Keystones of Contentment

Proverbs 15:15-17--All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

Contentment seems to be a missing concept in today's society. Nobody is ever happy or satisfied with what they have; they always want more money, more friends, more success, more power, more clothes, more water in that glass--you name it, people want more of it. It seems contentment is the only thing people don't want more of! But we know contentment is a virtue that God greatly desires us to have. In fact, 1 Timothy 6:6 says, "But godliness with contentment is great gain."

So how can we be content in a society constantly wanting more? How can we be satisfied in a world consumed with greed and covetousness? How can we be like Paul, who, in Philippians 4:11, said, "For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content"?

This is exactly what Solomon addresses in Proverbs 15:15-17, and Paul may have used these same verses to develop his own attitude of contentment. So let's take a look at them and see what the Holy Spirit, through Solomon, had to say.

Solomon begins, in essence, by describing what we have already stated above. All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. The merry heart is the contentment. The person with a merry or content heart will see everything as a feast, even if it's just stale bread and half a glass of water. Solomon starts with this description of a contented life to intrigue the reader. Having a continual, happy feast all the days of your life sounds pretty good, doesn't it? This is Solomon's hook, his attention-getter. The audience will hear or read that and think and ask, much like we did above, "Wow! That sounds great! How can I have that? How can I be like that?" Then Solomon gives the two-fold answer.

Before that, however, let me say something about the structure of Solomon's introduction. He uses a contrasting statement, illustrating two opposing ideas in the same sentence. This is to show that contentment is a black-and-white issue. There is no gray area, no fence-straddling. Either you're content, or you're not. If you're "kind of happy" or "almost satisfied", you're really neither because there is something preventing you from being truly happy, satisfied, and content. Even if there's just one tiny thing you're not satisfied with, it means you're not truly content because you'll always be trying to improve that one thing. Always remember, contentment is a choice. You either choose to be content with all, or you're not content at all.

Now for the two keystones of contentment. Solomon uses two illustrations, once again utilizing contrasting statements, to share these building blocks of satisfaction.The first one he points out is fear of the Lord.

Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith. Solomon claims it's better to be poor with God than to have the riches of the world and the troubles of not having Him. As Jesus asked in Mark 8:36, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" I believe the point here is very clear: if you do not know God as Lord and Savior, nothing you have on earth will help you, be profitable for you, or give you contentment. This is the first thing you absolutely must have settled before anything else. It is the most important matter you will ever face. Do you know with one hundred percent certainty that you are saved by God's grace?

The fear of the Lord also deals with more than salvation, though that is the most crucial aspect. Sadly, there are many Christians, true born-again believers, not living in the fear of the Lord. They walk contrary to His commandments and His will, and this certainly leads to trouble. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). This fear isn't a cowering terror felt toward God, however. It is a reverential awe and respect at His holiness and greatness that makes us bow at His feet and surrender our lives to Him. Basically, it is loving Him with all your heart. As Jesus said in John 14:15, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." If we truly love God, we will respect Him and want to please Him, which entails obeying and worshiping Him. That is the fear of the Lord: reverencing Him, respecting Him, obeying Him, and, most of all, loving Him so that you surrender everything in your life to Him, simply because He is Who He is, and He is worth it.

So how does this play into being content? Well, once you realize that the Almighty God Who breathed the heavens into existence loves you and desires a relationship with you, it will be more than enough to make you content with whatever earthly things you have. Once you realize that you are simply a worthless sinner that the King of glory loved enough to die for, nothing else will seem as important. And once you see that everything you have, even every breath you breathe, is a gift from a holy and righteous Lord, you will be grateful for whatever He has seen fit to bless you with. However, this cannot work unless you've been saved. Once you've been saved, you should keep your focus on God, Who is greater than anything and loves you more than anything, Who redeemed you out of the kingdom of darkness and the pit of Hell. Then you can, as Paul exhorts in Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord alway". You can have that "continual feast". But you've got to keep your focus on God and nothing else.

Now we move to the second keystone of contentment: love. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. This one sounds great doesn't it? Everyone wants love--that magical feeling that flips your stomach, flutters your heart, elates your mind, and makes everything alright. Love is wonderful, and love is powerful. Of course it will bring contentment! But 1 John 4:16 says, "God is love", so how can we have love if we don't have God? Answer: you can't. That's a problem for many people. They want the love, but they don't want anything to do with God. But it does not work that way.

Let's explain love a little bit. Love is not what was described above. Real love is not a feeling; it's a choice. Love is sacrificing of yourself in order to meet someone else's needs before your own. This is totally against the selfish nature of humans! That means love is a supernatural choice and action, and it is the highest of its kind. "Now abideth faith, hope, charity (love), these three; but the greatest of these is charity (love)" (1 Corinthians 13:13). Since love is supernatural, its source must be supernatural also, and that Source is God. When we show love, God is acting through us with His Holy Spirit to display His love to the world. Love can never come from selfish and sinful flesh. That's why it's impossible to have love without the Lord.

So how does love make us content? It's similar to the keystone of fearing God. Once you realize how powerful love is, nothing else will really matter. Love is able to melt the hardest heart, open the heaviest door, and tear down the most fortified wall. And only true, godly, self-sacrificing love can satisfy the craving that every human heart experiences--not the selfish, temporal emotions of infatuation we so mistakenly identify as love. Sacrificing of yourself, serving others out of a heart of love, and seeing their needs met instead of yours will provide a joy like nothing else. It may seem contradictory, but it's one of the great truths of life. It's just another paradox God uses to show us that we don't know best and that we should just trust Him and do things His way.

This applies both to love for God and for your neighbor. You should love and sacrifice yourself for both. (Sound familiar?) Love for your neighbor naturally flows from love for God. As the latter increases, so will the former. This is because when you love God, you desire to be like Him, and as you become more like Him, you love people as He does. And we all know what God did to express His love. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16; see also Romans 5:8 and 1 John 3:16). And what does John 15:13 say? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." When we love God, we will love others. Then we will truly be content.

Once again, though, this cannot work without salvation. You have to know God in order for this to happen. It's absolutely impossible to be lost and content at the same time. You may think the things of this world are pleasing you or making you happy, but that will only last for a season. And there will be no happiness whatsoever after death. They will do you no good in Hell. Please, if you don't know Jesus as Savior, accept Him today. Click the Salvation tab above for more information.

For the Christian, it's very simple to be content. Solomon gave us two keystones for contentment: fear God and live in love. We've taken these and boiled them down to a one-step process: love God. So if you're not content, you've got your focus off somewhere. You're depending on something besides God for happiness and satisfaction, and it's not going to work. Pray for God to show you any areas in your life you have not surrendered to Him, where you are not relying on Him, where His love is not showing through. Thank you for reading, and God bless you as you seek to grow in Christ and serve Him.

Unequal Examples

II Corinthians 6:14-16--Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

In Paul's second letter to the Corinthian church, he stresses the importance of being separate from unbelievers. He presents his main point, that we should not be "unequally yoked together with unbelievers", and goes on to use rhetorical questions as examples to illustrate what a ludicrous idea this is. He uses five rhetorical-question illustrations to explain the absurdity that believers can have fellowship with unbelievers.

Before I go any further, I want to clarify that this is not an extremist call or argument that all Christians should band together and live alone on an island in isolation. That is absolutely wrong and not Biblical. If Christians isolate themselves, they are breaking one of the two great commandments, to love your neighbor as yourself. The word "neighbor" used there includes every living human being. If you isolate yourself from the world, you cannot show love and compassion for those in need; you cannot weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice; and, paramount to all, you cannot share Jesus with them. The spreading of the Gospel is the main point for God leaving Christians on earth after their salvation. We must be in the world, but not of it.

Now that that's out of the way, let's look at how Paul uses his illustrations in his argument for separation. Starting with a contrast of righteousness and unrighteousness, Paul goes through five examples, each one contrasting two completely opposite ideas or things.

The first two are basic illustrations, but after that Paul ups the ante. He contrasts Jesus Christ with Belial, the devil. This isn't such a simple contrast; this isn't even between two opposites. Jesus has no opposite, not even the devil. He is in a state of His own. Satan doesn't even come close to comparing, so much so that he is not even considered worthy to be God's opposite. Now the game has become serious. With this example, the reader understands how insane an idea it is for a believer to be yoked together with an unbeliever in anything. Could you seriously imagine God and Satan as coworkers and companions in something? For believers, this includes marriage, business, friendships, recreation--anything. This doesn't mean you can't be around unbelievers. As stated above, that is not Biblical and, let's face it, pretty much impossible. It simply means do not take part in their sin. If coworkers, schoolmates, friends, family members, or whoever want you to go drinking, gamble, steal something, or practice any other sinful art, tell them no. Then tell them why. Let them know that you have been saved by a righteous God and freed from sin. Tell them the consequences of their sin and how they can be saved from it. Reprove their dark works, but always do it with love.

Then Paul brings his examples back to his original point, asking "what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" In case the reader has forgotten, Paul directly relates his illustrations back to his main point. This reminds the believer that he or she is not to be mixed in with unbelievers. Then he gives an example of why, stating that we are God's temple.

As God's temple, we are God's property. Remember, you were bought with a price--a huge price. God owns us and wants us to be holy as He is holy. We are the Holy Spirit's home, and we should strive to keep His house as clean and pure as possible. We cannot do this when we are unequally yoked with unbelievers. Furthermore, we should not be doing this out of fear, but out of love and gratitude toward God. After God has forgiven and forgotten all of our sins and saved us from an eternity in Hell, why would we not want to keep ourselves clean and righteous for Him? This shows we appreciate what He has done for us. Also, it is an honor and privilege to have the Lord of the universe choose to make your body His temple. What a blessing! Strive to keep yourself free from sin. Will you be perfect? No. But God understands this, and daily helps you in the housecleaning Himself.

Here are other very important reasons to keep yourself clean from sin and separate yourself from unbelievers:

• As your companions are, so you will be
• Maintains your testimony
• Allows you to witness to the lost
• Pleases God and does not invoke His chastening
• Allows God to fully use you and work in your life
• Gives true joy and fellowship with God and other believers
• Actions speak louder than words
• Shows there is something different about you
• Will draw the lost to Christ

As you can see, there are many reasons we should be separate from unbelievers. This is a crucially important point in today's Church, especially in America. All across Christendom, we have compromised the truth and weakened our stance, leading to spiritually debilitated Christians, false teachers, spiritual "leaders" who's lives have been ruined by sin, a wicked and morally blind nation around us, an apathetic view toward the lost and the Church's impact on the world, and numerous other problems.

We cannot take part in the sins of the world. We must separate ourselves. America, the world, the lost need believers who will not compromise and condone their sin. We need revival, and this can only happen when we turn from our sin and seek God. If we're honest, we all have something in our lives that shouldn't be there. We all in some way are unequally yoking ourselves together with unbelievers, taking part in their dark works. I urge you to objectively and deeply search your life and heart. Pray for guidance, wisdom, and humility. Ask God to reveal to you your sin and give you the power to be free from it.

Lastly, if you have never been saved, this post has no application for you. You have never been cleansed from unrighteousness and saved by God. Spiritually, you are still lost, dead, and headed to Hell for eternity. But there is hope; there is freedom; there is life. All you have to do is accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and ask Him to forgive you of your sin. If you don't, your spiritual and moral condition will only grow worse. Click the Salvation tab above for more information.