1 Timothy 6:10 – The Soul's Self-Torture
From 1 Timothy 6 – 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. New King James Version
In Henry IV, part two, Hotspur renders the lingering verdict on an associate, "He could be contented: why is he not then?" Hotspur concludes, "In the respect of the love he bears our house: he shows in this, he loves his own barn better than he loves our house."
At the close of 1 Timothy 6:10, Paul senses the same division of deepest affection among those who have rested in Christ's house, indeed have ministered in His Name, but love their own barns more. Whereas in Hotspur or other jilted providers we could account for a significant swelling of bitterness in their own souls, Paul's affections are divided in a different way.
He sympathizes with those he says have pierced their own souls. He knows the degree to which they have tasted for it is good for their inner man and have turned away, still longing, to drink from that which will never satisfy.
His figure of speech is striking, poignant, painful. They, Paul says, pierce themselves through with many sorrows. Each time they set the stuff they are chasing on the left side of the scale and the peace and purpose they once knew in Christ on the right side, each time the scales of their own hearts test to Christ's worth. Yet, with what has to be regret, heaviness, bitterness, rightful conviction which metastasizes into condemnation if left untreated, the apostates turn away.
They are, Bob Dylan will sing in "Tombstone Blues," going to be easy marks for the national bank selling at a profit roadmap for the soul. Having once known contentment, peace, protection, safety, purpose, they won't be like their contemporaries mindlessly shuffling on the road to riches. They will be trying to get money, good servant and bad master, says Francis Bacon, to provide what money was never designed to provide.
Having once positioned oneself on anxiety or depression's stretching rack between what is that what could have been, why stay there? If convicted, sometimes painfully, that we have made a bad bargain in selling ourselves after our goods, perhaps there is still time to treasure the true Treasure which is Christ. "To be still and know that He is God," challenges Rick James in Out Of the Depths, will get you much further than running around in a panic trying to get just a little more.
In Henry IV, part two, Hotspur renders the lingering verdict on an associate, "He could be contented: why is he not then?" Hotspur concludes, "In the respect of the love he bears our house: he shows in this, he loves his own barn better than he loves our house."
At the close of 1 Timothy 6:10, Paul senses the same division of deepest affection among those who have rested in Christ's house, indeed have ministered in His Name, but love their own barns more. Whereas in Hotspur or other jilted providers we could account for a significant swelling of bitterness in their own souls, Paul's affections are divided in a different way.
He sympathizes with those he says have pierced their own souls. He knows the degree to which they have tasted for it is good for their inner man and have turned away, still longing, to drink from that which will never satisfy.
His figure of speech is striking, poignant, painful. They, Paul says, pierce themselves through with many sorrows. Each time they set the stuff they are chasing on the left side of the scale and the peace and purpose they once knew in Christ on the right side, each time the scales of their own hearts test to Christ's worth. Yet, with what has to be regret, heaviness, bitterness, rightful conviction which metastasizes into condemnation if left untreated, the apostates turn away.
They are, Bob Dylan will sing in "Tombstone Blues," going to be easy marks for the national bank selling at a profit roadmap for the soul. Having once known contentment, peace, protection, safety, purpose, they won't be like their contemporaries mindlessly shuffling on the road to riches. They will be trying to get money, good servant and bad master, says Francis Bacon, to provide what money was never designed to provide.
Having once positioned oneself on anxiety or depression's stretching rack between what is that what could have been, why stay there? If convicted, sometimes painfully, that we have made a bad bargain in selling ourselves after our goods, perhaps there is still time to treasure the true Treasure which is Christ. "To be still and know that He is God," challenges Rick James in Out Of the Depths, will get you much further than running around in a panic trying to get just a little more.
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