1 Timothy 6:6-8 Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. (ESV)
I don’t know that this text would be so real if it had not been for my time in Kenya. It was the last sentence of verse five that irked me to the core as I read it; “imagining that godliness is a means of gain.” Timothy was not telling bed time stories here, rather he was addressing a very real and prominent issue that has plagued most impoverished nations of our day. When I think of the gospel being used as a means for gain I am deeply pained, but what pains me even more is to know that the recipients of that message have been left; “deprived in mind and deprived in truth.”
It began on a Saturday, as we pulled into our first kids club in Kenya. At the first sight of the kids I was overwhelmed, yet eagerly awaiting the start of what could be an eternal relationship. Or so I thought. It didn’t take long before I realized these kids had a very different agenda in mind; they wanted what we had, be it candy or money…but they weren’t looking for a relationship. I was deeply bothered by this and found myself before the Lord wondering how this could be? It didn’t take more then a few weeks of being in Kenya to realize we were riding on the wake of those who had brought a gutted gospel message. Those previously who had come with the gospel had come with goods and not with Jesus. They promised a better life through natural possessions and not through supernatural peace.
As I mentioned day one we were approached by all of the children asking us for candy, sweets and money (no joke). Money and sweets we did not bring them, but in those six months we brought them what we had, the gospel of Jesus Christ. What I am about to share next is nothing short of the supernatural power of the gospel working in and through broken lives. By the end of our six months we were to be approached by these same kids, who no longer were calling us for candy but rather calling us by our names. We would then be greeted with a piece of candy by one of these little ones, who most likely spent their only allowance for the week on this candy that they might gift it to us in sign of appreciation for the friendship.
It took awhile for us to brake down the misconceptions of the prosperity gospel so prevalent throughout impoverished nations today. The hardest thing was not that I had to believe Jesus was enough for me, but rather to believe He was enough for them. Weekly telling them Jesus was all they needed, when I knew they didn’t have a means to much more, really challenged my own belief in what I claimed to be true. Could He be enough?
I witnessed first hand the destruction of a perverted message, but also Gods blessing on the only Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ. Lives were transformed right before my eyes, not by money nor things of the physical. This was a supernatural working of the gospel, being poured out through loving channels for the purpose of meeting human needs. We brought them Jesus and of that it was enough. Our relationships grew far deeper through matters of the spiritual then they ever would have through the physical.
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