Godliness with Contentment

April 9

Life isn’t fair. We don’t have to look very far beyond ourselves to discover the enormous inequities that exist between cultures, between nations, between neighbors, between family members.

It’s easy to explain the fact that Western Civilization progressed far beyond others in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Here science and learning have been honored and provision made for every child to have an opportunity to be educated. Who can imagine the brilliant minds that have been squandered because of a lack of that opportunity!

And, of course, many Western scientists were godly men who believed that if they used the gifts they were given by the Almighty, He would unlock His secrets to them. Many early scientists and explorers were just such men. What about the disparity between neighbors? Who can reconcile the fact that some are abounding in this world’s good things while others barely scratch out a viable living.

How does God see these discrepancies between cultures, nations, people—and His children? The reality is, God is not concerned with the temporal as we are. He is more desirous that His children store up for themselves the treasures of eternity. Perhaps it is Paul who has best stated the final word in the matter in I Timothy 6:6, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” Godliness, with any temporal circumstance, is enough.