Sunday, October 13, 2013

Sermon: The foremost combination (1 Tim 6:6-7)

WHAT IS FOREMOST?
The Foremost Combination (1 Tim 6:6-7)

pdf
Dr. Paul Manuel—2011
(This sermon is part of Dr. Manuel's sermon series: "What is Foremost?" Links to
each of the sermons in the series will be found here
as they are posted.)
How do you gauge success? ...The main determinant is usually whether a particular action produces the desired result.
A man received a strongly worded "second notice" that his taxes were overdue. Hurrying to the collector's office, he paid his bill, apologizing that he had overlooked the first notice. "Oh" confided the collector with a smile, "we don't send out first notices.... We've found that second notices are more effective."
Not all employees are so keenly focused on success. Some do the bare minimum needed to get by. They exist in their job but do not excel at it, which is often how people approach life in general.

While some people are content to drift through life, taking whatever comes their way, and others, with even less ambition, allow themselves to fall farther and farther behind, a few are not satisfied with the status quo and strive to improve their situation. This drive to achieve something better can be manifest in different areas, although it usually relates to the belief that more or bigger is better. For example...
  • Finances, making more money
  • Possessions, acquiring more or better things,
  • Education, increasing one's knowledge or learning a new skill
  • Career, climbing the corporate ladder
  • Family, having more kids or seeing them in more prominent roles
  • Friends, accumulating more contacts on Facebook or Twitter
Often a person's success in this endeavor also determines his sense of self-worth. Accomplishment justifies his existence, at least in his own mind, confirming that he is not a failure.

Many people want to succeed in several of these areas, but their desire is relatively mild. They are glad to take advantage of an opportunity, should it present itself, but they will not go out of their way to generate that opportunity. Nevertheless, there may be one area they regard as worthy of extra effort, one goal whose achievement they will push to reach, investing whatever resources they have to make it happen. That goal is different for everyone and may even change over time, especially once a person meets it.1

We should strive to improve our condition, and many of these goals are fine, even laudable. God may also indicate His approval by enabling a person to advance in one or more of these areas.2 There are, in fact, two areas that work in tandem, where advancement in both together leads to divine favor. Paul identifies this as...

XVIII. The Foremost Combination

...which is...
  • The pairing for God (1 Tim 6:6-7)
...of two complementary elements. Please turn to...
1 Tim 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
Paul's equation in v. 6 is not one most people would adopt or even recognize as a formula for success. They understand that...
  • Hard work plus persistence might lead to great gain —or that
  • Sufficient capital plus prudent investment might lead to great gain—or even that
  • Two dollars plus a winning lottery number might lead to great gain—but not that
  • Godliness plus contentment will lead to great gain.
How is such a combination a formula for success?3
Paul stresses the importance of the first quality several times in this letter to Timothy. In chapter 2, the apostle instructs his young protégé to pray...
1 Tim 2:2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness
In chapter 4, Paul extols the extended benefit of this virtue, that...
1 Tim 4:8b ...godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
Here, in chapter 6, he states that piety is essential to prosperity, and that...
1. Your satisfaction with life depends on being religious.
A good example of someone in scripture with that reputation is Job. He was a prosperous and prominent man in his community. The Bible says...
Job 1:2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
More important than his standing in society, was his standing with God, who recommended him to Satan as a model of virtue.
Job 1:8 ...Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.
As the narrative immediately unfolds, it is evident that Job derives satisfaction with life by being religious.

The apostle does not say that godliness is the sole quality a believer should aspire to possess!4 For optimum results, it must be coupled with another quality, one he also stresses in this chapter: contentment.... Later, in v. 8, Paul says...
1 Tim 6:8 ...if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
Some people are not content no matter how much they have. They always want more and think they need more to achieve what, for them, is an ever-elusive state of contentment—if only they could acquire more possessions, more power, more prestige.

Paul says that contentment need not be elusive, that it is possible to be satisfied, and with far less than some people think. In fact, satisfaction does not even require a smallest amount of what are called the necessities of life. Writing from prison to the Philippians, Paul says there is no minimum level.5
Phil 4:11b I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.... 12b whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
Evidently, satisfaction does not come naturally; it must be learned, as was Paul's experience. Once learned, however, it is applicable to a wide variety of circumstances. Contentedness also has a personally stabilizing affect in situations where conditions may vary from one extreme to another, especially when experiencing a decline from prosperity to poverty.6 A change in that direction, from having much to having little, is the most taxing challenge to contentedness.

Again, Job offers, perhaps, the greatest example of someone who also displayed this second character quality. After suffering extensive loss to both his finances and his family, Job's response was the epitome of contentedness (NAS):7
Job 1:21 He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return.... The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."
Job recognized that he had no claim on anything, not on the possessions in his house or on the people in his house. Paul probably has Job's situation in mind when he pens v. 6 because he follows in v. 7 with a variation on Job's assertion: "we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it."8 Therefore, just as your satisfaction with life depends on being religious, so....
2. Your satisfaction with life depends on being realistic.
...on recognizing that what you control is limited, subject to divine discretion, and that what you have materially is temporal, and will not last beyond your sojourn on this earth. Your satisfaction with life depends on being realistic.

There will always be people who make superficial judgments about you, usually those whose contact with you is fleeting and whose impression of you is one-dimensional.
  • He's a teacher at the school.
  • She's a nurse at the hospital.
  • They're the parents of so-and-so.
These are people who know about you but do not know you.

Then, there are people with whom you have closer or more frequent contact, and who do know you better. It is those people—family and friends—who will notice you, and they are the ones you can influence. As you review this past week, what impressions did you convey to others?
  • Did your action show godliness?
  • Did your attitude show contentedness?
This is The Foremost Combination.

As Paul writes to this young minister, the apostle chooses carefully what he will convey, what will help Timothy move to greater spiritual maturity. He selects The Foremost Combination, which is the pairing for God of two complementary elements that can benefit all Christians, whatever their maturity and whatever their ministry.... Are they benefiting you? ...Are you developing them?

Having considered The Foremost Combination, we will look next at The Foremost Competition, which is running the race to the end, in Heb 12:1-2.

For the Bibliography and Endnotes, see the pdf here.

(This sermon is part of Dr. Manuel's sermon series: "What is Foremost?" Links to each of the sermons in the series will be found here as they are posted)

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