1 Timothy 6:7-8 KJV
⁷For we brought nothing into this world,
and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
⁸And having food and raiment
let us be therewith content.
Other translations
New International Version
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.
New Living Translation
⁷After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. ⁸So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.
English Standard Version
⁷for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. ⁸But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
Berean Study Bible
⁷For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot carry anything out of it. ⁸But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
Berean Literal Bible
⁷For we brought nothing into the world, because neither are we able to carry out anything. ⁸But having sustenance and coverings, with these we will be content.
New King James Version
⁷For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. ⁸And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
New American Standard Bible
⁷For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it, either. ⁸If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.
Study
Verse 7
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
Compare this with Job 1:21.
Every earthly possession is given to us as a temporary loan, only meant for this life, that is for the period between the hour of our birth and the hour of our death.
We entered this world with nothing, we shall also leave the world again with nothing.
If we could take anything with us when death parts soul and body there would at once be an end to the “contentment” (of 1Timothy 6:6), for the future then would in some way be dependent on the present.
This sentence is quoted by Polycarp, in his letter to the Philippians, written early in the second century. Such a reference shows that this Epistle was known and treasured in the Christian Church even at that early date.
Numerous expressions of this kind occur in the classic writers; see Wetstein, in loc., and Pricaeus, in loc. in the Critici Sacri. Of the truth of what is here said, there can be nothing more obvious. It is apparent to all.
We bring no property with us into the world – no clothing, no jewels, no gold – and it is equally clear that we can take nothing with us when we leave the earth.
Our coming into the world introduces no additional property to that which the race before possessed, and our going from the world removes none that we may have helped the race to accumulate.
This is said by the apostle as an obvious reason why we should be contented if our actual needs are supplied; for this is really all that we need, and all that the world is toiling for.
For we brought nothing into this world,….
Which is a reason both clearly showing that godliness is great gain, since those who have it brought nothing into the world with them but sin, and yet are now in such happy circumstances as before described; and that godly persons should be content with what they have, even of worldly things, seeing they are so much more than they had when they came into the world, into which they came naked; and which should be a quieting consideration under the most stripping providences; (see Job 1:21).
The Jews have a saying like this, that “as a man comes (into the world), “simply” or “nakedly”, so he goes out in like manner.” (Bereshit Rabba, sect. 42. fol. 36. 3)
For
Confirming the reasonableness of “contentment.”
For — γὰρ (gar) — Conjunction — For. A primary particle; properly, assigning a reason.
We brought — εἰσηνέγκαμεν (eisēnenkamen) — Verb – Aorist Indicative Active – 1st Person Plural — To lead into, bring in, announce. From eis and phero; to carry inward.
Nothing — οὐδὲν (ouden) — Adjective – Accusative Neuter Singular — No one, none, nothing.
Into — εἰς (eis) — Preposition — A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.
The — τὸν (ton) — Article – Accusative Masculine Singular — The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.
World — κόσμον (kosmon) — Noun – Accusative Masculine Singular — Probably from the base of komizo; orderly arrangement, i.e. Decoration; by implication, the world (morally).
And it is certain we can carry nothing out
As men come into the world, so will they go out of it.
Nor will they need their worldly substance after death, any more than they did before they were born.
What they now have, and use not, will then be lost to them, whatever gain it may be to others: wherefore it becomes them cheerfully to use what they have, and be content therewith (see Ecclesiastes 5:15).
And it is certain
Editors are divided as to the authority for the word “certain” here, which the Revisers and Westcott and Hort omit.
Inclining to this view with Codex Sinaiticus, and on the ground that proclivi praestat ardua lectio, we have to render the connecting particle that remains ‘because;’ but need not adopt Alford’s strained explanation ‘we were appointed by God to come naked into the world, to teach us to remember that we must go naked out of it,’ which mars the simple sequence of thought (we should look rather to the looser usage of such particles already beginning to prevail).
The Vulgate and other old versions support this reading.
The oldest manuscripts, however, omit “and it is certain”; then the translation will be, “We brought nothing into the world (to teach us to remember) that neither can we carry anything out” (Job 1:21; Ecclesiastes 5:15). Therefore, we should have no gain-seeking anxiety, the breeder of discontent (Matthew 6:25).
Omit and and certain. Rend. ὅτι because.
The statement is: We brought nothing into the world because we can carry nothing out.
The fact that we brought nothing into the world is shown by the impossibility of our taking with us anything out of it; since if anything belonging to us in our premundane state had been brought by us into the world, it would not be separated from us at our departure from the world (Compare. Job 1:21; Ecclesiastes 5:15; Psalms 49:17.
And / because
“Because’ may be referred back to the contentment, and so introduce a parallel not a subordinate clause to ‘we brought,’ because too we cannot carry anything out.
The verse is linked at the commencement of the Prayer-Book Burial Service with Job 1:21, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord,’ and so illustrates further the ‘godly content’ of the previous verse.
[and] — ὅτι (hoti) — Conjunction — Neuter of hostis as conjunction; demonstrative, that; causative, because.
Neither — οὐδὲ (oude) — Adverb — Neither, nor, not even, and not. From ou and de; not however, i.e. Neither, nor, not even.
We can carry nothing out
Compare this to Psalm 49:17.
“For when he – the rich man – dieth, he shall carry nothing away; his glory shall not descend after him.”
Can we — δυνάμεθα (dynametha) — Verb – Present Indicative Middle or Passive – 1st Person Plural — (a) I am powerful, have (the) power, (b) I am able, I can. Of uncertain affinity; to be able or possible.
Carry — ἐξενεγκεῖν (exenenkein) — Verb – Aorist Infinitive Active — To bring out, carry out, sometimes out of the city for burial; I bring forth, bear, produce. From ek and phero; to bear out.
Anything {out of it} — τι (ti) — Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun – Accusative Neuter Singular — Any one, some one, a certain one or thing. An enclitic indefinite pronoun; some or any person or object.
Verse 8
And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
The Greek word rendered “let us be content” is better translated, “we shall have a sufficiency”.
The argument will run thus: “All earthly possessions are only for this life; here, if we have the wherewithal to clothe us and to nourish us, we shall have enough;” if we have more than this, Paul goes on to show, we shall be in danger of falling into temptation.
There is no contradiction between this reading and that contained in this same epistle (1Timothy 4:1-5).
- There the Apostle is warning the Church against a false, unreal asceticism, which was teaching men to look upon the rich gifts of this world, its beauties and its delights, as of themselves sinful, forgetting that these fair things were God’s creatures, and were given for man’s use and enjoyment.
- Here the same great teacher is pressing home the truth that the highest good on earth was that godliness which is ever accompanied with perfect contentment, which neither rejects nor deems evil the fair things of this life, but which, at the same time, never covets them, never longs for them.
It was one thing to be rich, it was another to wish to be rich; in God’s providence a man might be rich without sin, but the coveting, the longing for wealth, at once exposed him to many a grave danger both to body and soul.
But — δὲ (de) — Conjunction — A primary particle; but, and, etc.
If we have — ἔχοντες (echontes) — Verb – Present Participle Active – Nominative Masculine Plural — To have, hold, possess. Including an alternate form scheo skheh’-o; a primary verb; to hold.
Food — διατροφὰς (diatrophas) — Noun – Accusative Feminine Plural — Nourishment, food. From a compound of dia and trepho; nourishment.
And — καὶ (kai) — Conjunction — And, even, also, namely.
Raiment
A rather out-of-the-way word for ‘clothing,’ if we go by the use found once in Aristotle and once in Josephus, Ar. Pol. vii. 17; Jos. B. J. ii. 8. 5: literally, ‘covering;’ and so the Revised Version perhaps merely to keep an unusualness of phrase.
The meaning ‘shelter,’ tent or roof-covering, has been also assigned, from the root word having a more common turn towards this; and ‘covering’ may have been chosen to include this, if not to express it alone.
But the immediate context in 1 Timothy 6:7 favours the reference to merely personal possessions such as clothes.
It means covering generally, though the reference is probably to clothing. von Soden aptly remarks that a dwelling is not a question of life with an Oriental.
Clothing — σκεπάσματα (skepasmata) — Noun – Accusative Neuter Plural — Clothing, a covering, raiment. From a derivative of skepas; clothing.
Let us be therewith content
More correctly, we shall be content.
The verb is future passive, we shall be therewith content, as in the Revised Version; hardly an implied exhortation, but ‘we shall, if we are godly.’
This rendering is preferable to that in the margin of the Revised Version: ‘in these we shall have enough’ from the similar use of the passive,
▪︎ Luke 3:14, ‘be content with your wages;’
▪︎ Hebrews 13:5, ‘content with such things as ye have.’
The connection of the word with ‘contentment’ above should also be maintained.
We will be content — ἀρκεσθησόμεθα (arkesthēsometha) — Verb – Future Indicative Passive – 1st Person Plural — To keep off, assist; I suffice; pass: To be satisfied. Apparently a primary verb; properly, to ward off, i.e. to avail.
Such a commander is contentation that wheresoever she setteth foot an hundred blessings wait upon her;
- in every disease she is a physician,
- in every strife she is a lawyer,
- in every doubt she is a preacher,
- in every grief she is a comforter,
- like a sweet perfume, which taketh away the evil scent, and leaveth a pleasant scent for it. (H. Smith.)
With these — τούτοις (toutois) — Demonstrative Pronoun – Dative Neuter Plural — This; he, she, it.
Illustration
The godly man has found that which all the world is seeking for, and that is enough.
Every word may be defined, and everything may be measured, but enough cannot be measured or defined, it changeth every year;
- When we had nothing, we thought it would be enough, if we might obtain a little bit more than we have;
- When we came to more, we thought that still a bit more would be enough;
- And when we reached even more, we dream of an even higher level that would be enough,
So enough is in the human mind always just a little more than what they already have, though what they have is already plenty, or even too much.
Like petrol or gasoline kindleth the fire which it seems to quench, so riches seems to make a man contented, but instead makes him more covetous.
Anecdote
A gentleman was once talking to Thomas Mann, a pious waterman on the river Thames. Having ascertained that he never laboured on the Sabbath, and was dependent on his labor for a living, he said,
“Well, as your gains have been so small, you could not lay much up. Have you not been anxious, as you have proceeded in life, lest, from the very nature of your employment, exposed as it is to danger and to all weathers, you should be laid up by illness, and have nothing to support you?”
“No, sir; I have always believed in God’s Providence. I think I am just fitted for the situation which He has appointed to me, and that what He has fixed is best.
I am, therefore, satisfied and thankful.
I endeavour to do the duty which daily falls to me, and to be careful of my earnings: I have always had enough, and I have no fears about years to come.”
“Yet, my friend,” said the gentleman, “if illness were to come, and you had not a provision made for the supply of your need in helpless old age, ought not this to give you some uneasiness?”
“No, sir, that is not my business. Future years are not my business. That belongs to God, and I am sure that, doing my duty in His fear now, and being careful in what He intrusts to me, He will supply my need in future in that way which He shall think best.”
The gentleman then said, “We have heard that teaching the poor to read has a tendency to make them discontented with the station in which Providence has placed them. Do you think so?”
“No, sir; quite the contrary. All that I have read in the Bible teaches me to be content with the dispensations of Providence, to be industrious and careful.
A Christian cannot be an idle or an ungrateful man.”
Devotional
Godliness with contentment is great wealth! (see 1 Tim. 6:6)
So what does it take for us to be content?
Paul reminds Timothy that as long as we have food and clothing, we should be able to be content.
It is when our desires get out of that channel,
▪︎ when covetousness and greed take over,
▪︎ that our life gets out of control
▪︎ and we replace God with a hunger for what becomes our idol (cf. Colossians 3:5).
God wants us to let Him be enough and see the rest as the overflow of His grace!
Prayer suggestions
- Ask God to forgive you for being caught up in the lifestyle of greed and covetousness.
- Ask God to forgive you for being caught up in the lifestyle of excess and extravagance.
- Ask God to help you to be content with the blessings He has so lavishly poured out on you
- Ask God to help you to find your joy in Him and His people whom He has put into your life.
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