As Christians, we know that we are commanded to contentment. There is a sprinkling of passages throughout the Bible that address contentment. Psalm 37:16 says, “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.” In Luke 12:15, Jesus said, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” Under inspiration, the apostle Paul testified in Philippians 4:11, “for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” I Timothy 6:8 tells us, “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” In Hebrews 13:5, God’s Word commands us to “be content with such things as ye have.” The command to contentment is clear to us as Christians. However, as humans, we often grapple with what contentment means practically.
Often, making contentment part of our lives is difficult because we have a few misconceptions about what it means. In order to dash those misconceptions, let’s look at what contentment does not mean.
One thing that contentment does not mean is eliminating desire. Sometimes we make contentment synonymous with “stop wanting.” In the Hindu religion, desire (or wanting) things is viewed as the cause of all suffering. The goal of Hinduism is to eliminate desire in order to become one with Brahman and transcend the suffering of this material world. However, God created us with desire. He created us to want food and water because, without it, we could not sustain life. God also created us with the desire for human companionship because, without it, the human race could not continue and there would be no civilization. We were created with a drive to provide for ourselves and our families because, without clothing and shelter, we would not be able to take care of the bodies God gave us. In I Timothy 4, God addresses a group of false teachers who promoted the idea that marriage and meat were intrinsically evil. In I Timothy 4:1-6, God addressed this saying, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” Life’s necessities and joys—like meat and marriage—are created by God and given by God. God doesn’t command us to eliminate our desire for these things but to receive these things from Him with thanksgiving. In James 1:17 we are told that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Every good thing in life comes from God. Eliminating our desires looks more like false teaching than Christ-following. Eliminating desires is a departure from the faith as I Timothy 4:1 warns, not living by faith.
Another thing that contentment does not mean is being care-free. That is, contentment does not equate having no invested interests in anything or anyone. If we have a job, a ministry, or relationships with other people, we will naturally have an invested interest in the success or failure of that job, ministry, or relationship. In II Corinthians 11, the apostle Paul describes the many trials and hardships He has endured for the ministry of Christ. He is not apathetic toward them; he feels them and cares about the ministry God has given him. In addition to that, Paul feels the burden of the churches he is responsible to mentor. As he says in verse 28, “Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” If you are doing anything worth anything at all, you can probably relate to the apostle Paul here. God does not expect you to stop caring about your work, ministry, or relationships any more than He expected the apostle Paul to stop caring.
Third, contentment does not mean being passive. Contentment does not look like someone sitting cross-legged on a mat with their arms resting on their knees and their eyes closed. In Psalm 37, we see the paradox of waiting on the Lord. While waiting sounds like a passive thing, the Bible sense of the word implies action. Psalm 37:3 says, “Trust in the LORD, and do good.” In other words, we demonstrate our trust by doing what we know to be right. Psalm 37:7-8 says that we are to “Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for him:” but also that we are to “Cease from anger and forsake wrath.” Toward the end of the psalm we are told to “Wait on the LORD, and keep his way.” In other words, God doesn’t want us to sit like a bump on a log . . . or a yogi on a mat for that matter. Trusting and waiting on God does not mean that we just sit around, moping, meditating on nothingness. Being content does not mean being passive.
Now that we’ve gotten those misconceptions out of the way, let’s look at what contentment does mean.
While contentment does not mean eliminating desire, it does mean surrendering desire. In Matthew 6:25-30, Jesus told his disciples, “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take yet thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon is all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast in the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” Notice that Jesus told them to stop worrying about what they would wear or what they would eat, but Jesus did not command them to stop wanting those things. Rather, He points to the birds of the air and lilies of the field. Just as the Heavenly Father kept them fed and clothed, so God would do the same for those that trust in Him. He wasn’t telling his disciples to eliminate desires for basic, life-sustaining things; He was telling them to surrender those desires to the only One who could provide them. The principle was to trust God to provide in His way and in His timing.
When we try to eliminate our desire in order to “be content” we are still attempting to be in control of our own lives. Eliminating desire is not trusting God—that’s being a control freak! Rather, we are to acknowledge our desires and raise them up to God. We are to surrender our desires to God and trust Him to do as He sees fit with them. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight thyself also in the LORD and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” This verse does not say that God will eliminate the desires of your heart; it says He will satisfy them. Now, He may take those desires and change them to fit His will for your life. Or it could be that He put those desires in your heart in order to bring about His will. Either way, when we surrender them to God, He is pleased with our faith and works out His will for us.
In addition to surrendering our desires to God, contentment means casting all our cares upon Him. If you are human, it’s impossible to be care-free. God does not command us to be care-free; He calls us not to be care-filled. The familiar passage, Philippians 4:6-7, says, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” From this passage, we see that it’s normal to have cares because God commands us to make our requests known unto Him. God doesn’t expect us to walk around like apathic, cold, and mechanical robots. If we didn’t care about anything, then we wouldn’t pray, or supplicate, or thank God for anything. Rather, God wants us to take those cares and cast them on His shoulders. I Peter 5:7 says, “Casting all your cares upon him; for he careth for you.” You see, this command does not assume that we have traded caring for apathy, but it does assume that we should be giving those cares over to the One who can do something about them. Psalm 37:5 conveys a similar principle, “Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” Why would we settle for discontentment when God cares more deeply and can work more significantly than we ever could.
Finally, contentment means actively communing with the Lord. It means dwelling in His presence and allowing that to animate our actions. At the beginning, we looked at Philippians 4:11, where the apostle Paul said that he had learned how to be content in every situation. How could Paul be content? Well, he had learned to allow God to animate His life, as Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” This Christ-communing, Christ-animated lifestyle had fostered contentment. In verses 18-19, the apostle says, “But I have all, and abound: I am full . . . But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Paul was now encouraging others to live a contented life.
We also referenced I Timothy 6:8 at the beginning. Now let’s look at the context of verse 8. Verse 6-7 say, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” Then comes the command, “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” In this passage, as in Philippians 4, the focus of contentment is on God, not things. Rather than viewing things as gain, a content Christian views godliness (or being with God and animated by God) as great gain. We have also already referenced a portion of Hebrews 13:5, which in completion says, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” This verse summarizes the definition of contentment in the Bible. Contentment is not so much a feeling as a state of being. It’s a state of being made possible by the fact that God is my all in all and He is always with me.
We can be content with such things as we have when what we have is Christ. The apostle Paul did not say that he had all and was full because of things. Although he did specifically thank the church at Philippi for what they had sent him, he realized that what he had ultimately came from Christ. He had all and was full because he had Christ. The apostle didn’t tell Timothy to be content only because he had food and raiment. He said we can be content with food and raiment because godliness is great gain. As you make Christ your everything, “all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33) Contentment is the state of being in God’s presence, of making Jesus your all in all, of being animated by Christ’s life in you. It means doing what you know to be right in this season of life because you are dwelling in God’s presence daily.
So, the question today is not so much about how you feel. You may feel like you want or need something. You may feel the crushing weight of care about situations or people. The real question is are you being content? That is, are you dwelling in God’s presence and delighting in Him? If so, then the feelings will follow. If Christ is your all in all, then everything else He provides for you will be like a cherry on top.