"Godliness with contentment is great gain."
(1 Timothy 6: 6, KJV)
One of the virtues of the
Christian's life is Contentment. Like humility, it is a difficult virtue to
implement into one's life. Over the years I have not heard much about the topic
of "Contentment" preached about in Churches. It is not a popular
subject to preach about in local churches today. Because many of God's dear
children are weighed down by worldliness and materialism that has left many
saints disgruntled, dissatisfied, and unthankful with life. To be Content is to
be thankful, whereas to be Discontent is to be unthankful. In this blog we will
be considering three specific points on Contentment. They are as follows.
1. Contented
Christians are Crucified!
Contentment is not an easy
virtue to cultivate in our life. For as
long as our flesh is allowed to reign in our lives contentment can never be
possible in our lives. The flesh needs to be put in the place of death daily.
Paul's words are helpful here, "And
they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts" (Gal. 5: 24, KJV). Concerning Galatians 5 : 24
"Verse 24. And
they that are Christ's] All genuine
Christians have crucified the flesh-are so far from obeying its dictates and
acting under its influence, that they have crucified their sensual appetites;
they have nailed them to the cross of Christ, where they have expired with him;
hence, says St. Paul, Ro 6:6, our old man-the flesh, with its affections and
lusts, is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve sin. By
which we see that God has fully designed to save all who believe in Christ from
all sin, whether outward or inward, with all the affections, payhmasi,
irregular passions, and lusts, epiyumiaiv, disorderly wishes and desires. All
that a man may feel contrary to love and purity; and all that he may desire
contrary to moderation and that self-denial peculiar to the Christian
character."[1]
It is that part of ourselves, the
flesh and its unholy affections and lusts that prevents us from being truly
content in our lives. (To be Continued...)
No comments:
Post a Comment