1 Timothy 6:6-8 – Joy's Armor
From 1 Timothy 6 – 6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, [d]and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
"Grace, only grace," repeats Tenth Avenue North in the song by that name, "can move us to a rhythm that can change our ways." Switching seamlessly to the discerning defensive within the same lyric, they proclaim, "Joy is the armor that can't be broken down."
Through the Holy Spirit, Paul allows us a moment's wary rest like this in 1 Timothy 6:6-8. They are between two ominous, eyeball-to-eyeball warnings. Timothy, and we after him, surely need every component of armor against the tendency to stray from the day's work into prideful, entangling arguments. We, then, certainly need every weapon from God's armory against the dangers Paul will detail shortly of being caught up in chasing riches. Between, though, we breathe in. We rest in who we are in Christ. As the band sings, joy IS the armor that can't be broken down.
The Spirit's ongoing gift, as on this little isthmus of refreshment, is to know something of what we are pointed TOWARD rather than of what we are warned away from. We can, by stupefying grace, gain rather than avoid losing. What's more, here we can gain by contentment, become more deeply rooted and secure precisely by reflecting in gratitude on what we already have and who we already are in Christ. This is more reasonable than revolutionary, reflects Paul calmly in 1 Timothy 6:7, because for all the striving we could engage in as the opposite of contentment, we wouldn't carry any of this world's gains from it in any case.
There is peace in Christ, Paul positions, or there is emptiness in the alternative. There is grasping for armloads of elusive alternatives, or there is perceiving and rejoicing in Christ's Presence in the daily necessities He provides. When, perhaps Paul bolsters us in preparation for the dire warnings against greed to come, we begin to sense the epiphany in the everyday, our hearts are less likely to wander after the latest, most alluring material confirmation.
"Grace, only grace," repeats Tenth Avenue North in the song by that name, "can move us to a rhythm that can change our ways." Switching seamlessly to the discerning defensive within the same lyric, they proclaim, "Joy is the armor that can't be broken down."
Through the Holy Spirit, Paul allows us a moment's wary rest like this in 1 Timothy 6:6-8. They are between two ominous, eyeball-to-eyeball warnings. Timothy, and we after him, surely need every component of armor against the tendency to stray from the day's work into prideful, entangling arguments. We, then, certainly need every weapon from God's armory against the dangers Paul will detail shortly of being caught up in chasing riches. Between, though, we breathe in. We rest in who we are in Christ. As the band sings, joy IS the armor that can't be broken down.
The Spirit's ongoing gift, as on this little isthmus of refreshment, is to know something of what we are pointed TOWARD rather than of what we are warned away from. We can, by stupefying grace, gain rather than avoid losing. What's more, here we can gain by contentment, become more deeply rooted and secure precisely by reflecting in gratitude on what we already have and who we already are in Christ. This is more reasonable than revolutionary, reflects Paul calmly in 1 Timothy 6:7, because for all the striving we could engage in as the opposite of contentment, we wouldn't carry any of this world's gains from it in any case.
There is peace in Christ, Paul positions, or there is emptiness in the alternative. There is grasping for armloads of elusive alternatives, or there is perceiving and rejoicing in Christ's Presence in the daily necessities He provides. When, perhaps Paul bolsters us in preparation for the dire warnings against greed to come, we begin to sense the epiphany in the everyday, our hearts are less likely to wander after the latest, most alluring material confirmation.
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