I spent some time in Philemon today, thanks to my new blog friend Kathy’s post today. But she pretty much covered the whole (short) book! I will say, however, that Paul’s letter to Philemon is a great reminder to forgive those who have hurt us. An amazing truth God showed me a few year ago is that if I don’t forgive someone, no matter what they’ve done to me, then I am essentially saying that I am better and wiser than God - after all, he forgave me! Realizing that brought me to some serious repentance for the grudges I’d been holding, and created the beginning of a whole lot of healing for me.
Now, onto the verse I'm pondering today...
Now, onto the verse I'm pondering today...
1 Timothy 6: 6-7: “Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it.”
This verse above comes right after Paul’s warning against false teachers, who are “full of pride and understand nothing” because they think that serving God is a good way to get rich. Oh, my.
Warning, I feel myself being pulled up on my soap box here:
Perhaps this is politically incorrect in parts of the Christian world, but I believe the prosperity gospel is a bunch of heretical baloney. The Bible clearly states that, as Christians, we are going to face trials. Period. It’s gonna happen, and “naming and claiming” the health and wealth so-called “promises” are NOT going to prevent it. At one point in my life, before I’d spent much time in God’s Word, I thought maybe they were right, and maybe the fact that I wasn’t rich, and that my life wasn’t perfect, was because I wasn’t claiming the right promises. Maybe it was because I had “given power to the spoken word” and had tried to talk to friends about my worries. This teaching said I couldn’t do that. But then a good friend, who had been told these same lies, experienced a difficult pregnancy. She wasn’t allowed to speak of the baby’s potential problems, had to make up non-lying excuses about why she needed her mom to babysit because she couldn’t tell her that she frequently had to see a specialist for high-risk pregnancies. She finally confided in me, and we prayed for the baby. In the end, the baby was fine. But oh, how much more stressful that pregnancy was because she couldn’t talk about her fears and worries, and couldn’t ask friends and family to pray for them! That’s when I realized how terrible this health-and-wealth gospel is; it says that if you have illness or tragedy or you have money troubles, it’s all your fault because you just didn’t have enough faith. ARRRGGH! I didn’t intend to go off on this, but it infuriates and saddens me that people actually believe this stuff!!!
OK, so Paul has warned Timothy about these false teachers. Then he says that serving God does make us rich! But wait - read the rest of the sentence! “…if we are satisfied with what we have.” So he’s not talking about a pocketful of gold, or a bank account full of money, or a Ferrari in the garage. It’s the serving God that satisfies us so we don’t care whether or not we have that other stuff! Just to make sure we get that, he adds, “we brought nothing into the world, so we can take nothing out.” This is the exact opposite of the bumper sticker I have seen way too often that says “He who dies with the most toys wins.” No, he who dies with the most toys is still just dead, and the toys remain here to be fought over by the surviving relatives. Just a little after this verse is the “the love of money is the root of all evil” verse. I didn’t intend to get so fired up about this today, but it sounds like ol’ Paul was pretty wound up about it, too. After all, he had learned to be content even in prison!
A few verses later, Paul finishes up this letter to Timothy by reminding him to “run away from all those things.” No, wealth is not the problem, but the desire to be wealthy is. Having money isn’t a sin if we are generous and if we realize that all our “stuff” is just that - “stuff.” Unlike people, stuff can be replaced. It will all rust; when we consider all eternity, the time that we have this “stuff” is just the blink of an eye. It’s not worth much in that light.
Paul continues. “Instead, live in the right way, serve God, have faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” That’s my prayer for myself today, too:
Warning, I feel myself being pulled up on my soap box here:
Perhaps this is politically incorrect in parts of the Christian world, but I believe the prosperity gospel is a bunch of heretical baloney. The Bible clearly states that, as Christians, we are going to face trials. Period. It’s gonna happen, and “naming and claiming” the health and wealth so-called “promises” are NOT going to prevent it. At one point in my life, before I’d spent much time in God’s Word, I thought maybe they were right, and maybe the fact that I wasn’t rich, and that my life wasn’t perfect, was because I wasn’t claiming the right promises. Maybe it was because I had “given power to the spoken word” and had tried to talk to friends about my worries. This teaching said I couldn’t do that. But then a good friend, who had been told these same lies, experienced a difficult pregnancy. She wasn’t allowed to speak of the baby’s potential problems, had to make up non-lying excuses about why she needed her mom to babysit because she couldn’t tell her that she frequently had to see a specialist for high-risk pregnancies. She finally confided in me, and we prayed for the baby. In the end, the baby was fine. But oh, how much more stressful that pregnancy was because she couldn’t talk about her fears and worries, and couldn’t ask friends and family to pray for them! That’s when I realized how terrible this health-and-wealth gospel is; it says that if you have illness or tragedy or you have money troubles, it’s all your fault because you just didn’t have enough faith. ARRRGGH! I didn’t intend to go off on this, but it infuriates and saddens me that people actually believe this stuff!!!
OK, so Paul has warned Timothy about these false teachers. Then he says that serving God does make us rich! But wait - read the rest of the sentence! “…if we are satisfied with what we have.” So he’s not talking about a pocketful of gold, or a bank account full of money, or a Ferrari in the garage. It’s the serving God that satisfies us so we don’t care whether or not we have that other stuff! Just to make sure we get that, he adds, “we brought nothing into the world, so we can take nothing out.” This is the exact opposite of the bumper sticker I have seen way too often that says “He who dies with the most toys wins.” No, he who dies with the most toys is still just dead, and the toys remain here to be fought over by the surviving relatives. Just a little after this verse is the “the love of money is the root of all evil” verse. I didn’t intend to get so fired up about this today, but it sounds like ol’ Paul was pretty wound up about it, too. After all, he had learned to be content even in prison!
A few verses later, Paul finishes up this letter to Timothy by reminding him to “run away from all those things.” No, wealth is not the problem, but the desire to be wealthy is. Having money isn’t a sin if we are generous and if we realize that all our “stuff” is just that - “stuff.” Unlike people, stuff can be replaced. It will all rust; when we consider all eternity, the time that we have this “stuff” is just the blink of an eye. It’s not worth much in that light.
Paul continues. “Instead, live in the right way, serve God, have faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” That’s my prayer for myself today, too:
Lord, please help me to live in the right way, to serve You, to have faith, love, patience, and gentleness with everyone. It’s only by your help that I can do these things. Help me look at the things in this life through the perspective of eternity.
