Contentment

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

CONTENTMENT

Heb 13:4-5

4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."  

NIV

Three main truths are here for us in this short and sharp statement, or what we would have to consider is a command from the Lord. We know this author is inspired by the Spirit, as all the writings within the canon, the text we know as the bible. First, it is the marriage that should be honored by all. Of course, in our culture today, we know that is not the case, in fact, it seems marriage is not honored very much at all, except for us believers. The world has gone haywire, with all the alternative lifestyles that do not include honoring marriage between a man and a woman which is what God established in the beginning with Adam and Eve. So, the marriage bed may only be pure within those who believe in and obey God. Although we know adultery has happened within the church, the author is writing to the church, however, if repentance follows, forgiveness happens, and life must move forward. It is those who persist in adultery and sexually immoral behavior as a lifestyle will be judged. Second, we see that we should keep our lives free from the love of money and be content with what we have. We will get to the reason, but we need to consider what it looks like to love money. We know we cannot serve both God and money; we are either going to love the one or despise the other. If we love God then it would make sense that we despise money, and we then could not possibly love it. Yet, at the same time, we need money to live our daily lives, especially in our culture where we need a place to live, transportation, food, clothing, and all the extra creature comforts that costs money. We do wonder if storing up as much money as we can for our future, with this culture's obsession with retirement might be a form of trusting in money rather than God, which could be interpreted in some sense as having love for money. This is not a judgment on us, but just pondering if that might fit into this truth about being content with what we have. Again, it seems we always want more, which would mean we are discontent with what we have. God is telling us to be content because he will never leave us nor will he ever forsake us. This means that if we seek him and his kingdom first and foremost in our lives, God will make sure we have enough for our daily lives. He will direct our paths, even to the place we are employed, and that we have enough money to support our lives. He will add all the stuff to us the pagans run after, which means we are not supposed to run after the things of this world, which means money. Yes, we should be wise as the fox about how we live, but also humble and gentle as a lamb. Let us always look to God, for God is always looking toward us. It comes down to living a content life both in marriage and with money because we love God.