- Philippians 4:10-13
- Paul said he had learned to be content.
- Contentment is paradoxical
- A virtue, when content with right things.
- A vice, when content with wrong things.
- It is being satisfied in the sense of absence of craving.
- It is not being satisfied in the sense of effort. II Corinthians 12:9
- Contentment is not:
- Being satisfied with all matters of one’s physical life.
- Being satisfied with just what one has.
- Suppression of all desire.
- The philosophy of the Stoicks.
- Contentment is:
- Absence of fretting, worrying, and craving – Matthew 6:25-34
- Doing one’s best and then not fretting about that which cannot be improved.
- Things with which we should be content:
- Wages – Luke 3:14; I Corinthians 7:21
- Raiment and food – I Timothy 6:8
- Wife/husband of one’s covenant – Malachi 2:14
- Summed up: Whatever state one is in – Philippians 4:11; Romans 8:31
- Things with which we should not be content:
- Lack of Bible study
- Lack of prayer
- Lack of attendance
- Failure to be a brother’s keeper
- Failure to give as prospered
- Attainments and conditions of local church
- One’s shortcomings
- One’s spiritual progress
- The tragedy is that so many are content in the area where they should not be content (spiritual things) and are not content in the area where they should be content (physical things).
JJ
March 15, 2015
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