the devil reveals himself as the adversary of the faith (Jam 4:7; 1Pet 5:9; Eph 6:12). In those cases it is about your testimony toward the world. The enemy wants you to shrink back to testify. If you flee in that case you make yourself a loser. These two different cases are not to be confused. Therefore it is important for you to know when to flee and when to resist, steadfast in the faith.

The command to flee is one side of your life as a Christian. And that side is essential. Then comes the other side. Now you can and must show that your life as a Christian consists of striving for something and fight. That is what the second part of 1Tim 6:11 is about.

To flee and to pursue and to fight are recurring and ongoing activities. You are never finished with this. You cannot say that there will be a moment in your life that you will not have to flee, pursue and fight anymore.

After the negative, but essential, ‘flee’, comes now the positive. You may spend your energy on ‘pursuing’ something (cf. Rom 14:19; Phil 3:14; 1Thes 5:15; Heb 12:14). This word includes action, speed and purpose. It is about giving substance in the practice of your life to the things that are being mentioned and which you should pursue.

“Righteousness” is first mentioned. This is not the righteousness of God that you have received on the basis of faith (Phil 3:9b) and through which you don’t have to fear hell anymore. No, it is about what becomes visible in your life, that your speech and actions are righteous. And it is like that when it is in accordance to the rights of God. In that case you will never cheat anyone, but you will give anyone what is his or her right. This can be about money, but it can also be the way you do your work as an employee or the honor you give to another person.

The next goal to pursue is “godliness”. As I already said in the introduction: Godliness means reverence for God and it indicates an attitude that is focused on God what pleases Him. This implies that you adopt the right attitude toward God. You honor Him if you live in fear of Him. That has nothing to do with being afraid of God, but with being afraid of yourself, that you may do something that dishonors Him.

What applies to “faith” is the same as what applies to righteousness. It is not about the saving faith, the faith through which you have the assurance to be a child of God, but about the confidence of faith in everyday life. It is a command to make efforts to have confidence in God concerning all things in your daily life, although you don’t see Him. A life in faith is the opposite of a life by what you see, the visible and tangible things. Hold on to the fact that the things you see are temporal and the things you don’t see are eternal (2Cor 4:18).

You may have expected that “love” would have the first place. That is not right. In a Christian world where many people are doing what is right for themselves, the main thing is to pursue righteousness. But that doesn’t mean that it can be done without love. If you pursue love, it means that you increase in love. Your love for God, for your brothers and sisters and for your fellow men in general should grow. Love is God’s nature (1Jn 4:8; 16). He wants us to show love in practice.

“Perseverance” is necessary because you live in a world that seeks to make it impossible to live as a man of God. Living as a man of God means swimming against the current and not giving up. As long as you are not with the Lord you need perseverance. You have beautiful examples with Caleb (Deu 1:36; Jos 14:8-9; 14) and the believers at the beginning of the church (Acts 2:42). If you persevere you can count on the help of God, Who is called “the God who gives perseverance” (Rom 15:5).

The characteristics of the man of God are closed with “gentleness”. That indicates the mind to be able to persevere. With any adversary you experience there is the danger to become bitter or rebellious, or pay back evil for evil. A man of God responds as the Lord Jesus did (Mt 11:29). Then you do not insist on your own rights, but rather waive them for the benefit of others.

1Tim 6:12. If you are in pursuit of these features, then you are well prepared to fight “the good fight of faith”. As it is said, it is not possible to live here as a man of God without experiencing any adversary. He who lives as a man of God, inevitably experiences fight.

The fight that is the issue here is not so much a warfare. Of course you are facing an enemy who causes adversary, but you are not called to be concentrating on the adversary but on God. The issue here is not a struggle or fight against the enemy, but the fight in a match where the point is to fight according to the rules. Those rules were mentioned already. Then there is strength for the good fight and in that way the prize will be received.

The good fight is that of the faith. A man of God does everything to hold on to what the faith means and what it consists of, until the end of his life on earth. If you want to be a man of God you may not lose anything of the truth of faith. That means that you continue to give a fully biblical meaning to the biblical conceptions alone and you will definitely not allow any other meaning. Paul is able to say at the end of his life that he has fought the good fight (2Tim 4:7).

Then you are also able to carry out the next command, which will deliver you an awesome blessing if you heed to it: “Take hold of the eternal life.” This is said to a person who already has eternal life. The command ‘take hold of’ is therefore not addressed to an unbeliever, but to a believer. It means that you enjoy what you possess, that you are guided by it and live up to it. You stretch out to what you will enjoy in heaven. The eternal life is the Lord Jesus (1Jn 5:20). To have fellowship with Him is the most beautiful thing on earth and will be perfectly enjoyed in heaven in all eternity.

That is “to which you were called”. Timothy heeded the call of God at his conversion. The ultimate purpose of that call is the full, uninterrupted joy of eternal life with Him. Timothy has “made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses” concerning the possession of eternal life. You can’t tell by a person’s outward appearance whether he has eternal life, for it goes together with a confession. You might think of baptism in this context. That is a public testimony to express that you have abandoned your old life and that you will henceforth walk ”in newness of life” (Rom 6:4).

1Tim 6:13. The many witnesses to whom Timothy has confessed the good confession are not always in his direct environment. Those who certainly always observe his life are God and the Lord Jesus. Paul brings Timothy in the first place into the presence of God. He presents God as the One “who gives life to all things”. God is the Savior of life (1Tim 4:10). He also is the Fountain of life (Psa 36:9). You may, like Timothy, be conscious that He gives you everything to function as His witness. You are allowed to testify of the real life.

Then Paul brings his child in the faith into the presence of the Lord Jesus, Who is also fully involved with the testimony His followers are confessing. In that way He is the perfect example of expressing the good confession. Of course you can say that of the whole life of the Lord Jesus. Still Paul points out a special moment from the life of the Lord to make clear what the main point is of the good confession. That moment is when He stands before Pontius Pilate.

Pilate asks the Lord whether He is a King. The Lord affirms that He is indeed, but He goes further. He declares that, although He is a King, His kingdom as it is now, is not of this world (Jn 18:36). That makes Him a rejected King.

That is exactly the good confession that is being expected from you. You belong to a kingdom that is not of this world and to a King Who has been rejected. If you hold on to this and expresses it toward the world you are a worthy follower of the Lord Jesus to whom He looks with pleasure.

Now read 1 Timothy 6:12-13 again.

Reflection: How do you testify the good confession?
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