“Spiritual Growth, Part 3” by Romans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy21vd6jSps
This is the third installment of our Series on Spiritual Growth. As with the previous two installments of this series, I will be basing tonight's Discussion on the Notes found in the back of Max Lucado's Devotional Bible. Far from taking undeserved credit for their work, I give full credit to that publication for the main trunk of thought that went into what we will cover tonight. However, I will also be adding some Spiritual branches and leaves of my own to what they have provided in their Notes. Having said all of that... let's begin.
Our first area of Spiritual Growth is our Daily Walk:
As we open, we will see that Paul's thought continues from last week's admonition to choose contentment, and avoid the snare of riches. He wrote in 1 Timothy 6:8-9, “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.”
Using that as our springboard, let's read and examine our first Scripture tonight: We read in 1 Timothy 6:10: “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
We are all, I believe, familiar with the popular misquotation of the above verse, where it omits the three first essential words, and gives us the incomplete and inaccurate slogan, “Money is the root of all evil.” If that were true, then it occurs to me that money used for any purposes has its foundation in lawlessness.
In addition, the mere possession of any amount of money, used for any purpose would constitute sin, would be an affront to God, and a rejection of goodness. Money is not the root of all evil, and that is NOT what Paul wrote. It is the LOVE OF money that is the root of all evil, and which caused people to err, and to be pierced through with many sorrows.
Of this John Gill writes, “Of all the evils before mentioned, and of others; not money itself, as silver and gold, which are God's creatures, and his gifts, and may be used to, and answer many good purposes; but the love of it, and not any love of it; for there may be a lawful love of it, and desire after it, so far as it is requisite to the necessaries of life, to answer the calls of Providence, the duties we owe to God and men, to serve the interest of Christ, and do good to fellow creatures and fellow Christians:
but it is an immoderate insatiable desire after it, and an inordinate love of it, which is here meant, such as is properly idolatry: as when a man loves it, not only besides, but above God; serves it as if it was God, and places his trust and confidence in it, independent of God, and his providence; such love of it is the source and spring of all iniquity, as above; it was the sin of Judas, and the root of all his iniquity. The phrase is Jewish. So idolatry is said to be "the root of all iniquities."
they have erred from the faith; the doctrine of faith. Observing that the professors of it are generally poor, they have declined that path, and have not so much as heard the word; and if they have heard and embraced it, yet when persecution arises because of it, they drop their profession of it;
or else their minds are so filled with worldly cares, and deceitful riches, that the word is choked, and becomes unprofitable, and by and by, Demas like, they forsake it, having loved this present world.
And pierced themselves through with many sorrows; riches are therefore fitly compared to thorns, which give great trouble and uneasiness, both in getting and keeping them; and oftentimes the reflection upon the unlawful ways and means made use of to obtain them, gives very pungent pain and distress.
The apostle seem to allude to the Hebrew word בצע, used for a covetous man, which signifies one that pierces, cuts, and wounds, as such an one does both himself and others. (q) R. David Kimchi in Isa. Xxvii. 9.”
Let's continue in this thought into the next two verses: "But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses" (1 Timothy 6:11-12)
That is a mouthful. There is so much there to consider. As I begin writing these notes, I have to wonder how much space and time will be left, tonight, for any other verses, but we'll see. Let's begin our examination of these verses with The Preacher's Homiletical's comments on them:
I. Pursuit of the true riches is alone worthy of the man of God.—“But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after God,” and not worldly riches, is the sole object of the good man’s desires. He has got a glimpse of the other side of earthly things. He sees their fleeting and evanescent character, and their incapacity to satisfy the soul.
He soars after higher and Diviner things. He cannot rest in the material, but finds his pleasure in seeking those things that are above. His conception of God lifts him above everything that has limits. He sees another world shining with the lustre of unfading riches.
II. The true riches are spiritual.—“Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” No longer a man of the world, the good man finds his enjoyment and wealth in spiritual realities. He covets the grace which enables him to act righteously towards God and man, to possess the faith that brings the distant near and makes the unseen visible...
{It is} a love that works in him a sublime patience in the midst of the greatest trials, and a courageous meekness that is the marvel and despair of his bitterest opponents. The true riches of a man are within him.
III. Pursuit of the true riches involves an earnest conflict for the truth.—1. Conflict for the truth is demanded by the profession of it already made. “And hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” Having entered into the conflict, the Christian soldier must comport himself with resolute courage. Having won so many victories already, he is urged on to fresh conquests.
The consciousness that he is engaged in a good fight nerves him with strength and determination. The least relapse into unwatchfulness and ease will be fatal to final victory. The highest prizes of the Christian life are not gained without strenuous and persevering effort.
2. The final reward of the conflict is in the future. “Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called.” The Christian soldier is battling not only for time, but eternity—not only for the present life, but for life eternal. The prize, though in the future, is not uncertain;
it is not a phantom hanging in the air, but a substantial reality to be laid hold on and firmly grasped. Even now by faith he has the substance of the thing hoped for, and after which he strives with increasing earnestness. By-and-by he will wear the victor’s crown.
1 Timothy 6:12. The Good Fight of Faith. I. In what does the fight of faith consist?—1. Faith conflicts with the misgivings arising from the accusations of an enlightened conscience. 2. Has to contend against the depravity of our nature. 3. Has to contend with the world. 4. Has to combat with spiritual wickedness.
II. How is the faith of the Christian to be strengthened for this fight?—1. By entertaining worthy conceptions of God, on whose testimony it rests. 2. By cultivating an acquaintance with the truths it embraces. 3. By a consideration of the instances in which it has not been disappointed. 4. Seek an increase of faith by prayer.
III. What inducement have we to fight?—1. The command of God. 2. The weapons of the fight. 3. The enemies encountered in the fight. 4. The certainty of success in the fight.—Stewart.
The Expositor's Bible adds, “It has already been shown that "godliness is profitable for all things." It makes a man a better master, a better servant, a better citizen, and both in mind and body a healthier and therefore a stronger man. Above all it makes him a happier man;
for it gives him that which is the foundation of all happiness in this life, and the foretaste of happiness in the world to come, - a good conscience. A possession of such value as this cannot be otherwise than great gain: especially if it be united, as it probably will be united, with contentment. The Apostle goes on to enforce the truth of the statement that even in this world godliness with contentment is a most valuable possession, far superior to a large income:
and to urge that, even from the point of view of earthly prosperity and happiness, those people make a fatal mistake who devote themselves to the accumulation of wealth, without placing any check upon their growing and tormenting desires, and without knowing how to make a good use of the wealth which they are accumulating. With a view to enforce all this he repeats two well-known and indisputable propositions: "We brought nothing into the world" and "We can carry nothing out."
There is perhaps no more striking example of the incorrigible perversity of human nature than the fact that, in spite of all experience to the contrary, generation after generation continues to look upon mere wealth as the thing best worth striving after.
Century after century we find men telling us, often with much emphasis and bitterness, that great possessions are an imposture, that they promise happiness and never give it. And yet those very men continue to devote their whole energies to the retention and increase of their possessions: or, if they do not, they hardly ever succeed in convincing others that happiness is not to be found in such things.
If they could succeed, there would be far more contented, and therefore far more happy people in the world than can be found at present. It is chiefly the desire for greater temporal advantages than we have at present that makes us discontented.
We should be a long way on the road to contentment, if we could thoroughly convince ourselves that what are commonly called temporal advantages such as large possessions, rank, power, honors, and the like-are on the whole not advantages; that they more often detract from this world’s joys than augment them, while they are always a serious danger, and sometimes a grievous impediment, in reference to the joys of the world to come.
What man of wealth and position does not feel day by day the worries and anxieties and obligations which his riches and rank impose upon him? Does he not often wish that he could retire to some cottage and there live quietly on a few hundreds a year, and sometimes even seriously think of doing it.
But at other times he fancies that his unrest and disquiet are owing to his not having enough. If he could only have some thousands a year added to his present income, then he would cease to be anxious about the future; he could afford to lose some and still have sufficient.
If he could only attain to a higher position in society, then he would feel secure from detraction or serious downfall; he would be able to treat with unconcerned neglect the criticisms which are now such a source of annoyance to him. And in most cases this latter view prevails.
What determines his conduct is not the well-grounded suspicion that he already has more than is good for him; that it is his abundance which is destroying his peace of mind; but a baseless conviction that an increase of the gifts of this world will win for him the happiness that he has failed to secure.
The experience of the past rarely destroys this fallacy. He knows that his enjoyment of life has not increased with his fortune. Perhaps he can see clearly that he was a happier man when he possessed much less. But, nevertheless, he still cherishes the belief that with a few things more he would be contented, and for those few things more he continues to slave.
There is no man in this world that has not found out over and over again that success, even the most complete success, in the attainment of any worldly desire, however innocent or laudable, does not bring the permanent satisfaction which was anticipated. Sooner or later the feeling of fullness, and therefore of disappointment, must set in. And of all the countless thousands who have had this experience, how few there are who have been able to draw the right conclusion, and to act upon it!
And when we take into account the difficulties and dangers which a large increase in the things of this world places in the way of our advance towards moral and spiritual perfection, we have a still stronger case against the fallacy that increase of wealth brings an increase in well-being. The care of the things which we possess takes up thought and time, which could be far more happily employed on nobler objects...
It is impossible to go on ignoring the claims which intellectual and spiritual exercises have upon our attention without becoming less alive to those claims. We become, not contented, but self-sufficient in the worst sense. We acquiesce in the low and narrow aims which a devotion to worldly advancement has imposed upon us.
We habitually act as if there were no other life but this one; and consequently we cease to take much interest in the other life beyond the grave; while even as regards the things of this world our interests become confined to those objects which can gratify our absorbing desire for financial prosperity.
The man who steadily devotes himself to the advancement of his worldly position, and who succeeds in a very marked way in raising himself, is likely to acquire in the process a kind of brutal self-confidence, very detrimental to his character. He started with nothing, and he now has a fortune. He was once a shop-boy, and he is now a country gentleman. And he has done it all by his own shrewdness, energy, and perseverance.
The result is that he makes no account of Providence, and very little of the far greater merits of less conspicuously successful men. A contempt for men and things that would have given him a higher view of this life, and some idea of a better life, is the penalty which he pays for his disastrous prosperity.
But his case is one of the most hopeless, whose desire for worldly advantages has settled down into a mere love of money. The worldly man, whose leading ambition is to rise to a more prominent place in society, to outshine his neighbors in the appointments of his house and in the splendor of his entertainments, to be of importance on all public occasions, and the like, is morally in a far less desperate condition than the miser.
There is no vice more deadening to every noble and tender feeling than avarice. It is capable of extinguishing all mercy, all pity, all natural affection. It can make the claims of the suffering and sorrowful, even when they are combined with those of an old friend, or a wife, or a child, fall on deaf ears.
It can banish from the heart not only all love, but all shame and self-respect. What does the miser care for the execrations (or, curses) of outraged society, so long as he can keep his gold? There is no heartless or mean act, and very often no deed of fraud or violence, from which he will shrink in order to augment or preserve his hoards.
Assuredly the Apostle is right when he calls the love of money a "root of all kinds of evil." There is no iniquity to which it does not form one of the nearest roads. Every criminal who wants an accomplice can have the avaricious man as his helper, if he only bids high enough.
And note that, unlike almost every other vice, it never loses its hold: its deadly grip is never for an instant relaxed. The selfish man can at a crisis become self-sacrificing, at any rate for a time. The sensualist has his moments when his nobler nature gets the better of his passions, and he spares those whom he thought to make his victims.
The drunkard can sometimes be lured by affection or innocent enjoyments to forego the gratification of his craving. And there are times when even pride, that watchful and subtle foe, sleeps at its post and suffers humble thoughts to enter.
But the demon avarice never slumbers, and is never off its guard. When it has once taken full possession of a man’s heart, neither love, nor pity, nor shame, can ever surprise it into an act of generosity. We all of us have our impulses; and however little we may act upon them, we are conscious that some of our impulses are generous.
Some of the worst of us could lay claim to as much as that. But the miser’s nature is poisoned at its very source. Even his impulses are tainted. Sights and sounds which make other hardened sinners at least wish to help, if only to relieve their own distress at such pitiful things, make him instinctively tighten his purse-strings. Gold is his god; and there is no god who exacts from his worshippers such undivided and unceasing devotion.
Family, friends, country, comfort, health, and honor must all be sacrificed at its shrine. Certainly the lust for gold is one of those "foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition." In wealthy Ephesus, with its abundant commerce, the desire to be rich was a common passion;
and St. Paul feared- perhaps he knew- that in the Church in Ephesus the mischief was present and increasing. Hence this earnest reiteration of strong warnings against it. Hence the reopening of the letter in order to tell Timothy to charge the rich not to be self-confident and arrogant, not to trust in the wealth which may fail them, but in the God Who cannot do so;
and to remind them that the only way to make riches secure is to give them to God and to His work.
The wealthy heathen in Ephesus were accustomed to deposit their treasures with "the great goddess Diana," whose temple was both a sanctuary and a bank. Let Christian merchants deposit theirs with God by being "rich in good works"; so that when He called them to Himself, they might receive their own with usury, and "lay hold on the life which is life indeed."
As we continue, we come to our next point: Spiritual Growth involves forward motion in our walk with God, and gaining both ground and momentum: Deuteronomy 5:33: "Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess."
Of this, Adam Clarke writes, “Ye shall walk in all the ways, etc. - God never gave a commandment to man which he did not design that he should obey. He who selects from the Divine testimonies such precepts as he feels but little inclination to transgress, and lives in the breach of others, sins against the grand legislative authority of God, and shall be treated as a rebel.
That ye may live - that ye may enjoy life, that it may be well with you, and good shall be to you - God will prosper you in all things essential to the welfare of your bodies, and the salvation of your souls. That ye may prolong your days in the land - That ye may arrive at a good old age, and grow more and more meet for the inheritance among the saints in light.
On this very important verse we may remark, a long life is a great blessing, if a man live to God, because it is in life, and in life alone, that a preparation for eternal glory may be acquired. Those who wish to die soon, have never yet learned to live, and know not the value of life or time.
Many have a vain hope that they shall get either in death, or in the other world, a preparation for glory. This is a fatal error. Here, alone, we may acquaint ourselves with God, and receive that holiness without which none can see him. Reader, be thankful to him that thou art still in a state of probation; and pray that thou mayest live for eternity.”
Still speaking about our walk, notice in the very first verse of the very first Psalm: "Psalms 1:1: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."
We can read this verse, and risk reading over this verse if we are not careful: Consider the flow of events as we read this again: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly..." That man is walking but NOT in the counsel of the ungodly. Jesus said in Matthew 7:13: "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:"
There is a way or path that leads to destruction. Following the counsel of the ungodly will put a person on that path. But notice what happens when one takes that path: Their progress and pace is slowed until finally him doing what the blessed man will not do: "standeth in the way of sinners," He is no longer walking.
Now he is standing in the way of sinners. He is no longer making any progress in a righteous direction. He has stopped completely. And he is just standing there "in the way (or road) of sinners," But it doesn't stop there: A kind of spiritual stagnation sets in.
The man who was walking in the counsel of the ungodly, and then standing in the way of sinners we next see him doing what the blessed man would not do: "... nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." The sinner is not even standing there. He has taken a seat, and has gotten very comfortable sitting in what amounts to a seat of judgment. Why do I call it a seat of judgment? It is the seat of the scornful.
To this Matthew Henry adds, “The psalmist begins with the character and condition of a godly man, that those may first take the comfort of that to whom it belongs. Here is, I. A description of the godly man's spirit and way, by which we are to try ourselves.
The Lord knows those that are his by name, but we must know them by their character; for that is agreeable to a state of probation, that we may study to answer to the character, which is indeed both the command of the law which we are bound in duty to obey and the condition of the promise which we are bound in interest to fulfil.
The character of a good man is here given by the rules he chooses to walk by and to take his measures from. What we take at our setting out, and at every turn, for the guide of our conversation, whether the course of this world or the word of God, is of material consequence. An error in the choice of our standard and leader is original and fatal; but, if we be right here, we are in a fair way to do well.
1. A godly man, that he may avoid the evil, utterly renounces the companionship of evil-doers, and will not be led by them: He walks not in the council of the ungodly, etc. This part of his character is put first, because those that will keep the commandments of their God must say to evil-doers, Depart from us (Psalm 119:115), and departing from evil is that in which wisdom begins.
(1.) He sees evil-doers round about him; the world is full of them; they walk on every side. They are here described by three characters, ungodly, sinners, and scornful. See by what steps men arrive at the height of impiety. None reach the height of vice at once. They are ungodly first, casting off the fear of God and living in the neglect of their duty to him: but they rest not there.
When the services of religion are laid aside, they come to be sinners, that is, they break out into open rebellion against God and engage in the service of sin and Satan. Omissions make way for commissions, and by these the heart is so hardened that at length they come to be scorners, that is, they openly defy all that is sacred, scoff at religion, and make a jest of sin. Thus is the way of iniquity down-hill; the bad grow worse, sinners themselves become tempters to others and advocates for Baal.
The word which we translate ungodly signifies such as are unsettled, aim at no certain end and walk by no certain rule, but are at the command of every lust and at the beck of every temptation. The word for sinners signifies such as are determined for the practice of sin and set it up as their trade. The scornful are those that set their mouths against the heavens. These the good man sees with a sad heart; they are a constant vexation to his righteous soul. But,
(2.) He shuns them wherever he sees them. He does not do as they do; and, that he may not, he does not converse familiarly with them. [1.] He does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. He is not present at their councils, nor does he advise with them; though they are ever so witty, and subtle, and learned, if they are ungodly, they shall not be the men of his counsel.
He does not consent to them, nor say as they say, Luke 23:51. He does not take his measures from their principles, nor act according to the advice which they give and take. The ungodly are forward to give their advice against religion, and it is managed so artfully that we have reason to think ourselves happy if we escape being tainted and ensnared by it.
2.] He stands not in the way of sinners; he avoids doing as they do; their way shall not be his way; he will not come into it, much less will he continue in it, as the sinner does, who sets himself in a way that is not good, Psalms 36:4. He avoids (as much as may be) being where they are. That he may not imitate them, he will not associate with them, nor choose them for his companions.
He does not stand in their way, to be picked up by them (Proverbs 7:8), but keeps as far from them as from a place or person infected with the plague, for fear of the contagion, Proverbs 4:14-15. He that would be kept from harm must keep out of harm's way.
[3.] He sits not in the seat of the scornful; he does not repose himself with those that sit down secure in their wickedness and please themselves with the searedness of their own consciences. He does not associate with those that sit in close cabal to find out ways and means for the support and advancement of the devil's kingdom, or that sit in open judgment, magisterially to condemn the generation of the righteous. The seat of the drunkards is the seat of the scornful, Psalms 69:12. Happy is the man that never sits in it.”
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Spiritual Growth, Part 3”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on February 1st, 2023
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