1 Timothy 6:6-16
Time for Your Evaluation!
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. (NIV1984)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Over the course of our lives you and I undergo many different evaluations. Our first evaluation takes place directly after our birth and results in what is called our Apgar Score. At one minute after our birth and again at five minutes after our birth a medical professional evaluates our Activity (our muscle tone), our Pulse, our Grimace (our response to stimulation), our Appearance (the color of our skin) and our Respiration. Our Apgar score determines whether or not we need extra medical care or perhaps even emergency medical care. Our medical evaluations then continue as we see our pediatrician and our doctor on a regular basis.
Once a person enters school their evaluations continue in the form of tests and report cards. Both your teachers and your parents want to make sure that you are learning the fundamental things you need to know in order to be successful in life— such as reading, writing and arithmetic.
Many people continue to undergo evaluations once they get a job. Your employer and/or your supervisor not only want to know where you are doing your job well, but they also want to know if and how they can help you in the areas where you may need to improve.
Even as we approach the end of our life we undergo evaluations. Doctors and nurses will evaluate our appearance, our pulse, our reflexes, our muscle tone and our respiration to see whether or not we would benefit from any kind of therapy or medication.
As I was studying our sermon text for today and as I was deciding how I wanted us to take these inspired words and apply them to ourselves, I realized that these words of the apostle Paul give us a very good basis for doing some personal spiritual evaluation. With that goal in mind let’s study our text under the theme: Time for Your Evaluation!
These words of Paul nicely divide themselves into two portions. The first portion— verses six through ten— give us the opportunity to evaluate our attitude toward money. Paul writes, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Paul gives us two points to examine as we are evaluating our attitude toward money. The first point centers on “contentment.” The Greek word which is translated here as “contentment” can also be translated as “what is necessary.” It’s not hard for me to connect the dots between what Paul is telling us here with what Jesus is teaching us when He tells us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Just as a newborn child is dependent on others to provide them with everything they need, and just as it is not unusual for an elderly person depends on others to provide for their needs, so also, as Christians we not only depend on our gracious Lord to provide us with what we need, but we also need to strive to be “content” — with whatever the good Lord decides is “necessary” for us to have.
Are you “content” my friends? As you evaluate your attitude toward money are you satisfied when the Lord grants you whatever He considers to be “necessary” for your day-to-day life? As you evaluate your attitude toward money are you “content” to stand side-by-side with Paul and say from the heart, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians4:12). If we ever need a reason for being “content” think of the hymn that we used to open our worship service today. The foundation of our “contentment” is none other than the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we hold near and dear to our hearts the status and all the spiritual blessings that our risen Lord and Savior has freely given to us we can indeed be “content” no matter what material blessings we may or may not have here on this earth.
The second point that we need to factor in as we are evaluating our attitude toward money is the result of not being “content.” If we never have “enough,” if we always need “more” it is very easy for us to “fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.” It’s certainly not difficult to see examples of this truth right down to this very day, is it. Sometimes even God’s children get caught up in Satan’s web of lies: “You deserve to have what everyone else has!” “You deserve to enjoy the best of everything!” If you ever feel the lure of Satan’s lies— remember the warning that your Savior God gives to you here in our text— “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
As you are evaluating your attitude toward money ask the good Lord to keep your heart focused on the fact that your true treasures cannot be measured by the amount of money or the number of possessions you have here in this world. Ask Him to always keep your heart focused on the eternal unparalleled treasures that you will most certainly inherit in His heavenly Kingdom!
That truth leads us directly into the second major point that we need to factor in as we are evaluating ourselves. That point centers on evaluating the trajectory of our life. Look at the second portion of our text, verses eleven to sixteen. When it comes to evaluating the trajectory of our life Paul highlights four things. First, Paul says to us, “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” As you are evaluating the trajectory of your life there are three questions that would be beneficial to ask. The first question is: What are you pursuing in your life? Paul encourages us to “flee” from the futile and fatal pursuit of riches and instead “keep on pursuing,” “keep on striving for” those things that will truly benefit your life— both here in this world and in the next! Keep on striving for “righteousness” in your life, that is, living the righteous sanctified life of a dearly beloved child of God. Keep on pursuing “godliness,” in your life, that is, a life that is openly filled with piety and reverence for God. Keep on striving for a life of “faith,” that is a faith that is continually growing stronger through regular use of God’s holy Word and God’s holy Supper. Keep on pursing a life of “love, endurance and gentleness,” that is, a life that consciously reflects how God treats you and how He wants you to treat the people around you.
As you are evaluating the trajectory of your life, my friends, make the time and take the effort to ask yourself, “What am I pursuing in my life?”
The second question we would all do well to ask ourselves, is, “What are we willing to fight for?” Paul very clearly reminds Timothy what he needs to fight for when he says in verse twelve, “Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” What “confession” is Paul talking about here? While the Bible never gives us a specific answer to that question, Paul is most likely talking about the “confession” of faith that Timothy made “in the presence of many witnesses” when he was baptized in the Name of the Triune God. The faith which God had created in Timothy’s heart, the faith which God had strengthened through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism— that is the faith that is worth “fighting” for because that is the faith that guarantees to us “eternal life”!
That understanding of Timothy’s “good confession” makes it very easy for us to apply these words to ourselves, doesn’t it! When we were baptized in the Name of the Triune God we were given the gift of saving faith in our hearts. On the day of our Confirmation we stood “in the presence of many witnesses” and made a promise. We promised to remain faithful to our Lord. We promised that we would remain faithful to God’s holy Word. We promised to remain faithful even unto death.
As you evaluate the trajectory of your life how well are you doing when it comes to “fighting the good fight of faith”? When other people deny that your Brother Jesus is this world’s only Savior from sin, when other people denigrate the holy Word of your God by saying that the Bible is filled with errors and contradictions and cannot be trusted— how do you react? Do you “fight” for your Savior by defending who He is and what He has done for this world? (Pointing to the cross) Do you “fight” for God’s Word by defending what the God of heaven says here in His holy Word? As you evaluate the trajectory of your life what do you consider is worth “fighting” for?
The third point that we need to factor in as we are evaluating the trajectory of our life addresses the question, “What are you focused on?” Paul gives us the proper focus for our life when he says, “In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time.”
As Christians we are to focus our lives on— eternity! As Christians we know that our God is watching over us each and every day. He sees what we are pursuing in our lives. He sees what we are willing to fight for in our lives. As Christians we know that one day our Lord and Savior will fulfill His promise to come back to this world— either to take us Home or to judge all people. As Christians the focus of our life is to one day hear the Lord Jesus Christ say to us, “Well done good and faithful servant! Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21).
As you are evaluating the trajectory of your life do not overlook how important it is for you to have the proper focus in your life— a focus on eternity!
From the time of our birth until the time of our death there are people who are evaluating us. Whether it’s doctors or nurses, teachers or employers these evaluations are designed for our benefit. My prayer this morning is that each and every one of us will recognize that the time for us to evaluate ourselves is now! I pray that with God’s help and by God’s grace we will take the time and make the effort to evaluate ourselves on a spiritual level by evaluating our attitude toward money and by evaluating the trajectory of our life. And once we have done that evaluation I pray that we will gladly join in the hymn of praise that Paul uses to close our text for today: “God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever!”
To God be the glory!
Amen
