“But godliness with contentment is great gain.” —1 Timothy 6:6
There are innumerable obstacles to contentment during the holidays, but the biggest is probably our persistent desire to consume.
That’s counterintuitive, I know, because we figure the more we get, the more we will be satisfied. But just think of how that works at Christmas dinner. The more I stuff myself with my wife’s delicious beef Wellington and spicy mashed potatoes, the more miserable I feel afterwards.
The problem is not with the food but with the way I’m consuming it.
There are innumerable obstacles to contentment during the holidays, but the biggest is probably our persistent desire to consume.
The same is true for our gift exchanges. The Christmas holidays don’t introduce consumerism to our culture; they just dress it up. Every year, we go bigger and better, trying to outdo ourselves—and each other—and every year, we wonder why we’re still not entirely satisfied.
Envy can drive some of our discontentment too. Some of us are still trying to “keep up with the Joneses.” If a neighbor or family member got a cool new gadget, we’ve got to have one too—preferably a newer and shinier model.
Every commercial we see holds out the promise of a perfect holiday gift-giving experience; that bracelet, that tablet, that shiny new car with the gigantic red bow on it. (Where exactly does one buy gigantic red bows, anyway?)
But sometimes it’s not envy over stuff that drives our consumeristic discontent at all. Sometimes it’s our envy over experiences or relationships. Maybe we’re jealous that the kids are taking our grandchildren to the other grandparents this year. Maybe we’re jealous that our sibling is announcing their engagement while we’re still single, or they’re pregnant while we’re still struggling with infertility. Maybe we’re jealous that the church across the way is conducting more services with far more people while we’re still holding that same pitiful Christmas Eve candlelight reflection that fewer people attend every year.
Whatever your situation, you have an opportunity for envy and thus an opportunity for discontentment. The key to contentment is to remember, in the midst of all that we lack this year, all that we’ve already been given!
You know that when Jesus was born, he was not born into a life of wealth and privilege. It does not seem as though Jesus was born into an earthly family that had many advantages or many opportunities to keep up with whoever were Nazareth’s version of the Joneses.
You know that the Son of God, in fact, surrendered his privileges as the heavenly King to enter the world as the humble son of a carpenter. And yet he held within himself all the riches of righteousness and glory. That poor baby Jesus, crying in the bed of straw in a barn rank with dirty livestock, was in fact the richest person in the universe. There is a beautiful truth in this juxtaposition for us.
It is imperative to remember—as the happy bells of consumerism ring all around us in the streets, on the radio, on our screens, and sometimes even in our churches— that because of Christ, everything we need we already have.
Paul tells his young protégé that godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:6). What does he mean?
In context, he has just warned Timothy about false teaching and the people who fall prey to it. This vulnerability comes not just from doctrinal immaturity but from a kind of emotional or spiritual immaturity as well.
Paul tells Timothy that there are people who give way to envy in their lives because they imagine that spiritual superiority comes from material gain. It’s another kind of prosperity gospel thinking; it’s the kind that reasons that having more and more stuff is a sign of God’s favor and, ultimately, the true source of finally being satisfied.
Christ gives you, by faith, a declaration of godliness in the imputation of his righteousness and a commitment to your godliness in the indwelling presence of his Spirit. There is no gift that could be greater.
But for emotionally immature people like this, there is never enough. Enough is always envisioned as “a little bit more.” It never ends. The discontent never goes away. The only truly great gain is godliness. And godliness brings with it contentment because godliness connects us to the endless storehouse of God, who always satisfies, rather than the decaying riches of the world, which never can.
Here’s what to do during these holidays that always promise peace while simultaneously stealing it from us: look up. Take your eyes off of what other people have that you might want. Take your eyes off of earthly situations or rewards that are constantly passing away.
Lift your eyes to the heavens. Follow the north star of the gospel to the center of its glory, the gift of Jesus Christ himself. Through faith in him, you receive his redemption and his riches. Christ gives you, by faith, a declaration of godliness in the imputation of his righteousness and a commitment to your godliness in the indwelling presence of his Spirit. There is no gift that could be greater.
If you’ve gained this gift, you have a rock-solid, never-shifting, “forever and for always” foundation of heart-filled contentment.
This article is a sample of a devotion from of Gifts of Grace, an advent devotional by Jared Wilson.
Jared C. Wilson is assistant professor of pastoral ministry at Spurgeon College, author in residence of Midwestern Seminary, general editor of For the Church, and director of the Pastoral Training Center at Liberty Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri. His books include Your Jesus Is Too Safe, Gospel Wakefulness, The Imperfect Disciple, and Supernatural Power for Everyday People. He lives outside Kansas City with his wife, Becky, and their two daughters.
