Great gain!

1 Timothy 6:6

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

This world is full of ideas concerning what is truly gain. They may say “Money is gain.” They may say “Popularity is gain.” They may say, “Large houses, successful businesses, and good repute is gain!” But such is not the case. Those things may be gainful from an earthly perspective. But that’s just it! It is only gain for this world! Gain in itself is not godliness! Godliness with contentment is great gain! Contentment! This means you don’t have to have the latest and greatest gadgets! It means you don’t have to drive the newest car, or wear the most fashionable jewelry. Because you have become content with what God has given. You have become wonderful and wholly resigned to the wondrous gifts that God has vouchsafed to your care. Does He not say that He has given us “richly all things to enjoy”? Yes! All things! Anything beyond necessary food and essential raiment is extra, superfluous, gratuitous! It is not a matter of life or death, it is only something we can enjoy. And we should enjoy it! Every blessing of God should be met with enjoyment and gratitude because it is above and beyond our needs. Let us be content with food and raiment. And every one of us has more than that, so there is no reason in this whole wide world for you to have one thought of discontentment.

Now, I believe that what we have here is the need for a new mindset. Allow me to expand on this briefly. Do we not live in a culture and dwell among folks of constant wanton desire? Do they not desire everything they can lay their eyes on? If one thing is out of style, do they not strive to obtain the new thing? Surely this is all around us. But you and I must not think this way! We must have an entirely different mindset; a diametrically different perspective and a drastically dissimilar pursuit. If we are pursuing after the things of this world, shame on us! That is utterly unbecoming for the Christian. It is the antidote of our whole purpose. Are we not strangers and pilgrims? This must be our confession! I am not here to stay, and anything I accumulate here cannot be treasured up, but will vanish forever. It is dust, as transient and momentary as this planet upon which we live. We must have a change of mindset, my friend, and our whole demeanor will also change!

For why is it that we can be content? Because we truly have everything! If we have food and raiment, we should be satisfied and happy, because we already have the Son of God; and if we have the Son of God, we have life. We have salvation. All the riches of God are at our disposal. We may seem poor, yet we possess all things! There is nothing lacking when the Lord Jesus is our Shepherd. Brother or sister, today we must come to a new level of existence, a new plane of joy, a new attitude of satisfaction. We all have what we need. Let us be content, for that is great gain!

“Father, we pray that we would have a true turning from things mortal to things immortal, and from things temporal to things eternal. You have provided us with much more than we need or deserve, and we therefore choose to be content in Thee. May this be our mindset, knowing that coupled with godliness, a spirit of contentment will be the most gainful thing to us. Help us with this, we humbly ask. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”