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Challenge and Contentment in 1 Timothy 6:1-10

REFLECTION

The theme for reflection is “Challenge and Contentment.” A challenge is a difficult or undesirable situation. Contentment is a state of happiness and satisfaction. Paul encourages Timothy to overcome the challenges posed by false teachers in the church. He is to teach and promote the Christian virtue of godliness and contentment and instruct people to desist from promoting deceit or false teachings for financial gains.

Paul, instructs Timothy to remain resolute in resisting false teachers in the Church of Ephesus who are focused on money and material things thereby departing from the teachings of Christ. Paul warns that false teachers deviate from the teachings of Christ to teach false doctrines to please people and to gain attention and financial favour at the expense of the people’s salvation and the growth of the church. The challenges is that false teachers are only interested in their personal gains and not in the growth of the church “If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.” (1 Timothy 6:3-5).

Dear friend in the Lord, we are greatly challenged to preach and follow the teachings of Christ to remain godly and content through the grace and providence of God. “But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:6-10). In other words, our happiness and satisfaction come from our relationship with Christ and our commitment to His teachings. We are greatly encouraged as believers to focus on God, trust and obey Him and be greatly content with His ever-sufficient grace and providence. We must guard against false teachers and their fake doctrines which are detrimental to our faith and the progress of the Church.

In summary, we have discovered that we are greatly challenged if we move away from the priceless and timeless teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ but are filled with contentment if we obey His godly teaching.

PRAYER

Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with godliness and contentment through the preaching and studying of the Word of God. May you empower us to remain faithful to God even in temptations.