Today, we’ll be finishing 1 Timothy by going to Chapter 6 and reading verses 17 through 21. Like I said, there’s a lot of rich stuff that we’re skipping over. And speaking of ‘rich stuff,’ being rich and having wealth is not a sin, and neither is being poor. The liberal-progressive churches kind of lean on how wealth is a sin; and some of the more, deeper conservative churches lean a little bit on how being poor is a sin. Neither is correct. Money is just a material object. In fact, money really isn’t hardly that, anymore. Nowadays money is just numbers floating around the digital atmosphere. Kind of wild to think about, but money isn’t really real. It’s numbers floating around being transferred from one place to another. And the more digital numbers you have, the more you can shift it around to somewhere else.
Of course, the more numbers you have, the better our living conditions, and we don’t have to sweat so much. But Paul said to Timothy in the preceding verses, 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 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.
So like I said, there is a whole other sermon there, but it segues nicely into what we’re going to study in today’s main scripture: 1 Timothy 6:17-21.
Scripture: 17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
20 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, 21 which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith. Grace be with you all.
So you can see how the idea is not about how much money you have, but where your heart lies, and Paul is warning people to avoid temptation with riches. In the previous chapter, Paul talks a lot about caring for widows, and again, that is a nice segue into this chapter.
What are we to do with our attitude when it comes to money? Be content. But you might say, “Excuse me, I don’t have any money, thank you very much.” I get it, trust me. Pastors don’t make a lot of money, and I’ve got a weekly job that doesn’t make a lot of money either. I’ve got car repair, rent, you name it. Groceries are going up…but God still says, be content and help those you can help with what you have.
Not to get too political, but the issue of money is like the issue of owning guns. We’ve been clearing out my parents’ house, getting it ready to sell. My father was a gun owner, but mostly because he hunted. I was never a hunter, but for my whole life, those shotguns and rifles just sat in a cabinet. I never actually saw him shoot any of those guns. And when he did, he did so to provide for the family.
Guns can be used for good; guns can be used for evil; and guns can just sit in a cabinet. It all depends on whose hands it is in. The same goes for money. Your money can be used for good, it can be used for evil, or it can just sit there in the bank. It all depends on the choices we make.
Maybe we struggle with selfishness and the love of money. There are many places in the Bible where we are called to flee temptation.
Regarding fleeing temptation, I quite often, and maybe a little too often, quote from gotquestions.org. It’s a wonderful place to go if and when you have questions about the Bible or a topic, or you just want a little further understanding of something.
Here’s what it has to say about fleeing temptation:
- Fleeing from temptation means we recognize it as an enemy and we go the other way, with no hesitation and no compromise.
- Romans 13:14 says, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
- As we flee from temptation, we naturally flee toward something else, and Paul tells us what that should be. [If we move ahead one book in the Bible to 2 Timothy, we read]: “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22).
- Wisdom recognizes the danger in temptation and bids us flee from it. “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty” (Proverbs 22:3).
Also, I’m sure you’re familiar with the famous passage in James where he quotes Proverbs, saying, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Then he follows that with, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
So yes, having money, and desiring money can be a real temptation for greed and for pride and arrogance. Do you want to know what my biggest pet peeve is? Snobbery. Thank God I lived in Dansville for the past 20 years because the biggest and most important people in the community–the movers and the shakers, the pillars and the wealthy–were among the most humble people I’ve ever met.
September 13th–was my 50th birthday. The Carls remember me when I was half that age. In fact, my son Caleb is now about the age I was when I first met them. And so is Ellie. But Caleb and I went to the Serling Fest in Binghamton on Friday for my birthday. It’s something I wanted to go to for a long time, and this year I asked to go as a birthday present. They unveiled a statue of Rod Serling to commemorate what would be his 100th birthday come Christmas Day.
If you’re unfamiliar with Rod Serling, or you know the name but can’t quite place who he was, he was the creator and host of The Twilight Zone, he wrote other teleplays, hosted Night Gallery in the early 70s and co-wrote the script for the original Planet of the Apes. About the time he hosted Night Gallery, he taught English at Ithaca College and lived in that area until his death nearly 50 years ago. He was raised in Binghamton, which is why the festival was there. Friday night was kind of a film festival of sorts, and when there was an intermission, I briefly met his daughter. I had known about her for quite a while because I had seen her listed as a presenter for previous Serling Fests, and I have a book that she wrote about her father, but it’s tucked away in a box somewhere right now.
So when I met her–again very briefly–it was sort of a ‘wow’ moment. But I was so disappointed because she came across as rather snobby. Ugh, what a disappointment!
Why am I telling you this story? Because you know and I know that she’s got money. She has a famous father who, 50 years after his death, still holds a lasting legacy as a tremendous writer–my personal favorite–and to this day still holds the record for most Emmy Awards for a writer of a drama series.
So you can kind of see why someone like her would be proud. But there’s a difference between pride…and pride. Success–even if it’s not our own–and money–even if we didn’t earn it–can change our hearts and minds.
So going back to Dansville, why were the folks in Dansville more humble? I think because they understood the concepts of wealth in The Bible. Your value–when it comes to wealth–is not determined by how much money you have. Your value is determined by what you do with the money you have. And that what you do, oftentimes, is not so much a test of how you spend it, it’s a test of humility.
Going back to verses 17-19 again, Paul tells Timothy to: “17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”
Now, I’m not a pastor who ‘commands’ and I don’t encourage pastors to command, I encourage pastors to encourage. But here, Paul tells Timothy to command and he says it twice…in other words, this is a big issue; Paul means business here. This is important.
He says: “Do not be arrogant nor place your hope in the uncertainty of wealth…instead, put your hope in the firm foundation of God and focus on doing good, being rich in good deeds, being generous and willing to share.”
In God’s economy, your wealth is in how much you do, not how much you have. You should make it a goal to have your treasure stored in Heaven, not on earth. As it is wise to have a financial planner on earth, you should have a Heavenly financial plan as well.
I think we’re all familiar with what Jesus said in Matthew–19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Did you catch that last part–about where your heart will be? Again, this isn’t about how much or how little you have, it’s about your heart.
Earlier in that same chapter in Matthew, Jesus said, Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
I mentioned earlier that in the previous chapter of 1 Timothy, Paul gave instruction on caring for widows–which is an example of one of the great things we can do with our money–and of course our time. But what about the widow who gave all? Do you remember that story?
In the Gospel of Mark 41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Gotquestions.org again, it says:
The story of the widow’s mite teaches us.
- God sees what man overlooks. That can go in many different directions.
- God’s evaluation is different from man’s.
- God commends giving in faith.
It goes on to say that, here was a woman in need of receiving charity, yet she had a heart to give. Even though the amount was negligible—what could a widow’s mite buy?—she gave it in faith that God could use it. The widow’s faith is also evident in the fact that she gave the last of her money.
Like the widow of Zarephath, who gave her last meal to Elijah (see 1 Kings 17:7–16), the widow in the temple gave away her last means of self-support. Does that mean the widow left the temple completely destitute, went home, and died of starvation? No. The Bible teaches that God provides for our needs (Matthew 6:25–34). We don’t know the details of this particular widow’s future, but we can be certain that she was provided for. Just as God provided for the widow and her son in Elijah’s day (1 Kings 17:15–16), God also provided for the widow in Jesus’ day.
It is interesting that, just before Jesus commented on the widow’s mite, He commented on the scribes “who devour widows’ houses” (Mark 12:40). The religious officials of the day, instead of helping the widows in need, were perfectly content to rob them of their livelihood and inheritance. The system was corrupt, and the darkness of the scribes’ greed makes the widow’s sacrifice shine even more brightly. “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7), and He is faithful to take care of His own.
As I close today, I want to ask you, where does your treasure lie? Speaking of Serlingfest, one of the episodes of The Twilight Zone that they showed Friday during the film festival was “In Praise of Pip.” Do you remember that one? It starred Jack Klugman and Billy Mumy.
I won’t get into it too much, but Jack Klugman played a crooked bookie who was all about the money. But when he learns that his son is dying in Vietnam–all he could think about was his son. His treasure changed from a love of money to the love a father has for his son–and that he would do anything, including die, for what he truly loved most in life.
Some people live for money, some people die for money and usually, it’s the same people who kill for money. I know that no one here would die or kill for money–I hope. But do you live for money? Money helps us live, but..do we live for money?
There’s an old phrase, it’s debatable who said it, but it goes something like this, “we should eat to live, not live to eat.” As you can see, I struggle with that. But the same goes for money. We should earn to live, not live to earn.
Again, wealth in and of itself is not a sin, but where does our heart lie? Where does our treasure lie?
And again, if you’re like me, who doesn’t have a whole lot of earthly treasure stored up in the bank, just keep on keeping on. Be faithful in what you have and the Lord will provide. I leave you with these last verses as we close.
A few minutes ago, I read to you what Jesus had to say in Matthew 6 regarding treasures in Heaven. If we skip down to verse 25 he says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.” And then in verse 33 he says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” All these things in context means food, clothing and shelter. Not riches and wealth.
Lastly, the apostle Paul addressing the Philippian church said, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. 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. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
In Paul’s case, what he meant by ‘all things’ was the strength to serve as a missionary despite facing intense suffering. In our lives, this same strength is available. Christ’s power can enable us to stand firm on His promises and endure the most difficult of life’s challenges. Paul concludes this passage with these words: “My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (verses 19–20).
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