Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for he has said, I will never leave you… Contentment is the central word of the passage, and stands between words representing its greatest foe and greatest friend, like Joshua with the Angel of the Lord and Satan on either side. I. CHRISTIAN CONTENTMENT — WHAT IS IT? TO be contented is to be satisfied; it is the Amen of our spirit with regard to what is. 1. Christian contentment presupposes effort. We are not to be content with many things that we have, nor with anything short of our best. 2. Christian contentment implies a certain amount of failure. There is no room for its exercise where matters cannot be improved; you could not speak of the angels as contented. Joy is the word for heaven; contentment for earth. 3. Christian contentment delivers us from the power of circumstances. It is not a doing without things because we must — that is possible apart from Christian grace; it is repose, satisfaction, the heart saying "Thy will be done." To attain to that is to reign as a king over our circumstances. What a great thing is that religion which helps one to this! II. CHRISTIAN CONTENTMENT HINDERED BY COVETOUSNESS. "Let your conversation [character, mode of life] be without covetousness." 1. Covetousness is a wrongly placed desire for what in itself may be good. The word in the text refers specially to money (R.V.), but it is not the object that makes covetousness. Covetousness may fasten on different things. What is it? (See Luke 12:13-15, etc.). It is a desire for anything (good or bad) not regulated by an appeal to God and God's requirements; our own spiritual needs. 2. Covetousness is regarded by God as one of the grossest sins. See the position in which it is mentioned as here coming after ver. 4, as though a similar sin; also (1 Corinthians 5:10, 11; 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10; Ephesians 5:3-5; Colossians 3:5, 6; 2 Peter 2:14; Mark 7:21, 22). 3. Covetousness is the deadly enemy of contentment. They are opposites, and cannot coalesce. Admit covetousness to the heart and contentment takes its flight. Let contentment return, and she will scourge the traders from what she calls, and from what then she makes it, her Father's house. III. CHRISTIAN CONTENTMENT CHERISHED BY THE ASSURANCE OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE. "Be content, for He hath said, I will never," &c. 1. This is a declaration of God's personal presence. Only God can say, "I will not leave thee"; not one of His gifts can say it. Loneliness destroys content. God satisfies. 2. This presence pervades the arrangements of our life. The words must mean that God will be in all our circumstances, and where He is He will not play a subsidiary part, and follow where chance or our waywardness may dictate. "I will not leave thee" must mean I will guide thee: choose thy lot, appoint thy changes, where thou comest thou shalt be brought by Me. Dread of the Unknown destroys content. God in all we have creates content by removing that dread. 3. This presence is the guarantee of protection and supply. No hurt can come to him with whom God is as his friend. Fear destroys content, but God with us enables us to say, "I will not fear." "He hath said." There are five negatives here to prevent our doubting it. (C. New.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. |
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