[Let your] conversation [be] without love of money, satisfied with [your] present circumstances; for *he* has said, I will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee.
Hebrews ends with practical advice for people under pressure, and this verse reaches into the wallet. The reason to be content is not a comfortable life but a word God has spoken — and commentators ask hard questions about who may claim it.
The Root of Covetousness
The command targets more than envy of a neighbour. One writer traces the word itself back to its plainest sense:
As we look around us today, we see that covetousness marks the whole world. The word "covetousness" in the original means "having more." It is not always about wanting what someone else has. It is about wanting more than I have. At the root of all covetousness lies discontent with what we already have.
Another writer calls greed beneath anyone who follows Christ:
Greed is grubby and unworthy of any decent person. It is far beneath those called to follow Christ in faith and love, whose eyes have been opened to their better and lasting possessions where Christ is. Discontent with things is natural to unbelievers.
Not Circumstances, but a Promise
Why should anyone be content? One writer asks the obvious questions before giving the answer:
"Be content with what you have." Why? Is it because you are so well off in the world? Is it because you have everything your restless heart could want? Is it because there is not one crack in your circumstances for empty desire to slip through? Is this to be the ground of our contentment? By no means. What then? "For He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you." Blessed portion! Had Lot been content with that, he never would have sought the well watered plains of Sodom.
Lot was an early Bible figure who chose the well watered land near the city of Sodom.
Satisfied with Circumstances You Did Not Choose
Contentment sounds easy until you look at your actual circumstances. They are often the last thing anyone would choose. One writer meets the objection head on:
Are our present circumstances then so very desirable; are they just what they should be? They are the very reverse of that... Why then are we to be satisfied with them? Because, as Hebrews 12 has shown, God appoints them to correct and train us. And because He has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." That is it. We can be satisfied in our present circumstances, because God guarantees us the lasting presence of the One our hearts thirst for.
A Promise Borrowed from Joshua
God spoke these same words long ago to Joshua, one of Israel's great leaders. That raises a fair question. May an ordinary believer claim a promise made to a man like that?
We might very properly say to ourselves, "But I am no Joshua. He was a very eminent man of faith, and I am a very insignificant and often a very feeble believer. Would it not be pushy and out of place for me to assume that a promise made to him is just as valid for me?" It is delightful to discover from these verses that such an application of this ancient promise is not the boldness of presumption but the boldness of faith.
God gave the same assurance to men whose lives had little in common:
As He said long ago to Jacob the wanderer (Genesis 28:15), to Joshua the warrior (Joshua 1:5), and to Solomon the worshipper (1 Chronicles 28:20), so He says to us. His word gives strong comfort, because it is impossible for Him to lie.
God Himself Instead of More
The cure for a grasping heart is not a bigger income but a better portion:
The living God is the source of all wealth, and He Himself is our portion. If we grasp that, and if He fills the heart, there is no room left for greed... The flour may be down to the bottom of the barrel. The oil in the jar may look too small to bother pouring out. Even then we hear Him say to our empty circumstances, "I" — blessed substitute for all the hoarded wealth of this poor world — "I," the living God, "will never leave you nor forsake you."
From His Word to Our Confidence
The verse does not stop at information. What God says about Himself, His people are meant to repeat about themselves:
"He has said … so that we may boldly say …" If God speaks we may accept what He says with all confidence. More than this, we may assert what He asserts with all boldness... we may take it home with full confidence, as spoken to each one of us. In our reading of Scripture let us form the happy habit of applying the words of God to ourselves in this way.
Summary
- Root — Covetousness is not mainly envy of others. It is discontent with what you already have. It wants more, so no amount of getting ever cures it.
- Ground — Contentment never rests on comfortable circumstances. It rests on a sentence God has already spoken. Lot's move toward Sodom failed that test — a failure of contentment, not of income.
- Gift — The promise guarantees a Person, not better conditions. With the living God as your portion, the heart has no room left for greed.
- Reach — God said these words to Jacob, to Joshua and to Solomon. Weak believers may claim them too, and claiming them is faith, not presumption.
- Result — Because He has said it, we may say it. Read God's promises as spoken to you personally, and greed loses its grip.