CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1 Timothy 6:7. We brought nothing into this world.—Compare Job 1:21. It is not safe to say St. Paul is quoting here. All times and peoples have such sayings.
1 Timothy 6:8. Let us be therewith content.—R.V. margin, “in these we shall have enough.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Timothy 6:6-8
Godliness the Highest Gain—
I. Because it ensures the supply of absolute necessities.—“Having food and raiment let us be therewith content” (1 Timothy 6:8). Our real wants are few. What do we need more than food and covering? They who fear the Lord have the promise of sustenance (Isaiah 33:16; Psalms 37:3). The godly are under the special care of the Divine Universal Provider.
II. Because it promotes a spirit of contentment.—“Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6). Godliness is a great means of gain—not of that gain which breeds discontent in its covetous pursuit, but the present and eternal gain which piety brings to the soul. Godliness is gain when it is accompanied with the contentment it inspires. It not only feels no need of what it has not, but also has that which exalts it above what it has not. Godliness is its own sufficiency, and satisfies every want of the complex nature of man. Godliness, even with affliction, is great gain. A minister recovering from a dangerous illness confessed, “This six weeks’ illness has taught me more divinity than all my past studies and all my ten years’ ministry put together.”
III. Because the contentment accompanying true godliness is independent of worldly possessions (1 Timothy 6:7).—Godliness reminds us of the condition in which we entered the world, and in which we shall leave it. We brought nothing with us; we shall take nothing away. If we have little, we are taught to be content with that little; if we have much, we are taught how fragile is our hold upon our possessions—not to set our hearts upon them, but use them as stewards who must give an account to the Giver of all good. Richard Boyle, the great Earl of Cork, outlived most of those who had known the meanness of his beginning. He never forgot it himself, but took pains to preserve the memory of it to posterity in the motto he always used, and which he caused to be placed on his tomb: “God’s providence is my inheritance.”
Lessons.—
1. Our spiritual gains are our truest wealth.
2. Contentment is a special endowment of godliness.
3. The godly man makes the best of both worlds.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Timothy 6:6-8. The Cultivation of Christian Contentment.
I. Godliness is itself a gain.—
1. Because it is a satisfying reality.
2. Because it gives us the highest pleasures of which we are capable.
II. Godliness with contentment is great gain.—
1. Contentment is the outcome of godliness.
2. Reasons for cultivating Christian contentment.
(1) We have nothing (1 Timothy 6:7).
(2) We have need of nothing (1 Timothy 6:8).
(3) We are in danger of being entangled by striving after earthly things (1 Timothy 6:9-10).
3. The advantages of cultivating Christian contentment.
(1) It will protect us from the temptation to become rich anyhow.
(2) It will shield us from avarice.
(3) It will teach us to acquire spiritual riches.
(4) It will gladden the brief space of our earthly probation.—Lay Preacher.
1 Timothy 6:6. Contentment.
I. The text presents us with a bride.—“Godliness.”
II. A bridesmaid.—“Contentment.”
III. Her great dowry.—“Great gain.”
IV. The present payment.—“Godliness with contentment is great gain.”
1. What the world counts gain is loss.
2. What the world counts loss is gain.—T. Fuller.