1 Timothy 6:2b-10: Conceited and Craving Controversy or Contented, Clothed and Consuming Comestibles?
1 Timothy: Living in the Household of God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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1 Timothy 6:2–10 (ESV)
2b Teach and urge these things. 3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Introduction:
Contrary to the Ephesian false teachers, I promise you that my personal craving for quarrels about words is perfectly healthy and entirely in good fun, unless you’re playing against me in Boggle or Scrabble, in which case it’s deadly serious.
In the interest of transparency, though, I did not come up with comestibles on my own — so thank you, synonym.com.
Let’s dive right in. Today, our main idea is this:
Main idea: The members of God’s household must be content with what the Lord provides rather than pursuing the goods of this world.
Today’s text divides into two sections, vv. 2b-5 and vv. 6-10.
vv. 2b-5
1 Timothy 6:2–5 (ESV)
2b Teach and urge these things. 3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
Explanation:
First, let’s look at 2b. Now, as I read that, I hope it sounded really familiar — since my voice was the last one that read a phrase almost exactly the same a few weeks ago, in 1 Timothy 4:11
11 Command and teach these things.
Yes, that feeling of deja vu is right on the nose, and it’s going to get stronger as we continue on in this section.
Effectively, Paul’s letting us know that he’s moving on to something new, just as he did in 4:11, by commanding Timothy to be diligent about making sure Paul’s instructions for God’s household are well-heeded.
Except that this new thing Paul’s about to move onto is really nothing new at all. Let’s look at verses 3-5.
3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
All right, let’s take a minute and indulge that sense of deja vu. Let’s see a sampling of how much of this section Paul has already said before.
different doctrine - 1 Timothy 1:3
3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,
sound words and teaching - 1 Timothy 1:10
10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,
godliness - 1 Timothy 4:7-8
7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
understanding nothing - 1 Timothy 1:7
7 desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
And, well, you get the picture. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing and our time is limited, so let me just show you what Paul’s done. All the red stuff we’ve seen before. (highlight this slide)
3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
Since we’ve already discussed everything highlighted at some point in the past, all I want to do is point out the cumulative effect all this repetition has. By this point in the letter, Paul’s audience should have a pretty strong sense of disgust concerning those teachers peddling strange doctrines. Not only is their doctrine diseased, the fruit of their teaching is rotten to the core. And at this point in the letter, the Ephesians have seen the positive side of God’s design in what he requires of teachers in his household.
Why on earth would you want a bunch of blustering babblers who spew hot air and don’t even know what’s coming out of their mouths, when you could have skilled, diligent teachers who labor not only in God’s word, but in their own use of words and their teaching?
What’s so attractive about a bunch of raucous rabble-rousers who just want to stir the hornet’s nest and make a bunch of noise when God has raised up and provided gentle, dignified, honest, sober-minded, self-controlled leaders whose goal is love issuing from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith? Not a thing!
Simply put — it is foolishness of the highest order to even offer your ear in the direction of a teacher who is a slave to Satan when the Lord has raised up teachers who are slaves to Christ for your good.
The contrast could not be clearer — but it gets worse. Let’s look at what remains un-highlighted.
Now, all that about envy, dissension, evil suspicions, and constant friction is a pretty good point against the false teachers, especially if you already agree with Paul.
But the final point in Paul’s argument against the false teachers is perhaps the most potent of all.
People who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth will pretty happily give their time to charismatic self-proclaimed experts who tickle their ears. Controversy, quarrels about words, envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction could pretty easily serve as a description for about 90% of what’s on TVs in households around the world and pretty nearly 100% of what’s on social media, after all. People, even people who claim to follow Jesus, eat that stuff up and call it entertainment — so all those things probably aren’t as big of a deal for those who weren’t already on Paul’s side before the letter arrived.
But even the most worldly people don’t like grubby fingers reaching into their wallets, unless they’re well and truly deceived. So for those who may have been on the fence in Ephesus, this hopefully would have pulled the curtain back to reveal not so much that the emperor has no clothes, but that the emperor is far more splendidly dressed than he should be given the quality of his goods.
It’s a tale as old as time — people in positions of religious authority using smooth words to not merely fleece the flock, but devour it entirely if they’re able, and it’s something that God utterly detests. Perhaps these false teachers, for all their Bible knowledge, had never read Ezekiel 34: 1-10
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. 7 “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.
And hopefully, at this point, those who were at least partially aligned with the false teachers would have realized the danger they were putting themselves in and abandon ship before they, too, were shipwrecked.
As we finish up this section, let’s consider what implications teaching like this has for members of God’s household.
First, let’s be shrewd about what voices we listen to in our personal lives. I don’t think a false teacher eager to make a quick buck is going to be targeting our church anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean we’re in the clear.
It’s not a coincidence that we pay attention and lend our ears. In our society, it’s not only that time is money. Attention is money.
Every second spent quarreling about words with strangers on the internet isn’t just a second wasted. It’s a dollar in the pocket of those who provide the platform for quarreling so they can spend even more money to figure out how to get even more of your attention, so they can get you to click more and, ultimately, buy more from the products advertised on their page.
Second, it’s really easy to determine whether someone’s teaching is healthy and in accordance with godliness. Look at the fruit it bears in its hearers. If the teaching in this pulpit does is not conducive to growth in Christlikeness, you need to tell your pastors so we can seek to make it right, and if we don’t, you need to flee before we drag you down with us.
If you do not see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control produced as a result of the teaching ministry of this church, or of any self-proclaimed Christian teacher for that matter, there is something dangerously wrong going on. Keep your guard up.
But enough of the bad news, at least for now. Let’s turn to greener pastures for a moment because, for all their shortcomings, the false teachers actually got something right, although not in the way they intended.
vv. 6-10:
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Explanation:
Paul starts this section off with a pretty hefty haymaker in the verbal boxing match he’s been fighting — the false teachers imagine that godliness is a means of gain, and Paul says they’re exactly right, with only one problem. They’re defining both godliness and gain in precisely the opposite way they should.
For Paul’s opponents, godliness was religious duty, an external adherence to a set of rules (at least as long as others were watching), and their gain was purely financial.
For Paul, godliness is not duty, but delight — an internal inclination towards living all of life according to God’s ways and following after Jesus, and the gain that results is too astounding for words, but “great” is a good start. In fact, Paul has used both “great” and “godliness” together in a pretty important spot in this letter — the hymn right at the middle of this letter, 1 Timothy 3:16
16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
and later on, he would add that godliness is worth pursuing because it has value both in this present life, as well as in the life to come, in 1 Timothy 4:8
8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
Taking this all together, Paul is effectively saying that while these false teachers may seem to be living the high life right now, their apparent riches are a caricature of the blessings God really intends for his people living according to his commands in his household. More on that to come, though.
Paul continues his positive teaching in verses 7 by drawing our attention to the fact that in God’s universe, the dead travel quite light, and on the timescale of eternity, the value of material possessions depreciates pretty deeply.
In light of that, then, in verse 8, we see how God would have us live — if we aren’t starving to death nor dangerously exposed to the elements, that is to be enough for us. And, brothers and sisters, it must be so. Look at the dangers of discontentment.
9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
I’m not going to take time to thoroughly unpack what constitutes “rich” here for a couple reasons — first, Paul’s not so much addressing the status of being rich or not, but the inclination of the heart. He’s not saying that those who are rich fall into temptation, nor that money is a root of all kinds of evils, but those who desire to be rich fall, and that the love of money is the problem.
Second, we’ll see what Paul has to say to people who actually are rich in verse 17, and while I’m no economist, I’m 99% certain that every person in this room would be considered “rich” by Paul’s standards, considering he knew nothing of air conditioning, electricity, computers, grocery stores, or better yet, Instacart, 401(k)s, the stock market, continuously compounding interest, or, one of my personal favorites, tankless water heaters. But I digress and eagerly await Caleb’s instruction next week.
As we heed Paul’s warning of the dangers of craving riches together, I want to ask you all a favor. Please pray for Hayden, Caleb, and me, specifically in our capacity as your pastors, because this text speaks very directly to overseers. Paul does not use words carelessly, so it can be no coincidence that there is so much overlap between this text and the qualifications for overseers. Take a look up at the screen, where I’ve listed the connections.
Slide
One of the most obvious reasons for this is that the members of God’s household become like the leaders in God’s household, so if the love of money finds its way into our lives, it won’t be long before it rubs off on to the rest of you if it’s not quickly corrected, with disastrous results. I want to draw your attention to three men.
The first two we’ve already met in this letter — you remember our wandering sailors Alexander and Hymenaeus, right? Do you remember what happened to them? Paul handed them over to Satan so that they might learn not to blaspheme after they made shipwreck of their faith and, as Paul puts it here, plunged into the sea of ruin and destruction.
This result is actually the best-case scenario for those who love money, or really anything else, more than God. Being handed over to Satan in this life, while someone is still living, is actually a means of God’s grace — look at 1 Corinthians 5:4-5, where Paul instructs the Corinthian church how to deal with someone in public, unrepentant, egregious sin:
4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
This is to say that there is still hope for lovers of money — specifically, that they would be sent to the deepest depths of misery while they’re still alive so they might have a foretaste of their coming eternal misery and seek refuge before it’s too late.
Unfortunately, though, there are those against whom God’s judgment looks like continued safety and comfort in this life leading up to their eternal destruction in the life to come. Whereas Alexander and Hymenaeus were handed over to Satan by Paul, our third man willingly handed himself over — before handing over the very Son of God for the sum of 30 pieces of silver. Hear what Jesus calls this man in his high-priestly prayer for his disciples, from John 17:12.
12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
Brothers and sisters, members of God’s household can only serve one master. We play with fire when we consider splitting our allegiances and try to take matters into our own hands, purchasing our own safety and comfort from the woes of this world with the very money the Lord has graciously given us to be used in his service. Listen to the testimony of Hymenaeus, Alexander, and Judas Iscariot. Heed their example.
As we conclude, however, let’s consider the words of a fourth man and end on a positive note — after all, I’m not doing my job if I tell you to flee from love of money without telling you where to flee to!
I’d like to conclude by considering the words of my dear friend Agur son of Jakeh.
1 The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle. The man declares, I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out. 2 Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. 3 I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. 4 Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name? Surely you know! 5 Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 6 Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar. 7 Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: 8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
I love Agur for more reasons than I can count and I talk about him a lot more than I probably should, but do y’all see how he’s perfect for our text?
He’s the perfect counterexample to the puffed-up, conceited know-nothings — not because he knows everything and is able to counter all their arguments, but because he knows nothing and he knows that he knows nothing! He’s too stupid, after all.
He’s precisely the antithesis to those who crave controversy and are deprived of the truth — here’s a man who craves God’s word and begs God to keep him honest.
And his prayer, if we make it our own, will help us live out Paul’s instructions for God’s household as we ask God to give us neither too little nor too much, but exactly what we need, day by day, so that his name might be glorified in us.
Even better than living out the instructions for the household, though, is considering the master of the household. After all, Agur asks, what is his name, and what is his son’s name?
Brothers and sisters, Jesus is so much better than money and the comforts of this world that it can provide. He is the sovereign Lord over all the universe. Yet, instead of handing out decrees from a distance for his subjects to obey, he descended from heaven into his creation, humiliating himself by being born into poverty and homelessness, experiencing the pangs of 40 days of hunger in his wilderness temptation at the hands of Satan, and subjecting himself to ruin and destruction as men depraved in mind and deprived of the truth pierced his hands and cast lots for his clothing as they crucified him.
Jesus’s death in the place of sinners was a fruit of the root of Judas Iscariot’s love of money to be sure, but even deeper than that goes the root of his love for sinners like you and me, whom he snatches out of the kingdom of this world and brings into his kingdom, not merely as his obedient subjects, but as his brothers and sisters, his friends, and the objects of his affection.
The master of our household, Grace Baptist Church, is so much more lovely than silver and gold. Let us pray that he would make himself more and more lovely in our sight, that he might be our shield and refuge against the temptations of this world and our hungry, craving flesh that would devour us if given the chance.