Take your Bibles with me one more time and go to the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 6. We're going to close out, Lord willing, this book tonight. And it closes on a very practical note. It closes with some specific words to rich Christians.
Now, you might be thinking right now, "Rich Christians — I don't need to listen because that's not me." But I think historically speaking and globally speaking, just about everybody in our church qualifies as a rich Christian.
I'll never forget about 18 years ago. I was in Mexico, working in a church there on a mission trip. And when I say working, we were working. We were digging a foundation by hand, mixing concrete by hand in the hot Mexico sun.
But there was this one family that was involved in this church that was just precious — a father, mother, two teenage children. They had the Spirit of the Lord on them. They walked around with a cheap digital camera and took pictures of everything. They were just enjoying what they were doing.
One night we went to Burger King — not the good Burger King in Mattoon, the chain. They had one in the city in Mexico we were in. We brought this family with us and the kids were just beaming. And at the end of the meal, one of the kids told us it was the first time in their life they had ever eaten in a restaurant.
I don't think you realize how well we have it compared to most of the world. I don't think you can fathom what it's like to grow up in a favela in Brazil or a township in South Africa or a slum in Mumbai. You might complain about your job, but your job is easy compared to the millions of people that work mindless factory jobs for crazy hours across China, Cambodia, and Laos.
If you have more than the basics needed to survive, if you have enough money to choose what you're going to eat, to have preferences about what you're going to wear, to have multiple pairs of clothes and for them to be clean, to not worry about not being able to get medical care and dying because you can't get an antibiotic, then you're rich.
And so this instruction is for me and this instruction is for me. Let's read the text.
[17] Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;
[18] That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;
[19] Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
[20] O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
[21] Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.
1 Timothy 6:17-21 (KJV)
So there are two things that are happening in these verses. The first is a warning to the rich, and the second is a final command for Timothy. We're going to spend most of our time tonight looking at the first part, the warning to the rich, but I am going to talk about this final command to Timothy at the end.
In verses 17 to 19, Paul warns rich Christians that there are things they need to avoid, things they need to do, and an investment that they need to make. So that'll be our outline tonight.
Let's start with...
1. Things to avoid
Verse 17 says:
[17] Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;
One of the problems that Christianity has always faced is that Christianity, by changing your morals, by affecting your habits, by giving you wisdom, tends to make people wealthier. Christianity tends to make you rich. But being rich tends to make you a poor Christian.
The old Puritan, Cotton Mather, wrote about this and said:
Religion begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother.
This has always been true. This was true in Bible times, and it's true in the 2020s. It was true in Africa, the Philippines, Mexico, and the United States. If you are a faithful believer, it is going to change the way you think and the way that you work. And those changes often lead to prosperity. But prosperity often leads to losing your faith. So it's very important as Christians that we avoid some things.
There are two specific dangers here that rich people have to be aware of. These are two traps that rich Christians tend to fall into.
The first trap Paul tells us to avoid is...
A. Avoid the trap of pride
That's what "highminded" means. It means to think highly of yourself, to be haughty. There is a temptation for all people who have money to think that their money makes them better than people that don't have money. That's what Paul's talking about here.
We don't live in a world where we have status that's determined by title or caste. Our status is usually shown by the clothes that we wear and the education that we have and the cars that we drive and the houses that we live in. Those are blessings that come from God. They are not something that makes us better than those that don't have them.
We can start to think, even if we never say it, that we're better than other people. We can start to think we have nothing in common with these poor people that we're superior. This is high-mindedness. This is haughtiness. And it is the biggest trap of being rich.
We are commanded to avoid this. A second thing that we're commanded to avoid is...
B. Avoid the trap of trusting in money.
The verse says:
nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;
When you have a lot of stuff, when you have money in the bank and a nice car in the driveway, and you live in a nice house, the temptation is to trust in those things and not to trust in God.
Now, there's nothing wrong with having nice things. And there's nothing wrong with enjoying nice things. The verse says, God gives us richly, all things to enjoy. If God has blessed you with a nice house or a nice car or nice clothes or whatever, God has given you those things to enjoy. You don't have to divest yourself of those things to be a good Christian. But you can't trust in those things. You have to understand that those things can disappear in a moment. And you can't hold on tightly to those things as your security. Your security has to be in Christ.
In the late 1800s, there was this guy that came to Christ in England named C.T. Studd. C.T. Studd was probably one of the greatest cricket players in the world. He was famous as an athlete. You could think of him like a professional athlete like Derek Jeter or Tom Brady. But he was more than just famous as an athlete, he was born into a massive fortune. And in his early 20s, he heard the preaching of the gospel, and God got a hold of his heart, and he got saved.
Now C.T. Studd did something that he didn't have to do. He sold everything. He divested himself completely of his riches, and he went and lived his life as a missionary first in China and then in Africa.
It is an okay thing to have riches. Solomon had riches, Job had riches. In the New Testament, Philemon and Lydia had riches. It's all the beight rich. But it's not alright for riches to have you. And it's not all right for riches to become the thing that you trust in. If you think to yourself, I'm going to be okay because I've got a hundred thousand dollars in the bank, then you are not thinking like a Christian.
As Proverbs says, riches can be grow wings and it can fly away.
When I was a teenager, my favorite basketball player was a guy that used to be the star guard on the Celtics. His name is Antoine Walker. And Antoine Walker made something like $1,000,000 in his basketball career. Then he lost all of it. Every penny. And today he works at a bank in Chicago. He's got a regular job, and he's become a Christian.
Don't think that just because you have money, you'll always have money. That's not the way it works. Trust in God, not in the riches or blessings that God gives.
So, those are two things to avoid: avoid the pride that comes with money, and avoid trusting in money. The second thing that Paul tells rich people is that there are...
2. Things to do
In verse 18, Paul gives us three things to do. Let's look at that verse again.
[18] That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;
1 Timothy 6:18 (KJV)
The first thing Paul wants rich people to do is to...
A. Do good
If God has blessed you with material blessings, don't just consume them. Use them to be a force for good. Use them to help others.
You can be rich and not rich in good works. It's a much better thing to be rich in good works than to be rich in your bank account balance.
Really, this command, this verse, is three versions of the same command. Do good, be ready to distribute and willing to communicate are three ways of saying the same thing. They all have a slightly different meaning, but essentially they all mean that you should focus on helping others.
So do good. The second thing we're to do is...
B. Do be generous
As the King James puts it, be ready to distribute. Be ready to be generous with the things that God has given you. Don't treat the things that God has given you as your special thing to be protected at all costs. But treat it as a blessing God has given you, so you can be a blessing to others.
There have been several times in my life where God has used a wealthier Christian to be a huge blessing to me. I remember when we were in Tennessee and we were having a tough time financially that I got a card from a wealthy man in our church that told me to go to the men's store in town, their version of Jack and Bill's, and pick out a suit. That was something I would never have been able to afford at that point in my life. Probably still can't. And it was a huge blessing and encourage to me, as a Christian and as a preacher.
I can remember another time where I was having a hard time financially, and I heard a knock on my door, and a believer just handed me an envelope with a couple hundred dollars in it and said, "The Lord told me to give this to you." Turned around and walked away. Never said another word about it. Man, that was an encouragement to me. It let me know that God was looking out for me.
If you have the means to give, then give. If God has blessed you, then be a blessing. If you know someone's struggling, then help them. Listen, don't tell the world about it. It's not for you to get glory, just do it for the Lord, be ready to distribute.
I want you to notice what this passage doesn't say to rich people. Paul's not saying that the government should come in and take all their money and give it to other people. God's not saying that they have to give to everybody that asks, but it is saying that in general they should be generous.
So, do good and do be generous. There's one more thing I think we can take from these verses, and that is.
C. Do be present
The last phrase, willing to communicate, also carries the idea of being generous. That's the main idea. But the word that it uses is a word that comes from the same word as fellowship. And I think that part of that is another word of advice to the rich.
Don't allow your riches and your blessings to make you an island and cut you off from people. Don't think that the only good that you give to the church is writing checks.
Fellowship with others. Be their brother. Be their sister in the Lord.
There's something special about the church that it's a place where people who are well off and people who are not are on equal ground. All the ground is equal at the foot of the cross. Philemons and Onesimuses can be brothers in Christ.
So, we've talked about things to avoid as rich people, and we've talked about things to do as rich people. There's one more piece of advice that Paul gives to rich people here, and that is that there is...
3. An investment to make
Verse 19 says this.
[19] Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
1 Timothy 6:19 (KJV)
That phrase "laying up for themselves in store", that is investing language. That is the language of bank accounts and 401ks.
Christians have an investment to make, and there are two parts of it. The first part is...
A. Invest in the future life
That's what "laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come" means. They are to invest in heaven. When you do the things we've been talking about, when you do good. And communicate and be generous with others. You are making an investment in heaven.
Remember what Jesus said?
[19] Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
[20] But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Matthew 6:19-20 (KJV)
That's what Paul's talking about here. Build an eternal 401k. That is the ultimate retirement plan. A lot of people will spend a lot of time on the stock market and in their 401k, making sure that they have enough money to live comfortably for the last few decades of their life. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but you know what lasts a lot longer than the last couple decades of your life? Eternity. What are you investing in eternity?
When you are silently generous, you're investing in eternity. When you are giving to missions and the Lord's work, you are investing in eternity. When you are coming behind people and investing in them, you're investing in eternity.
You all know the story of my father-in-law becoming a Christian in jail. I've told you this many times. What I don't think I've told you is the man that witnessed to him in jail and discipled him in jail was a man by the name of Mr. McCarty. Mr. McCarty was a wealthy man. He owned a carpet mill in Dalton, Georgia. And he was somebody who believed in investing in a future life and being generous with the blessings that God had given him. Became a great friend to my wife's family and helped them in many ways get on their feet. God has blessed the church with lots of Mr. McCarty's that are rich, not just in this world, but have a giant heavenly bank account.
There's a second part of this investment that we see again in verse 19. It says:
that they may lay hold on eternal life.
Now, at first glance, this might mean that for somebody to be saved they have to give away their money and be generous. But that's not what this verse is saying at all. We know that that would contradict with most of the Bible. We are saved by grace through faith, not of works, and salvation by giving your money away would be salvation by works. So, what does it mean to lay hold on eternal life? I think it's the second part of this investment thing, and I think it means...
B. Take hold of the right thing
You can only hold so much. I don't know if you've ever tried to reach down into a glass jar before and get candy out. Glass jar with a narrow neck. You can do it, but if you try to grab too much, you can't get out anything.
And one of the temptations of wealthy Christians is to hold so much and so tightly to the things of this world that they have no room left to hold on to the things that matter. And I think what Paul is saying here is that if you are a wealthy Christian you need to hold on to the right thing, you need to hold on to the things that are eternal, the things that truly matter.
So that is the warning, the command to rich Christians. There's some things they need to avoid. They need to avoid pride and trusting in money. There's some things they need to do, and mostly it is be generous and be a fellowshipping part of the church. And then there's a specific investment they need to focus on, and that is their investment in heaven. Grabbing hold of those things that matter, those things that relate to eternal life. You can't do that if you're so focused on grabbing hold of the things that are here, the monetary things.
Now, isn't that a practical word? There's one more thing I want to cover in this passage. And it's the last two verses. It's a closing charge to Timothy.
Conclusion for Timothy
Look at verses 20-21.
[20] O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
[21] Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.
1 Timothy 6:20-21 (KJV)
Paul closes this with two charges for Timothy. And they're charges for every preacher and every leader in the church to this day. The first one is.
Guard the deposit
Or keep that which is committed to our trust. Paul is talking about the gospel here. He's talking about apostolic Christianity here. And what this means is every Christian, every preacher has a duty to take what has been given to us, the gospel that has been given to us and pass it on unchanged to the next generation to guard, to keep that which is committed to our trust.
Imagine, if you will, that somebody gave you the original copy of the Declaration of Independence. That thing is priceless, and they said, "This is yours to protect and to pass on." How foolish would you be to be like, "I think I can make improvements." Go in there with your crayle and underline words and add a carrot here and say Thomas Jefferson meant this. No, your job is to keep that which is committed to thy trust.
Our job is to guard. We've been given something precious. Or to guard it. And a big part of that is the second thing Paul closes with, which is...
Reject the alternatives
Now this has been a theme of the book of 1 Timothy. All these false gospels, all these alternatives. Paul calls them profane and vain babblings, opposition of science, falsely so-called, people that thought they knew better than the Bible. Paul says you've got to reject that. Avoid it because it will ruin your faith.
So, church, let's be determined that we're going to take this thing, this awesome thing, the gospel, that's been given to us, and protect it and pass it on and reject anything that claims to be newer and better than what's given to us in this great book. Let's stand for prayer and be finished with the book of 1 Timothy for a while.
