Brad's Bistro

Suggestions for leading a study:

Familiarize yourself with the passage in context, including the book itself. Who wrote it to whom, and why?
Read through the study guide a couple times to get the “big idea” as well as the flow of the argument
Have the group read through the passage in it’s entirety before beginning the study. One of the goals is to try to get your members to learn how to study Scripture methodically, and this is an important step.
Be prayed up
Have fun!

Suggestions for leading a study:

Familiarize yourself with the passage in context, including the book itself. Who wrote it to whom, and why?
Read through the study guide a couple times to get the “big idea” as well as the flow of the argument
Have the group read through the passage in it’s entirety before beginning the study. One of the goals is to try to get your members to learn how to study Scripture methodically, and this is an important step.
Be prayed up
Have fun!

Show Me the Money

Text: 1 Timothy 6:6-19 (NIV)

⁶But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. ⁸But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. ⁹People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
¹¹But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. ¹²Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you ¹⁴to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵which God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
¹⁷Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. ¹⁹In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Discussion Questions:

-Read verses 6 and 7. Why is godliness with contentment great gain?

-If the stuff we have isn’t much gain for us because we “can’t take it with us”, what does that imply about godliness?

-Verse 8 clarifies what it is we are content with. What is it?

-Do you think Paul is saying that we should strive to only have just enough food and clothing?

-Read verse 9. What do you think are the “temptations and traps” of wanting to get rich? What about the “foolish and harmful desires”?

-Read verse 10. According to this verse, is money the root of all kinds of evil?

-What is the risk we take when we love money? Do you think it is a real danger for us?

-Read verse 11. Why would running away from the love of money be a requirement for pursuing these character traits?

-According to verse 12, what should happen instead of pursuing financial gain? Why is this incompatible with making the pursuit of wealth your number one priority?

-In verses 13-16 Paul gets excited about Jesus’ second coming. Why is that important to a discussion about the love of money?

-Read verses 17 and 18. Is it wrong to have a lot of money? What is it that is necessary for wealth to be a healthy thing?

-According to verse 19, what happens if we do the right thing with our wealth? What do you think that means?

Leaders Guide

This is a lesson about a healthy attitude toward wealth, dealing with the potential risks as well as the rewards involved when we take the right approach to money.

-Read verses 6 and 7. Why is godliness with contentment great gain?

The “for” that begins verse 7 indicates that Paul is giving the reason for his statement in verse 6, that godliness with contentment is great gain. He says that it is because the things that we have didn’t come with us into this world, and they aren’t going with us when we leave. He is making a contrast between stuff we have versus character and attitude, which actually amount to something. The next question explores why a little more, so just move on if people are scratching their heads over what Paul is saying here.

-If the stuff we have isn’t much gain for us because we “can’t take it with us”, what does that imply about godliness?

Here’s the point. Your “stuff” is temporal, so it isn’t worth much. Since godliness is, that implies that it does, in fact, go with you. This is a key point in the Scripture that many people miss. The character that we develop in our lives goes with us into eternity. That is great gain, because it is forever. Just what effect it has on our eternal destiny is not clear in the Scripture, but there is no doubt that this life is what “fits us for heaven.” There isn’t a soul inside us somewhere that takes off when we die, unaffected by our actions here. The godly character we develop here is part of our “soul shaping.”

-Verse 8 clarifies what it is we are content with. What is it?

We are content with food and clothing. The next question is really the discussion point on this.

-Do you think Paul is saying that we should strive to only have just enough food and clothing?

Obviously, these two things are meant as examples. We need housing, transportation, and other things at various times of our lives. He isn’t saying that all Christians should be on the street with just the clothes on our backs (his instructions to those who are rich in this world later in this passage confirms that). The issue here is attitude. Are we content with what we have, or are we living our lives continually striving for more and more, never being satisfied?

-Read verse 9. What do you think are the “temptations and traps” of wanting to get rich? What about the “foolish and harmful desires”?

The text does not identify these things, so this is an open discussion question. Emphasize that this is about wanting to get rich, not getting rich. It is the attitude that is important. People can speculate about what the temptations and traps are, but the important thing is that the desire to get rich puts us on a pathway and into a process that just gets worse and worse in regards to our relationship to God. The “and” here would seem to indicate that the foolish and harmful desires are something different from the temptations and traps, but there is no need to be dogmatic about it. The picture being painted here is one of a downward spiral into self-centeredness and narcissism that begins with the desire for wealth.

-Read verse 10. According to this verse, is money the root of all kinds of evil?

No. It is the love of money. The common idiom that money is the root of all evil comes from this passage, but that is a mis-quote. Here again, it is all about attitude.

-What is the risk we take when we love money? Do you think it is a real danger for us?

Paul says that some have wandered from the faith. No need to dwell on the issue of losing your salvation here, that is for another study. But we need to affirm the very real risk that the pursuit of money can and does displace our pursuit of a relationship with God. The risks are very real and very dangerous and cannot be over-stated. This is an issue we need to take very seriously.

-Read verse 11. Why would running away from the love of money be a requirement for pursuing these character traits?

Paul says to “flee from all this”, meaning to be very intentional about going a different direction from those whose main goal in life is the pursuit of wealth. The reasons why that would be necessary in order to pursue the character traits mentioned here are a matter of discussion. Clearly, the love of money is considered by Paul to be a barrier to developing godly character. It is one or the other.

-According to verse 12, what should happen instead of pursuing financial gain? Why is this incompatible with making the pursuit of wealth your number one priority?

We should be fighting the good fight of the faith. This is something that takes energy and sacrifice and intentional devotion. Putting all of our energies into accumulating wealth would just not leave enough left over to do battle in the ways that Paul believes we are called to.

-In verses 13-16 Paul gets excited about Jesus’ second coming. Why is that important to a discussion about the love of money?

This is an interesting little insertion into the discussion. Every once in while in his letters Paul gets to thinking about eternal things like this and seems to just get all emotional, ending in some of the great doxologies (expressions of praise) like the one in verse 16. It’s fun to read, but it also reminds us that our lives here are brief, and might be cut short at any moment by the return of Christ. If he comes back and finds us single-mindedly pursuing wealth rather than developing our character and our attitude, that wouldn’t be much of a spot to be found in.

-Read verses 17 and 18. Is it wrong to have a lot of money? What is it that is necessary for wealth to be a healthy thing?

Clearly, being rich in and of itself is not the problem. Some people in the church were. Again, it is the attitude toward that wealth and the attitude that it creates that is at issue. If we can avoid being arrogant and putting our faith in it rather than in God, and if we can instead be generous with it then it not only is not a problem, but actually creates eternal benefits, as the next question indicates.

-According to verse 19, what happens if we do the right thing with our wealth? What do you think that means?

Here is where we can affirm that money isn’t all bad for us spiritually. In fact it, too, can have a positive impact on our situation in eternity. Once again Scripture affirms that there are levels of reward in heaven for believers, depending on the godly character they have developed while here as well as the deeds done, including what we accomplish with our wealth.