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Philippians 2:14 is another verse that should hit us right between the eyes. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.” Grumbling is the outpouring of a discontent heart, and grumbling is a sin. Grumbling out loud is a sin and grumbling in your heart is a sin. You cannot be content and grumble. There are few things that will set your life more apart from the world around you than a lack of grumbling. Grumbling in the world is like a badge of honor. It’s everywhere. The Christian should be markedly different. If we continue from Philippians 2:14 and read verse 15, we’ll find this:

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.

Contentment proves you are a “[child] of God”, not to God himself (God knows whose are His), but to you and to the watching world around you. Grumbling proves that your affections are misplaced, and not only does it destroy our witness, it will also cut us off from those we need to reach. Is there anything more draining that spending time with a constant complainer? If our lives are marked by grumbling, we can be assured that both believers and nonbelievers alike will keep their distance, and that’s not good.

III - Flee from the Love of Money

Money is a very good thing. Bibles are printed, bound and bought with money. Missionaries are sent with money. Church buildings go up with money and massive needs the world over are met with money. Money is a very good and important thing, but money is very dangerous. Hebrews 13:5 reads:

Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.

If you want to be content (which we’re commanded to be), free yourself from the love of money. How do we do this? The writer of Hebrews tells us, and he agrees with Paul. We free ourselves from the love of money by remembering the saving promises of God. “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” Money doesn’t matter. With or without it, our foundation is secure, and the reward of salvation trumps the reward of money.

As I thought about my audience this morning, I wondered where we, in this room, stand in our affection for money. We are a small church. Our parking lot is noticeably lacking some of the big-ticket automobiles that are staples at the mega-churches I’ve attended. Our seventy year-old facility is certainly nothing to write home about. Does that mean that our congregation is free from the love of money? Perhaps, but not necessarily.

I would guess, in fact, that it is often those who have the least money who may love it the most. Money, to them, remains the apple of their eye because it has yet to default on it’s many promises. Money promises happiness, and so long as people are without much money, they may never know that it’s lying. The rich have spent enough to know that wealth doesn’t deliver the lasting happiness it promises. It is no coincidence that the one man in all of human history who was able to indulge his every desire, was the one man in all of history whose words seem the most jaded and despairing. “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” so declares King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes (1:2).

Along the same lines, it is revealing, returning to the passage that we opened with in Philippians 4, that Paul tells us that he knows how to be content both in poverty and prosperity. Why would anyone need to learn contentment in prosperity, right? Isn’t it the impoverished who must struggle with contentment? How many wealthy men and women the world over wished it were that simple. The implication of Paul’s statement is that contentment is no less difficult for the rich man than it is for the poor man, (and there is massive discontent among the rich). In fact, monetary prosperity in the life of a believer brings with it a whole new realm of difficult kingdom-building responsibilities. There is a world of unevangelized and uneducated and unhoused and unfed people whose souls are crying out. God gives us an abundance for every good work, not for every good comfort. And God calls him a fool who uses his excess money to increase his own comforts rather than investing in the rock solid futures of eternity (Luke 12:15-21).

The next time that you are enticed to forsake the gain of godliness in pursuit of the gain of greed, remember the message of I Timothy 6:6,7:

But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.

The first question that struck me, based on the way Paul pairs godliness and contentment is this. Is it possible to be godly and discontent? Clearly the answer is “no”, but Paul highlights the need to be content because it is a truth easily forgotten by thick headed creatures like us. Furthermore, I think Paul is combatting the notion that external godliness is a means of temporal gain. As such, I take his phrasing to mean that the “great gain” is contentment, and that is infinitely valuable! I mean who in the world, if they could choose between being rich and being happy would choose to be rich? People pursue wealth because they think it will make them happy, but in the end, it isn’t the money they want, it’s the happiness, the contentment. And the same would be true with anything, power, fame, influence, knowledge. These things are pursued as a means to contentment but if it came right down to either having them or having contentment, only a great fool would choose against contentment. May we not be great fools. Let us learn from the misery of the rich that those who love money will never be content.

IV - Meditate on that Which is Good

Philippians 4:6-8 speaks to this point.

Be anxious for nothing (anxiousness is the antithesis of contentment), but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God (contentment), which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.

If your mind is filled with that which is excellent and good, it will be that much harder for treacherous desires to gain a foothold in your life and prompt feelings of discontent. Conversely, I find the message of Philippians 3:18,19 to be shockingly appropriate. This text reads:

For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

The enemies of the cross, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite are marked by one thing. They set their mind on the things of the world. How many church going people will spend eternity in hell because they’ve never set their mind on anything beyond movies or music or baseball or business or politics or family or travel or leisure? A mind set on the things of the world is a mind bound for destruction, and a mind bound for destruction is a mind that will never be content. Meditate on that which is good, and do not set your mind on the things of the world.

V - Remember Where Your Citizenship Lies

When all is said and done, Christian contentment is far more patience than denial. Denial exalts yourself. Patience exalts Christ. It is not learning to be content with little. It is learning to wait for much! If we continue where we left of in Philippians 3, we read:

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. (20,21)

Our cursed and decaying bodies will be transformed into conformity with the glory of Christ one day. Remember that. Remember that next time your knee flares up or your back aches or cancer starts to eat away at your body. The resurrection is coming. Glory is coming. The wait is worth it. Don’t complain. Eagerly expect.

I will close by urging you and urging me to combat discontent with the same fervor that we would combat lust or hatred or unbelief. It is HUGELY important. We are commanded to rejoice, we are commanded to not complain or grumble, and we are commanded to be content. We take our first step on that road by becoming united to Christ in salvation, and then we must Consider What We’ve Been Saved From, Flee from the Love of Money, Meditate on that Which is Good, and Remember Where Our Citizenship Lies. Since eternity is where almost the whole of our lives will play out, how foolish it is to try and find contentment in anything that won’t last for eternity. Even if we managed to secure such contentment in this life, what good is it? Contentment which does not last is no contentment at all, and if our contentment is not anchored in Christ, we will have all eternity to curse our foolishness, in perfect discontent.

Let’s pray.