Avoid Covetousness and Be Content with What You Have (Hebrews 13:5)

Hebrews 13:5 says, "Avoid covetousness and be content with what you have, for He has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" This verse instructs us to put off covetousness and put on contentment. We do so, not physically, but spiritually by focusing on Christ's promise to always be with us. Read this material from Being Content God’s Way, or watch the accompanying sermon, to learn how to avoid covetousness and be content with what you have. Table of contentsRepentance Involves Stopping and StartingPut On the Opposite of What You Put OffBe Content with What You Have by Putting Off CovetousnessBe Content with What You Have Versus Pursuing WealthDiscontentment and Covetousness Caused by Social MediaDiscontentment and Covetousness Caused by Endless AdsContentment Is a Spiritual IssueYour Relationship with Christ Allows You to Be Content with What You HaveApplying Hebrews 13:5 https://youtu.be/oLxvCPELgD4 Hebrews 13:5 says, "Avoid covetousness and be content with what you have." We're told to put off covetousness and put on contentment. The single greatest reason we fail in our repentance is that we “put off” without “putting on.” If we want to stop a certain behavior, there’s a corresponding behavior we must also start. John the Baptist is a man whose message can be summarized in the word “repent.” He said, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8 and Luke 3:8). These words tell us something about repentance that we don’t often consider. When we repent of something, we must also produce corresponding fruit. This can be a dramatic revelation for many, because when they think of repentance, they think only of stopping. If that’s been the case with you, then from now on, remember that’s only the first step. The second step is starting the accompanying behavior. The Apostle Paul also knew how to preach repentance, and he said, “Repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance” (Acts 26:20b). Like John, he said repentance would bear fruit, or be accompanied by “works.” Repentance Involves Stopping and Starting Paul explained this most clearly in Ephesians 4. Verse 25 says, “Put away lying.” This is what we put off, followed by: “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor.” This is what we put on. It is not enough to simply stop lying. We must also make a conscious effort to start telling the truth and ensure what we say is accurate. Verse 28 says, “Let him who stole steal no longer.” This is what we put off, followed by: “Rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” We can’t simply stop stealing. We must replace theft with hard work and generosity. I want to give this example more attention, because it relates so closely to covetousness, contentment, and giving. Why do most people labor, especially those struggling with covetousness? To have more for themselves. They do the opposite of what Paul commands. They don’t labor to “have something to share with [others] in need.” They labor according to their greed. This is characteristic of our consumer-driven society. We constantly seek to raise our standard of living. But if we want victory over covetousness we should raise our capacity to give. One way we can tell whether we struggle with covetousness is by asking, “Who am I working for? Who is the recipient of all my stuff? Luke James 4:3 says, do you want more money “to spend it on your own passions?” Verse 29 says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth.” This is what we put off, followed by: “But what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” We can’t simply stop saying unwholesome things. We must intentionally speak words that edify and encourage. Verse 31 sums it up: “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.” Put off all this, and then put on verse 32: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Paul makes the same point in Colossians 3: Verse 8 says, “Now you are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.” Verse 12 says, “Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another.” If we repent of the sins in verse 8, we will produce the fruit in verse 12. Put On the Opposite of What You Put Off You probably noticed the verses contain opposing pairs. This is important to keep in mind because the list of sins in Ephesians 4 is not exhaustive. If there’s a sin in your life that’s not mentioned, think of the opposite. More than likely that’s the fruit you must produce. If you put off without putting on then a vacuum is created. In the Parable of the Unclean Spirit, Jesus described the danger when it’s not filled. Matthew 12:43–45 records: When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then [the unclean spirit] says, “I will return to my house from which I came.” And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. At first things seem good, because the unclean spirit (sin) is removed from the man’s life. Unfortunately, a void remains, and the house (life) remained “empty.” The man ended up worse off than when the unclean spirit left. This pictures the unfortunate human tendency for us to reform only temporarily. Psychologists, prisons, and juvenile centers testify to this. People will be sorry, change for a little while, but soon find themselves doing the same thing again. Why? They put off without putting on. They fail to produce the necessary fruit. As a pastor, I’ve heard many people say, “I stopped this. Why do I keep struggling?” My reply is, “You stopped, but what did you start? You put off, but what did you put on?” To be practical: You stopped going to bars, but what did you start doing? You stopped yelling at your kids, but what did you start saying to them? You stopped watching things you shouldn’t, but did you start reading your Bible more? You stopped coveting, but did you start giving? When there’s sin in your life, make sure your prayers are two-fold. Ask the Lord: “What do you want me to repent of and put off?” “What accompanying fruit do you want me to produce and put on?” Be Content with What You Have by Putting Off Covetousness The practice of putting off and putting on should be applied to multiple areas of the Christian life, including contentment. The following chapters apply this approach. We will discuss covetousness, what it is and how to put it off. Then we will discuss contentment, what it is and how to put it on. This will dramatically increase the likelihood that we will be “content God’s way.” We tend to think the verses about covetousness only apply to the rich, not knowing we are the rich! Measured by the living standards of the rest of the world, and especially those throughout history, Americans are the wealthiest people who have ever lived. We enjoy staggering material prosperity. How much richer are we? Consider the following statistics. Disposable income is the amount of money households have for spending and saving after income taxes have been accounted for. Visualizing Countries with the Highest Household Wealth reveals: Russia’s disposable income is less than $17,000. France's disposable income is $60,000. The United Kingdom’s disposable income is $83,000. Canada’s disposable income is $86,000. The nation in second place is Switzerland with $128,000. The United States is first place with a disposable income of $176,00, which is almost 40% more than the nation in second place. There are 7.5 billion people in the world. China is the world’s most populous nation with 1.4 billion people, which is 18.6%. It has 10.5% of the world’s wealth. The United States has 327 million people, which is a little more than 4% of the world’s population, but we have 41.6% of the world’s wealth. In the US, the poverty threshold for a family of five is $30,500, which means if a family of five makes less than this, they’re considered living in poverty. The official poverty rate in the United States is 12.3%, 39.7 million people. The average global income for a family of five is about $10,500, which means people in poverty in the US still make about three times more than the average for the rest of the world. Even our “poor” people are still three times wealthier than the average person in the rest of the world. Things are more expensive for us in the United States, but even after adjusting for cost-of-living differences, a typical American still earns an income that is ten times higher than the income received by the average person in the rest of the world. In the United States an annual income of $32,400 doesn’t seem very high, but it’s a salary that puts people among the top 1% of earners in the world. In 2011 the Occupy Movement took place with many people protesting income distribution. Their slogan was, “We are the 99%,” referring to the concentration of wealth among the top 1% compared to the other 99 percent of the population. Ironically if the protestors made at least $32,400 then they weren’t in the 99%. They were in the 1%. Be Content with What You Have Versus Pursuing Wealth Since Americans are so rich, you’d expect us to be the happiest—or most content—nation, not just in the world but in all of history. No people who have ever lived should have an easier time being content than Americans because of our wealth. Although, this is far from the case. A 2019 study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology concluded that since the late 2000s,