The Desire to Be Rich and the Key to Contentment
- David J. Schuman
- Jul 12, 2022
- 6 min read
Have you ever wanted more money? Maybe you found the perfect place to live, and it was just a little out of your price range (or maybe way out of your price range), and you thought, “If only I had more money...” Perhaps your dream vacation is just out of reach, and you think, “If only I had more money...” Maybe you wish that you could go out to eat and not have to consider the prices on the menu. “If only I had more money...”
Do you know what I think would be fun? Taking a weekend trip to Paris, just to go shopping for clothes. If only I had more money…
In 1 Timothy 6:6-10, the apostle Paul gives us an important warning: The desire to be rich leads to ruin.
And maybe you’re thinking, “I don’t want to be rich. I just want a little more.” But notice what Paul says is the opposite of the desire to be rich: “But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1 Timothy 6:8).
That’s a radical statement! It’s not necessarily wrong to enjoy expensive clothes or take your dream vacation, but the question is, if you never had those things, would you be content? If all you had were the clothes you’re wearing now and just enough food for the day, would you be content? Or would you think, “If only I had more money…”?
The Warning
There is no shortage of stories that illustrate how the desire to be rich leads to ruin. Take, for example, Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos. When she was just nine years old, she told her family that she was determined to be a billionaire.[1] And twenty-one years later, her dream became a reality. In 2014, she became the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, worth $4.5 billion. But just one year later, it all came crashing down.
In attempt to realize her dream of becoming a billionaire, she had lied about the accuracy of her company’s technology. By 2018, her company had collapsed, and earlier this year, she was convicted of four counts of fraud.[2] According to Forbes, her net worth is now $0.[3] Her desire to be rich led to ruin.
And according to this passage, there’s a progression (1 Timothy 6:9).[4] Desire leads to temptation. Temptation leads to a snare. The snare leads to “senseless and harmful desires.” And these harmful desires lead to ruin.
I imagine this is exactly how it worked out for Elizabeth Holmes. It started with a seemingly innocent desire from a nine-year-old to become a billionaire. I imagine her family probably thought it was cute or even admired her ambition. But that desire led to a temptation to lie about her company’s technology.
And once she started lying, she got caught in a snare. I’m sure it seemed like the only way out was to continue to lie, hoping that the technology would catch up before she was exposed. And so that snare led to senseless and harmful desires to continue to lie, until one day, she was plunged into ruin. What started with a desire, led to ruin.
And the same thing can easily happen to us. Even if we weren’t determined to become a billionaire when we were nine, our hearts are just as susceptible to this desire to be rich. And what starts as a desire can lead to ruin.
The Antidote
This passage warns us that the desire to be rich leads to ruin and tells us that the antidote is to be content (1 Timothy 6:6). But how do we become content? This passage shows us two keys to contentment.
Key #1: Reorient Our Perspective
The first key to contentment is to reorient our perspective. “For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world” (1 Timothy 6:7). This verse reorients our perspective by reminding us that this life is not all there is. There’s something beyond it, and our earthly riches won’t follow us there.
If we think only about the here and now, then it makes sense to seek wealth. If this life is all there is, then make as much money as you can, so you can go on that vacation and afford that home. But if there’s a life beyond this one, that reorients our perspective.
It changes our focus from temporary earthly wealth to true lasting wealth. When we contemplate seeing God face to face, beholding his glory and receiving blessing beyond our comprehension, then suddenly earthly wealth doesn’t seem so significant. It’s petty compared to what’s in store.
And so wealth is no longer what motivates us. We’re not impressed by it. It becomes almost an afterthought. We become far less concerned with wealth in this age because we’re far more concerned with the treasure promised us in the next.
The problem is there are always things trying to orient our perspective back to earthly wealth. The things we watch, the feeds we scroll through, the people we know—these things all influence us. Sometimes the explicit goal of what we consume is to make us feel discontent. “Buy this, and then you’ll be happy.” There are always things trying to drag our focus down to earthly things. It’s a struggle to reorient our perspective.
How do we overcome this? We overcome this through the ordinary ways God has given us to grow our faith. When we worship together each Sunday or pray and meditate on Scripture, these things reorient our perspective. God uses these things to slowly but surely direct our hearts to himself.
Key #2: Redefine Our Goal
I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, and I remember when I was in middle school and I started mowing neighbor’s lawns for money. I suddenly had this disposable income that I’d never had before. I was thrilled!
One way I spent this newfound money was by affording my brother and myself a fun Friday night. I would rent us a video game and buy gummy worms to devour while we played. It was a blast! But it quickly became normal. It didn’t feel like a treat anymore. It just felt ordinary.
And that’s the problem. The moment we start spending more on luxury and convenience, we get used to it. That meal we had or the vacation we went on felt like a luxury before, but now it just feels normal. There’s a name for this. It’s called lifestyle creep.
We think, “If I just had … , then I’d be content.” But the truth is, when we reach that goal, we quickly become discontent again. The refrain never ends: “If only I had more money…”
We can never be content that way. But verse 8 shows how we can be content. “But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1 Timothy 6:8). The second key to contentment is to redefine your goal.
It’s not about how much money you make or don’t make. It’s about redefining your goal. We must be content with food and clothing.
And this is related to the first key to contentment. When we reorient our perspective to what is beyond this life, then we can be content if all we have is food and clothing. Because these other things don’t matter so much. Our gaze is set on something of far greater worth. If we have God, we can be content with food and clothing.
The Problem
But we still have a big problem. It’s a struggle to reorient our perspective to life with God. We’re easily captivated by earthly wealth. Instead of being content with food and clothing, we say, “If only I had more money…”
To one degree or another, we all fall prey to this desire to be rich. And for our sin, we deserve the ruin this passage warns us against.
The good news is that there is one who has borne that ruin on our behalf. Jesus Christ was rich beyond all measure. From all eternity, he dwelt in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16). And yet he was content to be born a man. And not just a man.
He wasn’t born to a king or wealthy businessperson. He was born of a poor woman in Palestine.
He was content because during his thirty years on this earth, he never once lost perspective on what is beyond this life. When the devil tempted him by showing him all the kingdoms of the world and saying, “If you worship me, it will all be yours,” Jesus replied, “It is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” (Luke 4:5-8). His perspective was set not on the glories of this life, but on the glory beyond it.
The great wonder of Christianity is that Jesus Christ, though he was God, emptied himself, became poor, and died a criminal’s death on a cross, that he might give us riches beyond measure.
Let us set our eyes on Jesus Christ. Only with our eyes on him can we become content. And only with our eyes on him can we be forgiven for the times we are not.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/theranos-founder-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-life-story-bio-2018-4 [2] https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58336998 [3] https://www.forbes.com/profile/elizabeth-holmes/?sh=2c33a15d47a7 [4] Cf. George W. Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 256.