Controlling Desires

Scripture: 1 Timothy 6:2b-16

Teach and urge these duties. ³ Whoever teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that is in accordance with godliness ⁴ is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words. From these come envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, ⁵ and wrangling among those who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. ⁶ Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment, ⁷ for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it, ⁸ but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. ⁹ But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

¹¹ But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. ¹² Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you ¹⁴ to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. ¹⁶ It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

Questions

1. What is the relationship between the false teachers and the rich?
2. How does the love of money in this passage relate to coveting in Exodus 20?
3. How is righteousness contrasted with the love of money and why is that important?

Background

Related Scriptures: Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; Mark 7:14-23

Paul’s critique of the false teachers is about their desire for wealth and how it is leading them away from the faith. They are allowing desires other than God to lead them astray.

The desires for wealth represent an ignorance of God since God is the provider and if God is the provider we can be content with what we have.

Scholars debate what covet means in Exodus 20:17, some think that the word means simply to have a wrong desire for one’s neighbor’s property while others believe that it means actively trying to acquire that property. If it is the second meaning it would be differentiated from stealing by the fact that a person was trying to acquire the neighbor’s property through legal though unethical means.

In Psalm 19:10 a desire for goods, coveting, is set in contrast with a desire for God’s instruction, we are meant to understand that if we pursue God’s instructions we will be less concerned with material gain.

Reflection

The last of the Ten Commandments deals with coveting, the wrong desire for the property that belongs to another. Scholars debate whether the wording refers to an active attempt to gain someone’s possessions or simply a strong desire to take them, but either way this language provides a fitting conclusion to the Decalogue. The previous four commandments are much easier to keep if we learn to control our desires and seek to live at peace with our neighbors. Coveting at it’s root is about wanting more than we currently have and making obtaining it your goal. Coveting and greed are close synonyms, which is why 1 Timothy can speak of :the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”. Covetousness and greed result from a continual discontent with what one has and comparing oneself self to others.  While there is nothing inherently wrong with desiring to have enough and to be comfortable, the temptation is that we never feel comfortable with what we have and so always desire what others have. The lack of comfort with what we have is where sin can enter our lives and take over, our desires begin to take us away from God and allow us to grow jealous of our neighbor. Such desire is what the bible warns against because it breakdown our community, removes us from God’s presence, and leads to our destruction. This being the case we need to fight against this love of money that Paul warns us against. Doing this requires us to develop our minds in two ways, we must work on our desires and we must grow in our appreciation for others.

Covetousness begins in a jealousy of what others have, it is rooted in thinking I want what that individual possesses. One of the first things that can be done to curb this unhealthy desire is to simply be happy for others in what they have. Rather, than focusing on my lack or my want, simply offer a kind word on behalf of the other person. If I simply bless my neighbor in their prosperity I can change my entire attitude toward life and hopefully curb my own negative desires. The command against coveting is one that should lead us to evaluate how we think about our neighbors and their successes.

But the other major factor in cutting out the greed and covetousness from our lives is of course looking inward. The great writer G. K. Chesterton famously wrote, “There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.” While there is nothing wrong with wanting to be comfortable in life we should always be looking at ourselves and evaluating what our needs are and where our wants and desires are disproportionate to these needs. We may not deny ourselves everything that we want, but evaluating our wants might lead us to intentionally deny ourselves (fast) in order to teach ourselves that we can do without. Allowing ourselves to see what we can do without for a time, is one way we can curb our desires away from such greedy and covetous impulses and allow us to focus on God. Fasting is one way we train ourselves to want less and so train ourselves to desire God more. This is the distinction Paul makes in 1 Timothy, the false teachers desire possessions they love money for the power and influence that it brings the opportunity to have more. The godly person by contrast is not concerned with what others have or what there might be to want in this world, but is concerned with living for and loving God and celebrates all of the good things God has given. Shifting our focus away from selfish desires and toward God helps us to understand our place in this world and leads to all kinds of good. As we think about ourselves less we begin to think about how we can help others improve the world we all share. And this is what God wants for us, to learn to love God in such a way that it leads us to love others. Our selfish desires too often get in the way of this kind of love and lead us to covet the things we do not have and so hurt our relationships with others.