Follow the Ancient Path of Wealth Enjoyment | A Christian’s Guide to Joyful Wealth Management

1 Timothy 6:17-19, “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be high-minded or to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things for enjoyment: to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.”⁴⁹

A-Riches [Death] (6:7, 9-10)⁵⁰

B-Riches [Now/temporary] (6:17a)⁵¹

C-Riches [Leading to community separation] (6:17b)⁵²

D-Riches [Tightly grasped as one’s hope] (6:17c)⁵³

E-Riches [Hidden/disappearing/uncertain] (6:17d)⁵⁴

F-Riches [Godly source/inflow] (6:17e)⁵⁵

G-Riches [Purpose: for enjoyment] (6:17f)⁵⁶

F'-Riches [Godly use/outflow] (6:18a)⁵⁷

E'-Riches [Visible/beautiful good works] (6:18b)⁵⁸

D'-Riches [Open-handedly shared] (6:18c)⁵⁹

C'-Riches [Leading to community connection] (6:18d)⁶⁰

B'-Riches [Future/permanent] (6:19a)⁶¹

A'-Riches [Life] (6:19b)⁶²

Enjoyment is the point

God richly supplies each of us with all things. Sometimes He blesses with wealth or the ability to produce wealth. But why? What is it for? What is His purpose in supplying these things? The answer may surprise you.

1 Timothy 6:17-19 explains it. In Greek, it’s one long sentence. It’s part of a chiastic structure. The first item contrasts with the last, the second with the next-to-last, and so on.

This series of contrasts leads to the main point in the middle. The structure is like a “greater than” (>) symbol pointing to the key idea.⁶³ The effect is to triple emphasize the main point.

What is the point? It’s a purpose clause. It explains the purpose of God’s rich provision. That purpose is “for enjoyment.”

That’s right. The reason for God’s ongoing rich provision to us is “for enjoyment.”⁶⁴ And this isn’t just some mild, polite enjoyment. It’s a full-on, party-time enjoyment! The New Testament uses this word only one other time. It describes enjoying “the temporary pleasures of sin” in Pharaoh’s palace. Here, it’s not sinful. But it’s still extreme enjoyment.

God doesn’t want us to live the depressing life of bingeing and excess consumption. He doesn’t want us to live the fearful life of anxiously hoarding wealth just to die with it. He wants us to enjoy it. That’s the point. That’s the purpose.

That sounds great – and it is! But how? How do we accomplish this? How do we accomplish God’s purpose of enjoyment? The passage tells us this, too.

The two steps of wealth enjoyment

1 Timothy 6 outlines the process for wealth enjoyment. It’s a two-step process:

Step 1: Move from wealth to abundance

Step 2: Move from abundance to enjoyment

Next, we’ll look at each step in detail.

For more on this topic, see Chapter 6 in

Joyful Wealth Management: A Bible Study Discussion Guide 65

Continue with Step 1: Move from wealth to abundance · Step 2: Move from abundance to enjoyment

Notes and references

This translation modifies the NASB by removing the phrase “. Instruct them”. The excised phrase is italicized in the NASB, indicating that it does not appear in the original text. The omitted period is replaced by a colon, reflecting that this is not two sentences but one continuous sentence where the phrase “for enjoyment” is elucidated by the subsequent list of infinitive phrases. (See a full discussion of this in The Biblical fundraiser in ancient words: The historical ministry of major gifts fundraising, Chapter 7.) The phrase “for enjoyment” replaces “to enjoy” in order to highlight that this is a purpose clause and not an infinitive like the subsequent “to” phrases. The term “high-minded” replaces “conceited” as it is closer to the textual sense of the original term hypsēlophronein where hypsēlo references “high” and phronein references “mind.”
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6:7 is a direct death reference. 6:9-10 then uses seven death-related words: pagida, blaberas, bythizousin, olethron, apōleian, kakōn, periepeiran, odynais. The unit sequence is death[7]–pause[8]–death[9-10]–pause[11-16]. See The Biblical fundraiser in ancient words: The historical ministry of major gift fundraising, Chapter 15-III.
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6:17b “rich in the now time” plousiois en tō nyn aiōni. (This is time as age, aiōni, or perhaps as this present opportune moment, kairō, as found in the Codex Sinaiticus)
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6:17c “not being high-minded” mē hypsēlophronein.
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6:17d “Nor to-have-hoped in of-riches” mēde ēlpikenai epi ploutou.
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6:17e “of-riches uncertainty/hiddenness” ploutou adēlotēti.
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6:17f “but on God the-One providing us all-things richly” all’ epi Theō tō parechonti hēmin panta plousiōs.
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6:17g “for [the purpose of] enjoyment” eis apolausin.
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6:18a “to-do-good [intrinsically good]” agathoergein. This word appears nowhere else in Greek literature except in Acts 14:17 where it describes God richly providing to all; here is our matching godly provision to others.
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6:18b “to-be-rich in works good [beautiful, visible, noble]” ploutein en ergois kalois.
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6:18c “generous in distributing” eumetadotous. Also “open-handed” in some translations such as Centenary Translation of the New Testament; Goodspeed New Testament; Moffatt New Testament; Montgomery New Testament; Twentieth Century New Testament; Weymouth New Testament; Williams New Testament.
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6:18d “ready-to-share” koinōnikous.
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6:19a “treasuring-up for-themselves a-foundation good for the future” apothēsaurizontas heautois themelion kalon eis to mellon.
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6:19b “so-that they-may-take-hold of that-which-is-indeed life” hina epilabōntai tēs ontōs zōēs.
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It is the left side of an X, or chi in Greek, hence the term “chiastic” structure.
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See also Acts 14:17, “yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” Similarly, the first-century Christian treatise, The Didache, includes the same phrase, eis apolausin, in “You gave food and drink to men for enjoyment, that they might give thanks to You.” Anonymous. (1886). The Didache (M. B. Riddle, Trans.). In Anti-Nicene fathers, Vol. 7. Christian Literature Publishing. 10.3.
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Available for free at EncourageGenerosity.com. See also, The Biblical fundraiser in ancient words: The historical ministry of major gift fundraising, Chapters 7-I, 7-II; and The Biblical fundraiser in modern practice: Helping Christians enjoy their wealth, Chapter 7-I.
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