How can a believer find genuine contentment?

Today Bible Study:

How can a believer find genuine contentment?

In 1 Timothy 6:6, the Greek word for “contentment” means “self-sufficiency” and was used by Stoic philosophers to describe a person who was unflappable and unmoved by external circumstances. Christians are to be satisfied and sufficient and not to seek for more than what God has already given them. He is the source of true contentment (2 Cor. 3:5; 9:8; Phil. 4:11–13, 19).

“Having food and clothing,…be content” (v. 8). The basic necessities of life are what ought to make Christians content. Paul does not condemn having possessions as long as God graciously provides them (v. 17). He does, however, condemn a self-indulgent desire for money, which results from discontentment.

“But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation” (v. 9). “Desire” refers to a settled wish born of reason and clearly describes those guilty of greed. The form of the Greek verb for “fall” indicates that those who have such a desire are continually falling into temptation. Greedy people are compulsive—they are continually trapped in sins by their consuming desire to acquire more. “In destruction and perdition.” Such greed may lead these people to suffer the tragic end of destruction and hell. These terms refer to the eternal punishment of the wicked.

“For the love of money” (v. 10). Literally, “affection for silver.” In the context, this sin applies to false teachers specifically, but the principle is true universally. Money itself is not evil since it is a gift from God (Deut. 8:18). Paul condemns only the love of it (Matt. 6:24), which is so characteristic of false teachers (1 Pet. 5:2; 2 Pet. 2:1–3,15). “Some have strayed from the faith.” From the body of Christian truth. Gold has replaced God for these apostates, who have turned away from pursuing the things of God in favor of money.