The Context of Brokenness

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). 

Nothing is meaningful without context.

The New Testament gospel doesn’t make sense without the Old Testament foundation. Without knowing the existence, cause and result of sin, the gospel doesn’t make sense, nor would we understand the reason for its existence. Before we can fix a problem, we have to know what the system is supposed to do, and why it isn’t doing what it is supposed to do. Before we can fix a car, we have to know how a car is supposed to work. Before we can fix our life, we have to know how our life is supposed to work. The more time we spend figuring out how our life is supposed to work and why it doesn’t, the easier it is to see how it should be fixed. If we want to better understand how the gospel in the New Testament is the solution, we have to spend more time in the Old Testament, learning about the problem of sin.

Anyone can be content and anyone can be discontent. 

Contentment is dependent upon context. The children of the Old Covenant were content with the sacrificial system God gave them and looking forward to the Messiah. Contentment was a choice, they could have complained that God had not given them the Messiah and remained discontent, but that wouldn’t have helped them. As children of the New Covenant, we can be content with the gospel God has given us and grow in our walk with Jesus the Messiah. We can still choose to be discontent because the world is still broken and we don't have our resurrected bodies yet. 

Contentment is a choice.

No matter where we are in life, we can choose to be content. “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” (1 Timothy 6:6-8). Everything that we have has been given to us by God. When we are content with what we have, we can demonstrate our appreciation to God. If we choose to be discontent, we begin acting like a spoiled brat, whining that God’s generosity isn’t enough for us. Each day we choose how we will live whether we will be content and live with grateful abundance or discontent and live with insatiable lack.