Gold-diggers are never content

 This week's verses are 1 Timothy 6:3-11:

If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a sick craving for controversial questions and disputes about words, from which come envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between people of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it, either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. 

 These verses are a good counterbalance to some of the excessive claims of prosperity theology, this idea that faith in God directly translates to an easy life of wealth and luxury, if we just tithe/pray/believe enough.

We join Paul just after one of his exhortations for slaves to remain in slavery and serve their masters, and for them not to expect to be let out of the terms of their slavery if their master was a believer. Slavery in Paul's time was not precisely like the slavery in the Americas. It wasn't hereditary chattel slavery that someone was born into. It was generally a debtor-creditor relationship that was the result of bad luck or bad decisions.

The slave owner would pay for the slave, with the agreement that he would provide food, clothing, shelter, and protection in exchange for his labor for the duration of the arrangement. Ending that arrangement early, while appealing to the slave, was an injustice to the owner who had invested the money up front.

But for Paul to address it in these verses, someone must have been preaching that message to attract followers. "Hey slaves, you don't have to be slaves anymore. Jesus is here." But preaching the gospel this way is wickedness. It turns salvation into a way to prosper rather than a way to reconnect with God and be saved from the eternal consequences of our sins.

It parallels the abusive preaching on tithes, where tithes are presented as a kind of get-rich-quick investment scheme rather than as an old testament model of the sort of generosity that comes as a fruit of the holy spirit in us. It twists the scriptures to say "If give us your money, you will get rich, but if you don't, you will be poor and cursed." It opens the door to all kinds of spiritual abuse by corrupt clergy.

So what Paul is saying here is that this kind of teaching produces bad fruit. It makes people money-focused and transactional, and produces the foul traits that go with greed and money-focus. Money-focus turns people envious and bitter and factional. It paints the poor as being less righteous, because if all you had to do to be rich is be a good believer, being poor is evidence of moral failure. It's not the gospel. It's the same legalistic superstition that held the Pharisees captive.

But he goes deeper. It's not just the teaching that is wrong, but the weakness it takes advantage of. Being wealth-focused opens the door to greed and unceasing striving. It switches the focus from following God in all circumstances (rich or poor, slave or master) to relentlessly pursuing wealth to gratify the desires of the flesh and build a support system that allows you to act freely without any dependence on God.

These are probably offensive words to someone who is all-in on their career to the detriment of their family and faith relationships. But it is also probably offensive to people who have been tithing in the hopes of a big payoff, or people who justify their large bank accounts on the fact that they think of themselves as pretty good people, or better people at least than the dirty guy in the parking lot who is always hitting them up for cigarette money.

But Paul says that the gospel and being a good believer does deliver us an advantage, but only with contentment. Pursuing God is great in all circumstances, but contentment is what allows us to do it in humility. Instead of a transactional investment scheme where we put money and actions in and get favors and big bucks as a dividend, contentment makes it more like a friendship between a poor man and a rich man, where the friendship is more important than their class and lifestyle differences.

The investor (or gold-digger, really) becomes enraged when their partner (or mark) doesn't do what they want. They feel their righteous acts were wasted when tragedy strikes or money is tight. Their overtures of love, in the end, are just an act they hoped to parlay into a big cash payout later. This is the depraved state Paul is talking about that pierces people with many griefs and causes them to fall away from the faith.

The content believer is happy whether they are rich or poor. Their needs are simple, so they don't need to be comfortable to be devout. Paul says just food, clothing, and shelter are enough, really, if you are content. You don't have to be rich. In fact, it is dangerous to be rich because you could grow to like it too much to be generous.

Paul says to flee from this transactional, money-focused, gold-digger faith, and focus on just being a good believer. So many churches are fast to preach on Paul's exhortation to flee from sexual immorality, but how many are as eager to preach on Paul's exhortation to flee from greed, the allure of sugary tithe dollars, and the expectation of worldly prosperity? Not as many, I would bet.

It seems like it would almost be better for us to pray for contentment than for wealth. With contentment we are not wasting our efforts on our own self-ambition, and we are not turned against God when we find ourselves in lean times. Contentment builds a humility into us that doesn't demand a certain standard of living or to be part of a certain class (or at least insist on not being part of the lower class.) Contentment is happy with God regardless of circumstances, while the love of money is only happy to use him in the fruitless pursuit of their worldly desires. Only the content can truly worship the true God.

Is there really a difference between one dollar turning into ten, or one dollar making us as happy as ten? Yes, because the first only pleases the flesh and will die with us, while the second is a positive change to our soul that will stay with us for eternity.

Don't follow the path of a spiritual gold-digger, tricking yourself and putting on an act so that you can buy some nice trinkets and have it easy. Instead, invest in true love, for better or for worse, and just be happy to have that.