First of all, it is salvation. It is that reverence for God and obedience towards God which occurs at salvation. When by the power of God the heart is moved and we desire forgiveness of sin and we desire to come to Christ and to know the Lord and to walk in obedience and in reverence before him, it is because godliness is been put within us. Godliness is first of all having your sins washed away, the great debt of sin, the burden of sin, washed and freely forgiven by the Lord. Godliness is being reconciled with God by the new birth, by conversion, coming to love him and know him and walk with him. Godliness is the end of the rebellious life, the old life in which we walked in the opposite direction and we pleased ourselves. The old life was all out for self. It was the old, unconverted life, that just wanted fame and fortune, riches and comfort. It was completely indifferent to God. But now, having been reconciled to God through the new birth, there is an end of rebellion. The new life no longer puts ‘me’ first, and my health, and my prosperity. It puts the Lord first and his will and what he wants, as we reflect on him and learn of him and rejoice in him. It's a new life, and God is at the centre of it. It is a walk with the Lord seeking to please him, a walk of Bible study and learning of him. We seek his guidance through the word of God and prayer in all things. We do nothing just to suit ourselves. We don't flit from one thing to another: organise our career, where we are going to live, which church we are going to attend, just entirely on our whim or fancy. We are now in his hands. The great thing in life for the person who is godly, is conversion, reconciliation with God and hope of heaven. So godliness shifts the whole focus away from the present life and present enjoyments and focuses upon the Lord.
Godliness looks at God and it goes on looking to God. It looks to God, and it looks for God. Godliness looks at God, not at me, not at my home, not at my car, not at my future, not at my welfare, all material earthly temporal things. Godliness looks at the Lord. It worships him. It says, I am his servant, I am his child, whatever he wills for me, that is perfect. Godliness also looks to God instead of getting preoccupied and overwrought by the hard things that happen in this life, and feeling envious of those who are better placed, better off, more advantaged. Instead of indulging in envy and struggling and striving for self-improvement over much, godliness looks to God to bless, prays to God for help, and prays to God for sanctifying grace. It isn't distracted and distressed by earthly circumstances, unduly weak as we are. Of course, that does happen to us. But then if we're godly in the New Testament sense of the term, we'll look to God and we'll pray to him and he will bless us. Godliness of course looks forward to the coming of Christ, to the end of all things, or if we shall die beforehand, that amazing experience of being transported from time into eternity, into the presence of our dear Saviour in the paradise of Christ which is far better.
Godliness with contentment.’ The Greek term translated here ‘contentment’ can be translated ‘self-sufficiency’, which is not a good word for a believer, but this is what it means. The idea is godliness with self-sufficient in the sense of being independent and not needing the help and support of wealth, riches, and the comforts of this world. That is to say, godliness which is not accompanied by an aching longing to have this and that and the other; godliness which makes a person independent from this world's material blessings; godliness which so appreciates the Lord and his goodness and his power and his blessings, that nothing else is wanted besides. Of course material blessings are comfortable and may be enjoyed in a measure. But still, I am self-sufficient because they do not run my life. They do not determine whether I am happy or sad. I can do without them. If I desperately need material things, if I desperately need worldly help and worldly pleasure and worldly riches to make me happy and fulfilled, it is telling me something about my spiritual shortcomings. It is telling me what small faith I have, what little prayer I have. I cannot possibly be praying much, experiencing the blessing and help of the Lord much, if I am so dependent upon earthly and passing things. It tells me how little evidence I am seeing of the Lord's hand in my life. If I yearn for worldly help and benefits, then my tastes are very unspiritual.
Contentment is produced by two kinds of activity: active gratitude to God, and active expulsion of the love of worldly things. If you are not very active as a believer in your gratitude to God, then you will not be satisfied with spiritual things. If you are not spending time each day reflecting on the greatness and the power of God, his majesty, his glorious ways, his truth, his plans, things you have been privileged to understand; if you are not active in your praise, in your worship, in your thanksgiving for all your personal spiritual blessings, then you will lose contentment and you will be at the mercy of the need of worldly satisfaction. Then too you need to be active in putting aside all worldly dreams and allurements. You cannot wander about daydreaming of things that you would like to have, things that you would like to happen to you at an entirely material, physical, earthly level. They may be innocent desires, but these daydreams will increase your desire for worldly satisfaction and diminish your spiritual appreciation. You have got to actively put these things out of your mind. They are from the enemy. Don't waste time daydreaming on those things. When temptations come into your heart to have too much, to desire too much, to spend too much, thrust those temptations out. It is godliness with contentment and appreciation which brings the consciousness of gain, the great gain.
There is a sense, however in which we should be very discontented as Christian people. We must never be content with ourselves, with our character, with our level of obedience, with our level of service for the Lord. We must never rest content with those things. The apostle is not talking about indifference to the standard attained. When it comes to my performance for the Lord, then the language of Scripture is very different; it tells me to press toward the mark. It tells me to strive. That is a restless, discontented term.
‘Great gain.’ Godliness with contentment is not just gain, but great gain. There is a contrast here. What has gone before is about people who are after material things. All right, says the apostle, I will own that there is a measure of gain in that. People who acquire wealth and homes and status have gained something. But here we are talking about great gain, vastly superior gain, something which is not only greater in value, but something which is vastly longer lasting. The difference is so great, they cannot really be compared. Godliness with contentment is great gain. What do we acquire as believers? We acquire the forgiveness of sins. What greater gain could there be than the forgiveness of sins? Every sin that we have ever committed, all the wrong we have done.