1Ti 6:9-10 | KingComments | STEP | . Paul doesn’t deny that Godliness is a means of gain. Only he adds “contentment” to it. He knows what he‘s talking about ( ). 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. . 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” ( ; ). Is there something that you can take with you from the world if you have to leave it again? Nothing either ( ). 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 ( ). You will have to leave everything of the world behind you any way. Maybe you know this saying: ‘A shroud has no pockets.’ . If you have “food and covering” you have the basic needs of life ( ; ). If you are content with that ( ) 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 ( ). The point is that you should not frantically seek more and more luxury. . 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 ( ; ; ). 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 ( ). It may even be a hindrance to be saved ( ). 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 ( ). 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. . “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 ( ; ). 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 ( ). 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?