“Godliness with contentment”, declared Paul, “is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.”
There are so many people in today’s world who are discontented. They manifest by their words and actions that they are not satisfied with their lot in life. They are ever ready to grumble and complain and talk about their grievances and the unhappy circumstances that have come upon them. Such are even found, unfortunately, among those who profess to have known Jesus and to have learnt of His ways; but, if they have known Him, they have obviously not applied His example to their own lives.
Jesus was indeed the most contented of all men. No word of complaint or despondency ever passed from His lips, and those who subjectively follow Him will learn the secret of His life. In fact, as we meditatively think of Jesus and His attitude in the face of the trying circumstances that He passed through, we can almost feel our own complaints and grievances receding into the background and eventually, as we continue to learn of Him, disappearing altogether.
Jesus knew but few of the comforts which we consider necessary for our well-being. In His own words He had “nowhere to lay His head”; He was despised by the great masses of men and women and hounded from one city to another. Continually He was tormented by persecution, trial and temptation far more than we could ever be. He was a man acquainted with grief and sorrow and, even in His darkest hour, He was denied the comfort of His own friends, who all forsook Him for fear of their own lives. He was subjected to all forms of human cruelty and oppression, spat upon, jeered at, lashed and beaten, adorned with a crown of thorns, nailed to a tree and finally “numbered with the transgressors”; in the face of all of which He was able to declare “My yoke is easy and my burden is light”.
What a tremendous lesson for us, who are so ready to pour out our grievances and troubles, and air our complaints when we find someone to listen to us, and even in secret to think enviously of another. No wonder Paul could write in later years, “Consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds” (Heb. 12. 3). It’s so easy to become weary and discouraged; it’s so easy when affliction assails us, when the storms of life surround us and our cross becomes heavy; when earthly possessions become few and meagre; when human hopes remain unfulfilled—it’s so easy to open our mouth and complain. But consider Jesus, who for the “joy that was set before Him endured the cross and despised the shame”, and “who opened not His mouth”. . . . “Who when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered He threatened not, but yielded Himself to Him who judgeth righteously.”
That was indeed the secret of His life. The joy that was set before Him kept everything else in its right perspective; and it can be the secret of our life, too, for this same joy has been set before us. No matter what our lot in life, let us keep continually in view the reality of that to which we have been called—”Glory, honour, and immortality”—when all the ills of life will for ever be swept away. Let us endeavour to see the varying experiences of our present life in the light of that glorious future that awaits each one of us. Let us realise that behind the shadows of our life standeth God—that He has the solution of all our problems—the answer to all our questions—the ability to supply all our needs. Let us remember that He is at the helm of our life, as the Captain of our salvation, as the great Master potter, moulding of us a vessel of honour. Paul realised this and, although subjected to so much human adversity and physical weakness, was able to say, “I have learned that in whatsoever state I am in, therewith to be content. I know how to abound and how to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4. 1 1).
Behind the mask of every life there is some cross, some affliction, some sorrow, some human weakness, some unfulfilled hope or ideal. God permits it to be so that we may be fitted for the Master’s use. If we bear our cross without complaint and be content with such things as we have, we are not only following the example set before us, but are witnessing to those about us that we have been With Jesus and have learned of Him. Moreover, we will find that peace which passeth all understanding entering into our lives and will come to know the real meaning of Paul’s words when he said, “Godliness with contentment is great gain”.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One