Enjoy the Gift, Loosen Your Grip

A cupboard can hold more than food. It can hold relief. There is something good about opening a door and seeing enough for tonight, something to offer a guest, perhaps something saved for next week. The ability to enjoy a meal without wondering how to pay for it is a gift. It deserves thanksgiving. But possessions can acquire another job. We begin asking them to tell us that we matter more than other people, that nothing can reach us, that our future is finally under control.

Paul speaks directly to believers who have wealth. Some churches flatter such people because they can fund a project. Others speak as though enjoying anything good must be evidence of spiritual failure. This passage permits neither response. It addresses affluent people as disciples who need instruction, who may receive God's gifts with pleasure, and who must become ready to share. The same sentence that names enjoyment also exposes the uncertainty of riches.

We will hear three movements: receive without superiority, hope beyond uncertain wealth, and share as people learning to take hold of life. The question is not whether we can call our lifestyle better than somebody else's. The question is whether the living God can direct what we already have. Listen for both the kindness of the giver and the seriousness of the charge.

Primary passage

1 Timothy 6:17-19, World English Bible. The following is the complete primary passage. 17 Charge those who are rich in this present age that they not be arrogant, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy; 18 that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to share; 19 laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life.