07 Oct Content, Never Complacent

I’ve often pondered the thought of how to be content while never being complacent. I think the answer really boils down to one word.

Faithfulness.

In Philippians 4:11-13—”Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”—Paul talks about learning to be content and yet ends this section with one of the most often quoted verses in all of the bible when it comes to pressing on. We’ve even seen verse 13 on the shorts of boxers in the ring! The connection between these two thoughts slid past me many times and maybe it has slid passed you as well. In the same thought, the same breath, Paul says “I am to be content… I can do all things through Christ….”

We mistakenly think of contentment as stopping, being still, going no further, striving no more. But that is not the kind of contentment Paul is talking about here. Being so content with where you are that you do nothing more isn’t just a bad idea, Jesus actually calls it wicked. And this, by the way is in the passage where he defines faithfulness for us. How does he define it? As increase, multiplication, the opposite of complacency.

Matthew 25:14-30 finds Jesus telling a story about talents to three different people. To one he gave five, to another two, to another one. The person who received five, went and made five more. The person who received two, went and made two more. The person who received one, well he did nothing. He used fear as an excuse, and while he may have very well been fearful, in practice he was complacent. He did absolutely nothing to try and multiply what he had.

Have you ever noticed the connections Jesus makes when he categorizes the actions of these three individuals? To the ones who took what they had and made something more of it, he calls them “good and faithful.” To the one who did nothing, he calls “wicked and slothful.” Not only that, but he closes the story driving the point home by adding “worthless” to the last servants resume and then essentially casts him into hell.

Fear and complacency are the enemies of faithfulness and contentment.

So, how do we find contentment without being complacent? By being faithful. How do we prove ourselves faithful? By growing and multiplying what God has given us.

In fact, I would argue that it is in never being complacent that we actually find our contentment. I believe this is exactly what Paul was talking about in Philippians 4. The secret to finding contentment is found in striving to do what God asks of us each and every day. If, at the end of every day we can look up and say that we have worked hard to be faithful to God’s call on our lives, we will have contentment, which for us should feel like peace, rather than laziness.

What if we as a community of believers never became complacent? What if we started every day with a commitment to do what God has called us to without fear? What if we really believed that we can do all things through Christ who gives us our strength, and did things the world could never do? What if that kind of faith allowed us to multiply our love towards the unlovable? What if that kind of faith allowed our grace to grow so that we could bless those who curse us? What if it fueled our unity so that our diversity never became divisive? What if it gave us the mercy we need to empathize even when we don’t understand?

This is really the kind of people we are called to be; the kind of church we are called to be. A church that refuses to allow our fear to breed complacency.

So yes, let us be content with where we are, knowing it is God who brought us this far. Let us remain content, not in our own works, but in him as we press on, becoming the kind of people he is calling us to be. There is no complacency in Paul’s contentment and I pray there would never be any in ours.

As the next few weeks narrow in on the most contentious election day in memory, I pray we will not be people who fearfully avoid conversations with those who think differently than us. Don’t take the talent that is your life and burry it in the ground. Continue to reach out as brothers and sisters in Christ to accomplish what God is calling you to, calling me to, calling us to. Don’t buy into the divisions that the world and political systems insist we adhere to. We are better than that, because we serve something, someone, bigger than that.

If this political season has caused you to experience fear which has in turn caused you to become complacent, I want to personally invite you to our next, The Gospel and Politics meeting, one week from today. This will be a safe space for Christian brothers and sisters to learn to listen, to be heard, and to be understood. We will be exploring what the bible says and doesn’t say as it relates to the role of government, the role of the church and the role of individual Christians. When God’s people walk together in biblical unity we are convinced there is no jurisdiction (families, businesses, the education industry, government, etc.) that cannot be affected and transformed. Please join your faith and your time with ours as we help people have better conversations, fighting complacency, and doing what can only be done by relying on the strength we have together in Christ.

Let’s be faithful to continue the work he has called us to, knowing he will be faithful to finish what he has started in us.

With love,
Nathan