What does it mean that God has given us richly all things to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17)?

But there is a danger kindred to highmindedness which is next warned against: "nor set their hope on uncertainty of riches." On this too many a philosopher of old moralized in vain: not that his words did not sound wise and grand, but that their effect was powerless; for he was either a selfish hypocrite who decried wealth in others to get it for himself as much as possible, or he denounced wealth with a cynical haughtiness of mind more extreme than in any man of wealth. Well then does the apostle first warn against highmindedness, and next on building one's hopes on the stability of what so quickly takes wings and flies away, whence the possessor is so often summoned in the midst of his self-aggrandizing plans. "Uncertainty of riches" indeed: how true and expressive!

One is never quite right, however, without what is positive; and hence the apostle urges that those addressed should have their hope set, not on a foundation so sandy, "but on God That affordeth us all things richly for enjoyment." There cannot be conceived a sentence more completely condemning the spirit of asceticism, which is fairer in appearance than the love of ease and luxury. But they are only forms of selfishness, however opposed: neither savours of God, Who has not left Himself without witness of His goodness toward men, even among the heathen allowed to go on their own ways. Surely it is not less among His own family of grace, though He may for higher ends give them the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, being conformed unto His death. But He is none the less the God of all grace, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. And as to real superiority over all circumstances, where there was no wealth of the present age, who could testify better than the apostle? A prisoner in Rome, yet able to write thence, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content. I know how to be abased, and know also how to abound: in everything and in all things I am initiated both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer want. I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me. … And my God shall fulfil every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:11-19). The ungrudging and bountiful Giver of all loves a heart that responds to His grace, as far from legality as from licence.

The safeguard against these snares is found in trusting in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. However rich a man may be, he cannot buy the things that God gives. However poor, he can receive and enjoy what God gives.

If there are those among Christians who do possess some apparent measure of honor or power now, being rich in this world, Timothy is to charge them to guard against the natural pride that uses such things to exalt the flesh; and also against the evident danger of trusting in riches. Constant exercise must be maintained to trust in the Living God, He who gives richly all things to enjoy. If this trust is real, then it will reflect His own character of unselfish giving. Positive good was to be done with what they possessed: let them be rich in good works, not merely in possessions; ready on any occasion of need, to distribute, gladly willing to share what God has entrusted to them. This is true investment, a laying up in store a good foundation against the time to come: it is true wisdom in view of the future; and it is present true enjoyment of what is really life, a real grasp of true living.

But he warns again of "uncertain riches." A well accredited bank may go; in contrast, here is "the living God."! Fresh from Himself, He gives us all things, and richly to enjoy! The apostle enjoyed good things. We have died with Christ, but we are to receive with thanksgiving what God gives.

Pray do not misunderstand. The Christian is not to be an ascetic or a recluse; godliness (or piety) owns that every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, "for it is sanctified by the word of God and freely addressing Him" (1 Tim. 4:4-5, N.T.), "and that God has given us richly all things to enjoy." (1 Tim. 6:17.) Hospitality is enjoined, marriage is honoured, and family ties maintained. A good report of those that are without is a commendation, and a simple, unaffected life is shown to become the people of God, a life with nothing morose or unnatural about it.

Having ascribed "honour and power everlasting" to the immortal, invisible God, before whom Timothy was to walk far removed from the spirit and ways of those whose main object was the acquisition of riches, the Apostle turns in verse 17 to give instructions as to those believers who are "rich in this world." His words indicate first of all the dangers attached to the possession of wealth. It has a tendency to generate high-mindedness and to divert the possessor from trust in God to trust in money. The worldly man of wealth naturally fancies himself greatly and feels himself secure against the ordinary troubles and struggles of humanity. The wealthy Christian must not imagine that his money entitles him to dominate the church of God and lord it over his fellow-believers.

Secondly Paul shows us the privileges attaching to wealth. It may be used in the service of God, in the help of His people; and thus he who starts by being rich in money may end in being rich in good works, and this is wealth of a more enduring kind. Earthly riches are uncertain, and he who lays it up in store for himself may find his store sadly depleted just when most needed. He who uses his riches in the service of God is laying up in store a good foundation of reward in eternity and meanwhile his trust is in the living God, who after all does not deny us what is good but gives it to us richly for our enjoyment. It is just those who hold and use their possessions as stewards responsible to God that can be trusted to enjoy God's good gifts without misusing them.

In nothing perhaps are the children of God so commonly unfaithful as in the stewardship of money. Too much spent on luxuries, and too little dispersed abroad, and even that not always wisely. When shall we learn to neither spend nor give without seeking the guidance of God? In Luke 16: the Lord Jesus, after speaking of the unjust steward who so skilfully manipulated his circumstances for his own advantage, said: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much." "Least?" Is that how men regard money? Note also our Lord's further words: "that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God!" In 1 Tim. 6 the Apostle has much to say about this serious matter. In verses 9-11 he warns saints who are not rich, but who aspire to be, that there are dangers ahead. Men in the world who pursue such a course frequently "drown themselves in destruction and perdition" and money-loving saints "pierce themselves through with many sorrows." In Verses 17-19 the Apostle charges those who are already rich not to "trust … in uncertain riches, but in God who gives us richly all things to enjoy," and to be ready "with open hand for every good work." There is nothing wrong in possessing wealth (mark the word "enjoy") if the wealth comes to us honourably; but when we consider that He to whom we owe our eternal all had not where to lay His head, and when we also remember that He is still "despised and rejected by men," to be holders of large sums of money puts us in a position of grave responsibility, in the discharge of which we need daily and hourly grace. Referring again to Luke 16 we can "make to ourselves friends by the mammon of unrighteousness," if our hearts so dispose us (ver. 9) or we may make enemies by the same means. Those who are generous and kind are beloved; but those who are selfish and haughty by reason of their wealth are disliked. Oh, that it may be said of us, as of Josiah's workmen "they dealt faithfully! "

The exercised reader should pause here and read the last chapter of Paul's first letter to Timothy. With reference to riches, two classes are indicated; those who are not rich, but who wish to be (verses 9-12); and those who are rich already (verses 17-19). The first class are warned that the pursuit of wealth leads to temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men who know not God in destruction and perdition. Such a course is unworthy of those who are in union with Christ and blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. Money is not evil in itself, but the love of it is a root from which every evil may spring. The Apostle had observed some who, by their covetousness, had erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. He who would be a man of God (and there is great need of such) must flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience and meekness. If earthly pursuits leave no time for the cultivation of these seven divine graces all that the Christian may acquire is not gain but loss.

Those who are already rich are then wisely counselled. Mark the words "rich in this world," more correctly "in the present age." This is the time of Christ's rejection. Self-indulgence in a scene where He had no resting place for His head, and where all His rights are still denied Him is most unsuitable for those who own Him as their Saviour and Lord. Elisha's words to the grasping Gehazi may well ring in our ears and in our hearts (2 Kings 5:26). Wealthy believers are reminded that riches are uncertain, and that their confidence should be in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. These last words assure us that up to a point God would have His own enjoy His bounty. Monasticism is not Christianity. But good works must abound; with liberality; should we assist the needy, "laying up for ourselves a good foundation against the time to come." The unjust steward of Luke 16 is an example of this. His dishonesty our Lord did not approve, but He did approve his prudence. While the opportunity was with him, he used it with reference to the future; the Christian should do the same; but with this difference, the steward had before him the coming dread days of unemployment, the Christian should keep in view the judgement-seat of Christ, where all our doings will be manifested in the light of God. The passage in 1 Timothy 6:19 should be read in the Revised Version. In verse 12 we are indeed exhorted to "lay hold on eternal life" but in verse 19 we should read "that they may lay hold on what is really life." Thus a life spent in good works and in gracious consideration for others is life indeed, in contrast with the words in 1 Timothy 5:6, "She that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives."

As our Lord designated wealth "the mammon of unrighteousness," in the same spirit are the wealthy here characterized as "rich in the present age." It was certainly not to exalt in their eyes or in those of others what the flesh is sure to overvalue, while it hides the great responsibility of those who have it. Yet there is no fanatical credit given to the garb or habit of poverty, no sanctimonious eschewing of ordinary food or shelter among the abodes of men, still less is there a hint of the superior worth of the monastic life. These anilities were reserved for the deeper gulfs of superstition. But those who are rich in the present age ("this present evil age," as the same apostle stamps it in Gal. 1:4) have need especially to be on their guard, and to hear, not the voice of flattery so likely to be at hand, but the solemn admonition of the Holy Spirit, that they be not poor toward God in view of "the day of eternity" (2 Peter 3:18). Certainly riches toward God consist neither in lavishing on oneself or one's own, any more than in laying up for either.

At the commencement of the chapter the apostle speaks of the great conflict he had had on behalf of these saints, that their "hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God [and of the Father, and of Christ]." For as we know, God is about to gather together all things in Christ (Eph. 1:8-10), and the church is associated with Him who is this centre. "And this, I say," he continues, "lest any man should beguile you with enticing words [pretending to bring you a mass of wisdom and knowledge in all manner of things that are not Christ]; for though I be absent in the body, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ," v. 4, 5. It is all well to have Christ for Christianity, he may come and say (alas! how often is this said), But is there to be nothing else besides Christ? No, not anything. We cannot deal with the plants of this earth, without dealing with that which belongs to Christ; and if we deal with them without Christ, we sin. We are exiled from paradise and have forfeited everything. Forgetfulness of all that had taken place, thorough blinding of heart and hardening of conscience marked the way of Cain, till at last, when driven out from the presence of the Lord, he sought to make that world, into which God had sent him forth a fugitive and a vagabond (the very name of the place in which he dwelt - "the land of Nod" means, "the land of a vagabond"), as agreeable an abode as practicable apart from God. And all that man is now doing, to inherit the earth without Christ, he is doing according to Cain, settling himself down as a poor sinner in a world like this. The Christian acknowledges that he has forfeited everything; he cannot talk about "my rights"; in using anything himself, he would be using it as a poor guilty rebel. He trusts in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; he eats his meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God; whatever he does, in word or in deed, he does all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks unto God and the Father by Him. To him, there is not anything outside Christ - all belongs to Christ, and it is, as a Christian, that he enjoys it.