Jonathan Edwards illustrates contentment with this illustrative question: Would you be content to shine the shoes of the servant who shines the King's shoes IF you knew that the King knows your name and has promised you all that is his?
As is true with so many other good things, the main enemy of contentment is pride. We become malcontent when we start thinking we deserve certain things. This is the premise on which the prosperity gospel is based, which is scary, but that is a subject for another day. The great men in the Bible had at least this one thing in common: out of a sense of their own unworthiness, they were content to be servants/slaves of God. My Old Testament Theology professor Paul House has pointed out several times that the highest title bestowed on any individual in the Old Testament is "servant (Hebrew: ebed) of God." This title is usually reserved for only Moses and David. In the New Testament, John the Baptist shares this humble disposition (see John 1:19-27) and Jesus said that no one born of woman is greater than John (Luke 7:28). Paul often refers to himself as a slave (Greek: doulos) of Christ. Of course, it was Paul that wrote the words of Colossians 1, which you will see at the top of the page. When one has a view of Christ like that, they can no longer see themselves as anything all that terrific.
Going back to Edwards' example, all these men believed the promises of God that found their "Yes" in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). They were convinced that the King not only knew their names, but every hair on their heads (Matthew 10:30). They know that all the blessings that Christ won by the cross are ours through him (Luke 15:31; 2 Corinthians 5:21). As Calvin wrote, "Since Christ has been so imparted to you with all his benefits that all things are made yours, that you are made a member of him, indeed one with him, his righteousness overwhelms your sins; his salvation wipes our your condemnation; with his worthiness he intercedes that your unworthiness may not come before God's sight." (This is the theological concept of union with Christ, of which I will hopefully post about soon.)
In Christ, we find contentment to face life's challenges boldly. We know we don't deserve it, but it is a free gift of God. As the hymnist writes, "this is all my hope and peace: Nothing but the blood of Jesus." Thanks be to God!
PS - The "Why I Am a Presbyterian" series will continue, I promise. We're currently reading and discussing Calvin in my Reformation class, and I want to wait until after we've covered baptism and the Lord's Supper before writing on those matters here. I will probably write on the issue of church government last, for I am now gaining more insight into what this looks like (I have been interning there 4-5 hours a week).
