You Can't Take It With You! (Are You Poor?) 1 Timothy 6:6,7
Aug 15, 2018 9:30:20 GMT -5
John, frienduff, and 1 more like this
Post by tlsitd on Aug 15, 2018 9:30:20 GMT -5
I was reading this Scripture during my devotional time this morning:
Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. (1 Timothy 6:6,7)
I appreciate and often marvel at how simple Scriptural truths can be so profound and mind-changing. Sometimes I skim over familiar verses without really considering them, and other times the Holy Spirit leads me to focus on something and emphasizes the truth and significance of it to me. I'm sure many of you have the same experience.
You hear unsaved people say all the time, "You can't take it with you!" But they still live for this life, because it's all they have, and they want to get everything they can out of the little time they have here (which is actually very sad when you think about it).
Not so with those of us who are in Christ. We know that we can't take anything out of this world, and we also know that we are not living for this world and this life but for the one to come, and that we are not storing up treasure down here but heavenly rewards that will last forever as we serve the Lord.
Still, it's good to be reminded of these truths---that we can't take anything out of this world, and also that godliness with contentment is great gain. What is ultimately worthless (everything we have or could have in this world) is set against what is eternally valuable to us (godliness) in these verses in 1 Timothy.
Which should cause some to ask themselves, "According to these verses, am I rich or am I poor?"
How have you been spending your time here since you were saved? The New Testament gives us plenty of instruction about what to do to be spiritually fruitful and eternally wealthy (which God desires us to be, because it brings Him glory---since none of us would have or can have anything except that God gave it to us and helped us to use it and do it---and also because He loves us and wants us to have the very best of everything He has called us to).
If these aren't the things we have been applying ourselves to, then we can rightly conclude that we're poor in eternal rewards. We've wasted our time here building with wood, hay and straw on the foundation of Jesus Christ---with selfish pursuits and works of human effort---rather than with the gold, silver and precious stones of works of faith enabled by grace. Only what comes from God will endure the fire that is ultimately going to consume this earth and destroy it on the day of our Lord's return. Anything of man will be burned up with it. So if our works here have not been works of faith by grace, we will---at best---leave this world poor (if we escape at all).
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw---each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)
Leaving this world with little more than our Foundation is infinitely better than not leaving it at all, but it is certainly not God's desire for any of us to barely make it out, with little to show for our time here. (What an insult to His grace!) However, He leaves the choice of how we spend His time up to us, and we are free to do what we will with it, the consequences notwithstanding. We have His word to tell us what He wants us to do and what benefits us and what does not, and we also have His Spirit to guide us in doing His will and to enable us to do the same; so we have no excuse for living foolishly. Yet many of us choose to anyway, to our own loss, and God's displeasure.
This earth's time is fast running out, as is our time in it. Let those of us who have been applying ourselves to the work that builds eternal wealth continue to do so, with joy because of our reward in heaven---keeping a loose hand on everything we have except for Christ Himself, our Life---remembering what is eternally worthwhile and what is ultimately worthless according to 1 Timothy 6:6,7, and not losing our proper perspective according to God's word.
That perspective leads to contentment; and contentment prevents spiritual poverty and ruin for falling in love with money and the things of this perishing world (which are "life" to those who do not have life), and wasting the precious time we have here to do the will of God. Godliness with contentment is not just gain but great gain, because the gain from godliness is eternal, and nothing we could have or enjoy here compares to anything that is eternal.
So when you see people driving by in nice cars, and you're driving an old one (or waiting for the bus), when you're shopping at Walmart or the thrift store and others are shopping at expensive stores for expensive clothes, when you drive by the big houses with professionally manicured and landscaped yards---just smile and thank God. The gospel has turned this world upside down: The poor are rich, the rich are poor; the "wise" are foolish and those who seem to be foolish are wise; the weak are strong and the strong are weak; and those who seem to be cursed now are blessed, while those who seem to be blessed are cursed. And we can take nothing out of this world, but the sons of God and slaves of Jesus Christ are heirs of everything in the new one.
"The nations raged, but Your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding Your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear Your name, both small and great..." (Revelation 11:18)
And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!" (Revelation 14:13)
They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of My people be, and My chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. (Isaiah 65:22)
Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. (1 Timothy 6:6,7)
I appreciate and often marvel at how simple Scriptural truths can be so profound and mind-changing. Sometimes I skim over familiar verses without really considering them, and other times the Holy Spirit leads me to focus on something and emphasizes the truth and significance of it to me. I'm sure many of you have the same experience.
You hear unsaved people say all the time, "You can't take it with you!" But they still live for this life, because it's all they have, and they want to get everything they can out of the little time they have here (which is actually very sad when you think about it).
Not so with those of us who are in Christ. We know that we can't take anything out of this world, and we also know that we are not living for this world and this life but for the one to come, and that we are not storing up treasure down here but heavenly rewards that will last forever as we serve the Lord.
Still, it's good to be reminded of these truths---that we can't take anything out of this world, and also that godliness with contentment is great gain. What is ultimately worthless (everything we have or could have in this world) is set against what is eternally valuable to us (godliness) in these verses in 1 Timothy.
Which should cause some to ask themselves, "According to these verses, am I rich or am I poor?"
How have you been spending your time here since you were saved? The New Testament gives us plenty of instruction about what to do to be spiritually fruitful and eternally wealthy (which God desires us to be, because it brings Him glory---since none of us would have or can have anything except that God gave it to us and helped us to use it and do it---and also because He loves us and wants us to have the very best of everything He has called us to).
If these aren't the things we have been applying ourselves to, then we can rightly conclude that we're poor in eternal rewards. We've wasted our time here building with wood, hay and straw on the foundation of Jesus Christ---with selfish pursuits and works of human effort---rather than with the gold, silver and precious stones of works of faith enabled by grace. Only what comes from God will endure the fire that is ultimately going to consume this earth and destroy it on the day of our Lord's return. Anything of man will be burned up with it. So if our works here have not been works of faith by grace, we will---at best---leave this world poor (if we escape at all).
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw---each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)
Leaving this world with little more than our Foundation is infinitely better than not leaving it at all, but it is certainly not God's desire for any of us to barely make it out, with little to show for our time here. (What an insult to His grace!) However, He leaves the choice of how we spend His time up to us, and we are free to do what we will with it, the consequences notwithstanding. We have His word to tell us what He wants us to do and what benefits us and what does not, and we also have His Spirit to guide us in doing His will and to enable us to do the same; so we have no excuse for living foolishly. Yet many of us choose to anyway, to our own loss, and God's displeasure.
This earth's time is fast running out, as is our time in it. Let those of us who have been applying ourselves to the work that builds eternal wealth continue to do so, with joy because of our reward in heaven---keeping a loose hand on everything we have except for Christ Himself, our Life---remembering what is eternally worthwhile and what is ultimately worthless according to 1 Timothy 6:6,7, and not losing our proper perspective according to God's word.
That perspective leads to contentment; and contentment prevents spiritual poverty and ruin for falling in love with money and the things of this perishing world (which are "life" to those who do not have life), and wasting the precious time we have here to do the will of God. Godliness with contentment is not just gain but great gain, because the gain from godliness is eternal, and nothing we could have or enjoy here compares to anything that is eternal.
So when you see people driving by in nice cars, and you're driving an old one (or waiting for the bus), when you're shopping at Walmart or the thrift store and others are shopping at expensive stores for expensive clothes, when you drive by the big houses with professionally manicured and landscaped yards---just smile and thank God. The gospel has turned this world upside down: The poor are rich, the rich are poor; the "wise" are foolish and those who seem to be foolish are wise; the weak are strong and the strong are weak; and those who seem to be cursed now are blessed, while those who seem to be blessed are cursed. And we can take nothing out of this world, but the sons of God and slaves of Jesus Christ are heirs of everything in the new one.
"The nations raged, but Your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding Your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear Your name, both small and great..." (Revelation 11:18)
And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!" (Revelation 14:13)
They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of My people be, and My chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. (Isaiah 65:22)