Contentment: The most underrated Biblical virtue
When was the last time you heard a sermon about contentment?
For some of you, it may be a while. Contentment isn’t among the hot-button issues in today’s evangelicalism.
For some churches, it may not be popular at all, as it throws cold water on beliefs like the “prosperity gospel,” which encourages Christians to want things. Even when the preaching doesn’t go that far, there’s still a strain of worldly ambition among more mainstream evangelicals: bigness, success, making your dreams come true.
The Bible certainly isn’t silent about contentment. Probably the go-to passage is in 1 Timothy 6:
6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
Can’t get more straightforward than that. God wants us to be content, even with the bare-bones necessities of food and clothing — which, by the way, matches Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25).
1 Timothy 6 alone obliterates the “prosperity gospel.” But it’s far from all the Scriptures have to say about this. Here are some more very well-known passages that many Christians might not know are about contentment:
I can do all things
One of the most popular Biblical phrases is “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). It’s also one of the most ripped-out-of-context verses, often taken to mean the opposite of the point Paul is making.
It’s not about achieving great things, as it’s so often cited to support. You only need to go back a couple of verses to see that Paul is talking about endurance — of both positive and negative circumstances. Read the whole section to see what “all things” refers to:
11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
As you see in verse 11, it’s about contentment. Paul is saying that he’s content with whatever situation he’s in, whether it’s abundance (which comes with its own temptations) or neediness. When he’s hungry, his priority is not to satisfy that hunger; it’s to endure it. He’s content in that circumstance. He can do that through Christ who strengthens him.
Related: I can do all things through a verse taken out of context
‘I will never leave you’
Another beloved verse is Hebrews 13:5, where we see the Lord saying, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Many Christians like to extrapolate the Greek in this verse, which includes five negatives; the Amplified version reads, “I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!].”
But how many of them can quote the first half of the verse just as fondly? Here’s all of verse 5:
Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The conjunction “for” explicitly sets the context for the Lord’s quote, linking it to the writer’s imperative to “be content with such things as you have.” We can be content because the Lord will never leave us or forsake us. We don’t need more stuff, because we have Him. He is all we need. That’s the point.
This goes right along with another ubiquitous text:
I shall not want
How can anyone who believes in the “prosperity gospel” make it past the first verse of Psalm 23?
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Many Christians today want a great many things, especially in materialistic America. Not that those things are bad in themselves, but when our desires start to dictate what we believe — whether it’s possessions or power or comfort — that’s a problem.
A shepherd meets all of the sheep’s needs. He feeds them, guides them, and protects them. Because of that, the sheep can live at ease, resting in green pastures, beside still waters. Sheep under the shepherd’s care don’t have a care in the world.
People, of course, still need to work, but our souls can be just as peacefully content as a well-fed lamb, because the Lord is our Shepherd — the good Shepherd, as Jesus taught. As He said on the mount, He knows what we need (Matthew 6:32), and He has promised to provide for our needs (Philippians 4:19).
Therefore, if God hasn’t given us something, then we don’t need it.
When we crave material goods, or certain relationships, or a successful career, or a clean bill of health, or political power, it is the word of the Lord to submit those desires to Him. We can ask Him for anything, but what He promises to give us is infinitely greater than what we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20), even if it doesn’t look that way to our earth-trained eyes.
All we have to do to realize that is read some of our favorite Scriptures in context.
