'Fatherly love is the bedrock of Christian contentment'

Contentment is one of the great Christian graces. Paul tells Timothy that “godliness with contentment is great gain”. He tells the church in Philippi to be “anxious about nothing”.

Our Lord Jesus commanded His disciples not to worry about life. How could Jesus say this? How could He expect and even demand that His disciples not worry? Is this not sheer idealism? Is it not actually absurd to expect believers always to be content and never to be anxious? Clearly not. Our Saviour never engaged in idealism or mere wishful thinking. In fact, Jesus gives His disciples reasons why they should not worry. He makes the observation that worrying never accomplished anything of any significance. But more importantly, Jesus tells His disciples that their lives are cared for, watched over by and dearly loved by their heavenly Father. It is the fatherly love and care of God that is the bedrock of the Christian’s contentment.

It is this great truth that Jesus laboured to impress on His disciples as He instructed them on the life of faith in a fallen, hostile world. In Matthew 6, in the midst of His teaching on what is called The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks seven times of “your Father”, three times of “your heavenly Father”, and once of “our Father”. It is as if Jesus is chiselling into their minds and hearts the bedrock truth that the sovereign Lord, the “great and awesome God” (Dan.9v4), is their gracious, loving and generous Father. Jesus had called these men into a life of consecrated discipleship. He had called them to leave the security of their families and their livelihoods to follow Him into a life of evangelical uncertainty. Naturally the Twelve would be asking, “But how will we eat? Who will care for our bodily needs? What if we need new clothing?” Jesus’ response to these legitimate concerns is to set before His disciples the Lord God Almighty’s foundational relationship to His children. “God is your Father, your heavenly Father. He can be trusted to provide for all your needs. You need never be anxious. The Lord God Almighty is bound to you because of your belonging to me.”

Jesus is training His disciples to think theologically, so that they might live contentedly. The theology, or doctrine, of the gospel is not barely propositional. It is, of course, propositional, but gospel truth is for living not merely for confessing. Thus early in the training of the Twelve, Jesus is instructing them in the ABC of the gospel. Nothing is more basic, and more reassuring, in the gospel than learning that in Christ God is our Father. Later in Matthew 7v11, Jesus applies the truth of God’s gracious and generous Fatherhood to His apprehensive disciples: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him.” Jesus is encouraging His disciples to think theologically, to reckon on the wonderful truth that God has a Father’s heart towards His children.

It is this stupendous truth that Satan seeks to blind us to. He magnifies our often adverse circumstances subtly to suggest that God is heartless, indifferent and even oblivious to our needs. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Father who spared not His only Son for us, can be trusted absolutely to act always for our good (read Rom. 8v32).

I doubt there are greater words in the Bible than “your Father”. Once we were children of His wrath (Eph.2v3) but in Christ we have become His beloved sons and daughters, children He rejoices over with gladness and loud singing (Zeph.3v17). Be of good cheer. Live in the happy contentment that you have in Christ an always loving Heavenly Father.