6:6
First of all Paul gives the attitude we should have towards money and material goods. “Godliness with contentment”. Seeking after money has always been a human failing. It was a problem in the early church, it is a problem today with the so-called prosperity gospel. Now does God care about our material provision, and does He provide for us? Most certainly He does and a problem for most of us is that we worry far too much about these things. Is it wrong to be blessed materially? Absolutely not, they are to be received with thanks. Where things go sadly awry is if we make this the goal of our faith or teach that following Christ never involves suffering, or make the accumulation of more goods an aim in life. “Godliness with contentment” is a far better goal. It is actually also in our interests (as are all of God’s commands!). Material goods gratefully received as a blessing from God and used for good purposes are good, but in themselves they will never satisfy.
6:7
This verse very neatly expresses the reality of life (and death)! We brought nothing into the world, we will take nothing out of the world, in fact cannot take anything out of the world. We were born with nothing. One day we will be dead, on that day our status, our education, our material possessions will be worth absolutely nothing. What will remain is our relationship with God, what He has done for us. On that day what will matter about our lives is what we did for God and for other people. Money can exert a terrible and deceitful hold on our lives, but it is all a lie. God knows what is truly important, and throughout the Bible He has told us what is really important, what we should seek after. And in Christ He demonstrated how we should live our lives.
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