I Timothy 6:19 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life
Like you, I have seen some magnificent homes in my day. I have driven down Rodeo Drive and seen homes that are not far off. I have driven through Beverly Hills and seen the magnificent mansions, or at least the tall shrubbery that obscures the magnificent mansions. I have driven down U.S. 1 in Florida and seen beautiful homes that face the Atlantic Coast. I have driven up the 101 on the Pacific Coast and seen the Hearst Mansion from a great distance. Like thousands of people, I have taken a tour of the Vanderbilt Mansion in North Carolina.
All of us have seen beautiful homes and all of us have heard the sentiment that money doesn’t make you happy. The reason that is a cliché is because we hear it all the time, and the reason we hear it all the time is because it is true. Having money does not make you happy. Could a person live in a mansion and be miserable? Yes. Thousands have done it. Could a person live in a shack and be miserable? Yes. Millions have done it. But if I live in a shack, at least I have a rationale. I can say, “The reason I am not happy is because, well, look at my house.” If I live in an opulent mansion and I am still miserable, there is nowhere to go from there.
So, the good life is not good enough after all. Someone says, “Maybe wisdom, the wise life, is the answer.” Socrates famously said, “The unexamined Iife is not worth living.” I suppose that Socrates is talking about the pursuit of wisdom and knowledge, yet Solomon had both money and wisdom and he despaired. Without God, those were not enough. Living the motto “eat, drink, for tomorrow we die” is no way to live.
I would like to give you an alternative in I Timothy 6 between the good life and the merely examined life. That is what we might call the real life, the life is that real. Verse 19 says, “Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” By eternal life he is not talking about Heaven or salvation. He is literally talking about the life that is real. It is not the life that is contrived, made up, and propped up until we die and eternity begins. The real life is several things of which we ought to take note.
First, the real life is receiving what God gives. In I Timothy 4 and 6 we are reminded that there were false teachers at the time that said that money, meat, and marriage were wrong. These are things that God has given us to enjoy. The Bible says in I Timothy 6:17, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.” So, the love of money is the root of all evil, but we have been given things such as money, meat, and marriage to enjoy. But they are to be enjoyed as a gift, not as something that we grab.
In I Timothy 6:6 and 10 it says that some people think that gain is godliness. Run from that! Godliness with contentment is great gain. We came into this world with absolutely nothing. We are going to leave this world exactly the same way, and the love of money is the root of all evil. So, the real life is receiving what God gives, not wishing I had something else or that I could be someone else or have someone else’s gifts, but receiving what God gives. That is truly wise and is the truly good life that God talks about here. So, the real life is receiving what God gives.
Second, the real life is giving what you have received. In I Timothy 6:17 it says that God “giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works.” If you want to be rich, be rich in the good works you are doing. It continues, “Ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store…” So, I am to give what I have received. Jesus was exactly right when He said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
In other words, today is better if I am living past today and living past myself. That is the very definition of hope, enjoying today because I am living past today and living past myself. It is true, happiness is not something I gain by searching. It is something I trip across on the way to doing what God has given me, being who God has made me, giving what God has given me, being outward focused, and enjoying what God gives.
Today, are you living merely the good life? Are you living merely the life is that is wise and learned? Or, are you living the life that is real? I am not to trust in riches that are uncertain by definition but in the God Who is living, Who has given us richly all things to enjoy.