Danger Ahead (Rewind)

Let your way of life be free from the love of money, being content with what you have,  for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” Hebrews 13:5  NASB (1963)

Being content – What is enough?  The Bible answers: what you have been given.  That’s a particularly uncomfortable answer for almost everyone.  Few are those who willingly accommodate their lives to what God has provided.  Most of us require—and expect–just a little bit more.

Of course, we are quick to renounce any motivation based on the “love of money.”  That would be sinful, selfish and socially unacceptable.  Maybe we are just a little too quick to deny these motives.  The word “love of money” is philarguros, literally, “a friend of silver.”  The verb is phileo, the same verb used positively to describe love of the brothers and sisters in the Body.  It isn’t the action that is inappropriate.  It’s the object of the action.  The New Testament treats philarguros as a form of coveting.  It is the desire for wealth as a solution to life’s problems. Millions of people become philarguros every week when they buy a lottery ticket.  Millions more show themselves philarguros when they idolize Hollywood celebrities or Wall Street billionaires.  “Why shouldn’t I have what they have?”   That demand is the tragedy of the American entitlement mentality.  “I deserve to have it,” becomes the expectation of philarguros.  You don’t have to be Scrooge McDuck to be ruled by the love of money.  All you have to do is want more than God gives.  All you have to do is forget that your life is a gift.  Then you can stand with Havvah in front of the Tree and ask yourself, “Why should I be denied what will benefit me?” Or perhaps you can avoid the implicit selfishness by modifying the question, “Why should I be denied what will benefit someone else?”

Contentment is an incredibly dangerous idea.  In the hands of the unrepentant man, contentment becomes the political currency of suppression.  “Be satisfied with what you have,” is the message of the power-hungry elite.  Those who are in control accumulate at the expense of those in need because they govern the means of contentment.  But in the hands of the follower of the Way, contentment is a sign of trust in the sovereignty of God.  In fact, from the biblical point of view, the only reason a man or woman can entertain contentment is because God is good.  His provision is sufficient.

Rabbinic exegesis of the idea of contentment is insightful.  The Greek verb arkeo parallels the Hebrew rab lak.  When Moses asks to enter the Promised Land, God tells him to be content with the answer.  The LXX treats this as a prohibition against further dialogue, but the rabbis saw this as a combination of previous divine guidance, present divine grace and future divine gift.  Rabbi Joshua says that the verse (Deuteronomy 3:26) means that Moses is to be content with the coming world.  Rabbi Joshua says that the verse means “be content that the evil impulse has no power over thee, yea rather that I will not deliver thee into the hand of the angel of death, but will Myself be with thee.”[1]

We think of contentment as a present-tense issue, but the rabbis direct us to consider contentment in its fuller temporal sense.  Contentment is accepting God’s grace in the past, God’s gift today and God’s promise in the future.  What more could I want?

Topical Index:  contentment, arkeo, love of money, philarguros, Hebrews 13:5

[1] Kittel, arkeo, arketos, autarkeia, autarkes in TDNT, Vol 1, p. 466.