Handling Treasure, Part 1
1 Timothy 6:17-19
First Timothy chapter 6 and we're coming to the end. Two more messages, today and next week, in 1 Timothy. And the Lord's really impressed upon my heart to go on to 2 Timothy. I just can't let it rest. That second epistle is so tightly tied to this first one that we've got so much ground work, we need to move on. So we'll do that in two weeks and go through those brief four chapters, I think, rather rapidly. But for today and next time we're going to come to the close of 1 Timothy. And after all these many many months of study, we're so excited to see what God has taught us through these days. And I know that my life will never be the same because of the intense study of this great epistle that the Lord has allowed me to engage in.
But as we come to this final section, verses 17 to 21, the whole issue here, although two different subjects are dealt with, really revolve around one theme and that is handling treasure...handling treasure. Every one of us at one time or another has had the opportunity to handle something valuable that belonged to somebody else. You remember as a child going through the department store and your mother saying, "Don't touch that, don't touch this," or holding something of precious value, something breakable and being very fearful that you might drop it. I remember as a little boy the first time somebody scooted me up in a chair and put a little baby in my arms, and the fear of the fragile nature of that little life. You know, we all know that. We know what it's like to borrow someone's new car and then rue the day we borrowed it because we can't find a place to park it where the door won't get dinged or we're worried about somebody bumping it in the back or whatever it might be.
We let our home out one time just kindness to some friends to stay there for a week while we were on vacation. And they had little children who took crayons and drew all over the walls. And we didn't feel that that was really part of the deal. But when we came home, they were chagrined. I mean, they were in horror. It was worse than as if it was their own home, you know. And, of course, it was a great shock also to find that their children were depraved. The parents need to wake up to that sooner or later, I think but not at the expense of someone else's house. We all sort of feel that.
If we're given something valuable to hold for someone else, there's a great sense of responsibility we have. And that's basically what this is all about. It's all about handling riches which really belong to God and all about handling truth which also belongs to God. We are stewards, to use a biblical word, we are not owners. Whatever we have is His given to us to hold, to manage, to be stewards of. And these two things occupy the heart of the Apostle Paul, riches and truth. And really there are...there are really so many things to be said in these areas that just summing it up at the end leaves the subject frankly less than exhausted...but we're going to try to stick to the text and just say what the Apostle says and try to enrich it so you'll understand it and not go as far as we could go.
It's basic to the Christian life...get this thought...that you live out your Christianity on the basis of how you handle your stewardship. How you handle your riches and how you handle truth in many ways is the mark of the character and quality of your Christian faith, the measure of your Christianity.
Now let's put it in context a bit. You know that this entire epistle is a call to duty, a call to duty on the part of Timothy who has been placed in Ephesus as a delegate of the Apostle Paul with the task of setting the church in order...a great church, a church with a marvelous beginning, initiated by Paul himself over a three year ministry, a church used to found many other churches in Asia Minor, most of which are named in the letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, a church with great great roots and strong foundation. But in the years intervening since its beginning, it has drifted, it has drifted away from true doctrine and is on the edge of heresy. It has drifted in terms of its spiritual life, from godliness to ungodliness. So Paul coming out of his first imprisonment meets Timothy there, leaves Timothy there while he goes west and says, "Set this thing in order." He isn't gone very long until he writes this letter back and says here are the things on which you must concentrate your energies.
And so, primarily this epistle is a polemic against the state of the Ephesian church and a call to spiritual duty on the part of the man who has been given the ministry of bringing it around. Its primary theme then is duty...duty. This is what you are to do. And I believe that perhaps that's an insight into why Paul closes this epistle with a reaffirmation and a summary of Timothy's duty.
You will note in verses 15 and 16 the great doxology. It is the second doxology in this epistle. The first one is in chapter 1 verse 17. And this is the second one. The Apostle Paul writing about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is so enamored with that thought, is so lifted and uplifted by the reality of what he has to anticipate and hope for that he launches into this doxology, this paean of praise and speaks of the God who is the blessed, the only potentate, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords who only has immortality dwelling in light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, the one to whom be honor and eternal power. And then he says an amen. And you might think that the "amen" would be it, that that great epistle would end in a glorious paean of praise, in a doxology that lifts you to the skies to think about the glory of God, but not so. Because Paul takes us from the magnificence and majestic heights of that doxology right smack down to earth with a jolt. And in 17 he goes right back and to the end of the chapter reminding Timothy of his duty.
Duty is the theme. The contemplation of the glory of God, the contemplation of the nature of God was really a spiritual and worshipful digression. And it shows you that on the tip of the pen, the tip of the tongue and the tip of the heart of the Apostle Paul was spontaneous worship. And as he began to contemplate the Second Coming, he launched into that glorious doxology, not because it was a part of the logic of the epistle, not because it was part of the sequence of reasoning, but because it was in his heart to do so at the mere contemplation of the hope that he had in Jesus Christ. The logic of the epistle takes him back to duty. And so coming down from his spontaneous worshipful digression with a jolt, he speaks of duty. And the transition, frankly, is not unlike the worship service here this morning where for the first part of the service we sing the praise of God and extol His virtues and praise His name, and lift up His majesty and we adore Him, and we offer our worship, and then we come to this time and we're brought back down with a jolt to the matter of duty.
But keep in mind that we have learned long ago that duty and worship are not at all separate. In fact the highest form of worship is duty. The highest form of worship is duty. You never worship more truly or purely than when you do the will of God. That's why the Apostle Paul in Romans 12 says, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your spiritual act of worship." And then goes on to say, "Don't be conformed to this world but be conformed to that good and perfect will of God. Duty is the highest form of worship. "Him only shalt thou worship....Him only shalt thou serve," such is the spirit of the words of Matthew 4:10.
So we come back to duty. And the first duty has to do with handling riches. And we're going to look at that this morning, just three verses, 17, 18 and 19, handling riches. Now Paul has already introduced the subject of riches back in verse 5 when he was describing the motive of false teachers and says they are primarily moved by gain, supposing that gain is godliness. And then down in verses 9 and 10, "They that will be rich fall into..." and he lists temptations, traps, foolish hurtful lusts, and ultimately can be drown in the destruction and perdition of eternal loss. And then says the love of money is the root of all evil and people who covet after it err from the faith and literally skewer themselves with many sorrows.
So he has talked about people who are motivated by money, primarily false teachers. And we said that earlier, false teachers are motivated by money because they need it to indulge their lusts. You see it all the time. It's...it's literally true from the beginning of recorded history to the present day and until Jesus comes and even through the Tribulation time, false teachers will be motivated by the desire to fulfill their lusts and gain money.
And so he talked about that issue but apparently didn't want to leave that issue at the point at which he stopped earlier lest some people who had money be falsely accused of loving it, or lest some people who had money be falsely accused of having gained it from ill conceived motive. He talked about in verses 9 and 10 the would‑be rich, but in verses 17 and 19 he talks about the already rich. He now wants to speak to those Christians in the church who are wealthy, who are rich. And he wants to call upon them for a proper stewardship of that wealth...those who have riches already as opposed to those who seek to have riches. And many rich people are not necessarily motivated to that end. Maybe they inherited it, maybe they gained it because of the proficiency of the way they did whatever they do. Maybe they gained it because there was some providential circumstance which brought it into their possession. It is not necessarily true that the people who are rich love money. And it is not necessarily true that the people who are poor don't. So he really here is talking about those who are rich rather than who would be rich at any price. And he wants it clear that it's not a sin to be rich but it is a sin to misuse that stewardship‑‑and that's the issue.
Obviously in a prosperous city like Ephesus there would be among those who came to name the name of Christ and were converted some who were wealthy. In fact in chapter 6 verses 1 and 2 it talks about slaves and masters. We assume that those masters who were believing masters in the church had means, certainly means surpassing that of those who were their servants. So we assume that in that church as in our church, in most churches, even in the Corinthian church there were some who were wealthy, though there were not many who were noble, he says in 1 Corinthians, not many who were mighty, not many who were anything other than just common. But the church has people who are wealthy and that's by the design of God, Deuteronomy 8:18, it is God who gives you the power to get wealth. First Chronicles says essentially the same thing in chapter 29 as David speaks in verse 12, "Both riches and honor come from Thee." And you remember that beautiful prayer of Hannah in which she expresses the same truth in 1 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 7, "The Lord makes poor and makes rich, He brings low and lifts up."
In other words, what the Bible teaches is that people are poor or people are rich because of God's purposes, God's design. God allows people to allow what they have. And that's why the Scripture says that whatever state you are you are to be...what? Content because God has given you what He's given you. Paul does not condemn the rich, nor does he tell them that they're more blessed by God because they have more money. Money does not translate into blessing from God. There are people who have nothing who are at the apex of God's blessing. There are people who have everything and are in utter misery and rejected by God. You cannot equate material blessing with God. That is not the way God pours out His blessing in the new covenant age.
So Paul doesn't condemn people for being wealthy, nor does he say that they are specifically those most favored by God. Riches in itself is no favor at all. In fact, poverty has one wonderful benefit, you don't have to make decisions about anything which simplifies life, casts you on God, puts you in a position of trust and makes every small thing that comes your way the source of great joy. Don't underestimate the value of having little as opposed to the value of having much.
Verse 17 says, "Timothy, command them that are rich in this age," and that's the essential character of the text of the next three verses. It is in the command that must be given to the rich in this age. In this age refers to time. Literally the Greek text is "in the now age...in the present age," earthly wealth. It is the treasure of this world that he is talking about...people who are wealthy not in spiritual things but in the mundane things.
Now let's ask the question: who are them that are rich that Timothy is to command? By the way, the word "charge" means to command. He is calling for a command. This is not a suggestion. This is not counseling. This is a command. You command the rich. Now you say, "Boy, that's not me. I don't have a Mercedes, a Rolls Royce, a BMW, a house on the hill, a large bank account, a boat, a camper, etc., etc., that's not me." Let me tell you what rich means. Here's a definition of rich. Rich means you have more than...finish the sentence...need. You got it, folks. You have more than you need, that makes you rich. That is, you have more than you need to live, eat, sleep, clothe yourself, and do what you have to do. If you have any discretionary funds, you have more than you need. You're rich.
You say, "Well I'll tell you, by the time I paid our house payment and by the time I've paid for the cars and by the time I have clothed our family and we've eaten, there's nothing left." Yes, you're still rich. Why? Because you choose to eat $15 meals when you're out instead of four dollar ones...because instead of wearing one suit of clothes for a month or six months, you choose to have 12 outfits for every month, because instead of having transportation you choose a certain kind of transportation, instead of having a warm place where you can sleep and eat you choose to have a furniture store that you call your home. You understand what I'm saying? Those are choices you make about the discretion of your dollars.
Now this is a difficult thing because I can't tell you specifically what God wants you to do in your life. And I'm not saying we should all have one‑room apartments with boxes to sit on and cots to sleep on and we should all have one suit of clothes which we wear all the time. Although frankly it's not a bad idea. I'm not thinking the Lord necessarily is advocating that. What I'm trying to point to you is that all of us are rich in the sense that we have discretionary dollars. If we choose to spend them on how we eat rather than that we eat, or on how we dress rather than that we're clothed, or on how we live rather than that we live in a place that's warm and provides shelter for us, then that is how we have chosen to use our discretionary dollar. But I'm not going to let you off the hook in the sense, nor am I going to let myself off the hook in the sense that I'm in the category of the rich. I am not eating three meals a day of bare minimum food, barely clothed and barely sheltered and crying to God for my next day's provision. So I'm not in the sense a poor person. I have to make decisions about my money. I have to decide what to do with it. And that happens every day and that makes me rich. I have more than I need. And frankly, I could enjoy a simple life where I didn't have those kinds of decisions, couldn't you? So let's just get it right at the outset here that we're the rich.
Nothing wrong with that. Acts 15, Lydia was a rich lady and she was able to house the Apostle Paul and all of his traveling companions. Nothing wrong with that. Dorcas was a wealthy lady and she was able to make garments and give it away to the poor. Nothing wrong with being rich. Philemon was a wealthy man, owned slaves, had a big house, a church met in his home. There were many people like that. It's not whether you have it, it's what you do with it, that's the issue.
So command the rich. There's no command here to give it all away. There's no command to take a vow of poverty here. There's no command to become an ascetic. The command here is to deal with your money with certain perceptions. One, I'll give you three, one, danger to avoid. You have an outline in your bulletin which will cover the next two weeks, that third point there I don't know what that is, somebody put that in. I don't know who or why, for there is no third point. But anyway, the first point has to do with handling riches and the first subpoint under that is of danger to avoid...danger to avoid.
The first thing is negative. Now what happens, Paul starts out by telling Timothy..command rich people..and the first thing you want to command them has to do with danger to avoid. Danger number one, verse 17, "Command them that are rich in the now age, that is rich in earthly things, that they be not high minded." The first danger has to do with your attitude toward other people. Riches has a way of pushing you in your own mind above the people who have less than you do. That's just part of our fallen nature. We tend to look down on people who are lower on the economic ladder than we are. This is the first concern that Paul has that rich people not because they have much look at people who have less or little as if they themselves were inferior and the people with much were superior. Frankly riches and pride are twins, and the more you have the more likely you will battle pride and the exaltation of yourself. High minded, just two compound words out of the Greek meaning to think lofty...to think in a haughty way, to be exalted in your own mind about your ownself. And rich people are constantly faced with the temptation to put on airs of superiority...to dress to flaunt their riches, to decorate themselves to flaunt their riches, to drive cars that tell everybody on the street that they're going down how wealthy they are, to live in a certain way, a certain life style to convey that they're better, wiser, sharper, more successful, more effective, higher intelligence belongs to them, etc., etc. You know all of that.
Riches and pride are twins. And mark it down somewhere that because you have much is not necessarily, as I said earlier, the blessing of God. In Psalm 73 verse 12, I think a very insightful point where the psalmist lays it out as simply as it could be laid out, "Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world, they increase in riches." The Psalm of Asaph says, "Don't look at prosperity as if it's the mark of righteousness." And there are many godly people who have very little.
I get letters from pastors around the world. I get letters almost every week saying, "I'm preaching the Word of God, I don't have enough money to buy books, sometimes I don't have enough money to buy a new Bible, mine is falling apart, could you help me get a Bible?" There is no correlation between righteousness and bank accounts. The idea that you have in your mind some justification, or I have in my mind some justification to think I'm better than somebody else because I happen to be in a situation where God providentially has given me more worldly goods is tragic. Many righteous people suffer and are poor while many wicked people prosper.
But it's very difficult to be wealthy and have a humble spirit. The temptation is when you get enough money you don't do anything for yourself...I mean absolutely nothing. Everybody in your little world is there to do things for you. You know the feeling. You don't clean your house, you don't mow your lawn, you don't wash your car, you don't even clean the windows at home. The more money you have the less you do and you begin to see the whole world as servants. And everybody in the whole world is to serve you and you're on top of the pile and you just dictate what everybody will do and dole out the bucks and buy their time. And if they don't do it the way you want, you talk to them like you were talking to an animal. This is the tendency we wealth. And you get the illusion that you're there because of your man‑made powers and the truth is, that's not the case. You get to the point where you're independent of needing anyone really on a personal level, you just need servants. And so your whole approach to life is to get everybody to do what you want when you want the way you want. And that's why Proverbs 28:11 says, "The rich man is wise in his own conceit." And Proverbs 18:23 says, "He talks roughly...he talks roughly."
Why? Because people aren't people to care about, they're just people to use. And so on the other hand, Philippians 2:3 says that we're to be lowly minded, let each of us look not on our own things but the things of other, be lowly minded, not high minded, Philippians 2:3. By the way, this is real news in the Ephesian culture because, of course, the Greeks looked down on humility, they mocked humility. And they exalted pride, just like our society today. This society today exalts pride, flaunt it, baby, flaunt it. That's the mindset of today and humility is no longer a virtue.
So Paul warns the rich because the inevitability is that when you accumulate wealth, you begin to make distinctions in your mind in the basic intrinsic value difference between rich people and poor people which are artificial differences, cultivated only in your own proud mind. In Ezekiel I was reading this week in chapter 28 of Ezekiel the first five verses and very pertinent to what we're saying, "The Word of the Lord came to me again saying, Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord God because your heart is lifted up and you've said I am a God, I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas, yea thou art a man and not God though thou set thine heart as the heart of God. Behold thou art wiser than Daniel, there is no secret that they can hide from Thee with thy wisdom and with thine understanding. Thou hast gotten thee riches and gotten gold and silver into thy treasuries. By thy great wisdom and by thy merchandise thou hast increased thy riches, thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches." And so forth. This is a soliloquy of a guy who is telling himself how great he is. Of course, that chapter transitions as you know into discussion of Satan, starting in verse 11, who is very much behind the prince of Tyre in that proud egotistical affirmation of who he is. And it was Satan's pride that cast him out of heaven, says Ezekiel there.
But that's typical of a person who is wealthy. He begins to think of himself as the one who gained it because of his great ability and people are only people to be used and abused for his own purposes. The tendency of the rich, to look down on the poor. In the church it's the same thing. James writing in chapter 2 of James says, "How dare you let somebody come into your church with a gold ring, sit him in the front and have a man come in with disheveled clothes and stick him under your feet somewhere. Don't you realize that God is no respecter of persons and you have violated the royal law, the law of love?"
So the first danger to avoid when you have money is the tremendous danger of pride...pride. That haughty indulgent attitude of the rich is a curse. The second danger to be avoided, he mentions in verse 17, is in the words "nor trust in the uncertainty of riches." Actually, the word "trust" could better be translated, it's the Greek verb elpizo, to have hope in, or to fix one's hope on the uncertainty of riches.
In other words, the constant temptation for the rich is not only to have a wrong attitude toward people, but a wrong attitude toward money or possessions and to put their hope in them. Proverbs 11:28, "He that trusts in his riches shall surely fall." And you remember the rich man, the rich fool as he is called in Luke 12? He was making it. Boy, he was making it and it was rolling in, money was rolling in. He had so much crop that he never had to work another day in his life, so he tore down all his barns, built bigger barns and bigger barns, just storing it and storing it and said that's it, no more work, from now on till I die eat drink and...what?...and be merry. I'm set...I'm set for life. And the Word of the Lord comes to him, You fool, tonight your soul will be required of you and then whose will all this stuff be? So are those who rich in this age and not rich toward God, is the commentary.
So the tendency is when you have a lot, you trust in a lot. When you have a little, you trust in God. I mean, one of the benefits of just having enough to live on is that you're totally dependent on God to make a provision, and when He provides it you rejoice in thankfulness. I think the reason so many Christians in America and so many Christians even in this church among us are so smug and so apathetic and so cold about their Christianity is simply because they really don't need God that much. I mean, God has been replaced by their estate planner, by their retirement plan. We've got it wired.
Now I'm not saying that we should deny all of those things and be unwise with what we do, but what I'm saying is we want to be sure that we do not shut off the voice of the Spirit of God in regard to the stewardship of our money in order to build our confidence in that treasure which we're amassing. Frankly it's hard for me to imagine that anybody would trust more in a bank than they would in the eternal God. Earthly riches quickly disappear. Proverbs 23:5 says they fly away.
So, Paul says, "Look, you better put your hope in God," that's the implication here. They trust in the uncertainty of riches, you want to trust in God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Don't ever get to the point in your life where you have totally eliminated the need for God, you've got it all covered. Now that's a balance that you have to work on on a daily basis. I'm sure there are times when you sense in your heart, "You know I ought to give some money to this family, they have some need....I ought to give to the Lord's work over here, buy, boy, I don't want to take anything out of there, that will cut my interest down and that will mess up my plan," and so what you're basically saying is that when the Spirit of God prompts your heart you're not interested in listening because your confidence is not in the fact that God's going to care for you, but in the fact that you're going to care for you and you don't want God invading your program and messing it up. So you hope in the uncertainty of riches. And, of course, in the ancient times it was so uncertain because war was happening all the time and people would be conquered and all the money situations would change when those kind of things happened. And how in the world can it ever be sane to say you trust more in the riches that God provides so generously than in the God Himself who is the provider. Foolish. James 1:17, He's the father of lights from whom every good and perfect gift comes down.
So Paul says, "Look, stop the sin of pride and stop the sin of confidence in money and put your confidence in God," or literally "but on God." The word "living" isn't in the original manuscripts. "On the God who possesses all things, who owns the cattle on the hills," and so forth as it says in Psalm 50 verses 10 to 12. And it is God, not just God but God who gives us plousios bountifully all things...get this, to what?...to enjoy, for enjoyment. God gives us all things for enjoyment. God is so good. He's so gracious. And everything He gave you and everything He gave me was for the purpose of enjoyment, pleasure. That's the same word translated in Hebrews 11:25 pleasure in the phrase "the pleasures of sin." It has to do with real pleasure, not a sensual ungodly pleasure in this context, but a real pleasure, a true joy, a true satisfaction.
In Ecclesiastes, for example, 5:18, "Behold that which I have seen,