1 Timothy 6:6-19, Luke 16:19-31
This morning’s gospel reading can be seen as part two of last week’s gospel about the dishonest manager. Both last week’s and this week’s gospel parables begin with “There was a rich man!”
Last week’s gospel ended with the phrase “You cannot serve both God and money,” and this morning’s gospel is a story illustrating the fate of one who served God and one who served money.
But this morning we are going to see a way in which Paul brings all these things together in today’s reading to his letter to his spiritual son, Timothy, written towards the end of his tumultuous life.
Jesus said that if “the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” In today’s reading Paul tells us exactly what this freedom means, and how we are to live in this freedom in the full confidence of faith, in the bright and sheer light of the future.
Our liberty in Christ makes us free to be what God wants us to be, not what we think we must do to acquire money. Paul writes:
“6 Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; 7 for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; 8 but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
“9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.”
It is easy to get out of focus in our daily life. Paul shares the great conviction that brings life and death into proper focus, when he writes, “godliness with contentment is great gain.” Paul writes in Philippians, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Paul was freed from greed in the focus of his life. This liberty we enjoy is the freedom from being concerned about wealth. This is the true liberty that comes with serving God and not money.
Freedom not to always seek gain from a transaction. Free from the competitive nature of it all.
Which also means we have the freedom to live in line with our faith. The middle section of the reading (vv. 11-16) urges us to pursue the life of righteousness hidden with Christ in God the father. The first and foremost way of doing this is through prayer and quiet time with God.
Stanley Jones w rites “Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.” Aligned to God’s redemptive will, anything, everything can happen in character, conduct, and creativeness.
Our whole person, Paul writes, is heightened by that prayer contact. In that contact we find health for our bodies, illumination for our minds, and a sort of moral and spiritual reinforcement for our souls.
Someone else wrote, ‘Prayer is a time exposure to God,’ so we expose ourselves to God … asking less and less for things and more and more for himself. For having him, we have everything. It is from this position, that we become useable instruments of the peace of God.
This helps us understand what Paul is urging on of Timothy:
11 But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 16 It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.
Regrettably, many of us can seem to stray off course from time to time which is why Paul shares the importance of making “the good confession” which is more than words.
It means that our walk and our talk are consistent with God’s Word as we walk humbly with our God. This is the source of joy I believe.
We live in this beautiful freedom, in line with our faith, in the light of the future.
Solomon wrote (Ecclesiastes 3:11), “[God] has put eternity in their hearts.” Today Paul tells Timothy:
17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
Now, lets briefly go back to today’s parable of Lazarus the poor beggar and the rich man who was not rich in good works, not generous, and not ready to share. Both die.
But instead of becoming the great equalizer we all talk about, death becomes the great reversal. The rich man is brought low at death and suffers a torment similar to that which the poor man Lazarus experienced on earth.
The poor man, though, is brought to the most honourable position in Judaism, the bosom of Abraham. Only Enoch and Elisha are given the same honour in Scripture!
This is the only time in any of Jesus’s parables that a character has a name. The poor man is called Lazarus, meaning “God helps.” It is both a promise and an indictment.
Truly, God does help as the poor man is brought to the bosom of Abraham, but God meant to help this man throughout his life through the rich man, who refused to understand and live as a servant of God.
The decisions we make each day have eternal consequences. Here we think about the glorious conclusion of a life well-lived. A well-lived life involves seizing opportunities to serve the Lord by generously giving as he leads.
Hebrews 11 is a whole chapter all about people who lived by faith because they looked to the light of their future which illuminated all they did in the present. Paul advises Timothy and all believers to live in this light.
So in all things we ask, “Will the thing I plan to do glorify God and matter in eternity?”
In this freedom, let’s take hold of the life that really is