Wealth Enjoyment: Accomplish Something with It! | Joyful Wealth Management: A Bible Study Discussion Guide

1 Timothy 6:17-18

“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,”

In this passage, what follows “for enjoyment” explains how to accomplish that enjoyment. It’s the “how to” manual for wealth enjoyment.³⁰ Notice that it doesn’t say to just give. Instead, it says, “to do good.” This Greek word references,

“a work or worker who accomplishes something … a deed (action) that carries out (completes) an inner desire (intention, purpose).”³¹

What’s the difference between doing good and just giving away money?
How is it more enjoyable to “accomplish,” “carry out,” and “complete” an inner desire to do good rather than to just give away money?

In the Bible, God doesn’t want giving. He wants only a specific kind of giving. He wants giving only with the right emotion. It should be hilariously cheerful (2 Corinthians 9:7), overflowing from abundant joy (2 Corinthians 8:2), from the heart (Exodus 25:2, 35:5; Deuteronomy 15:10; 1 Chronicles 29:9, 17, 18; 2 Corinthians 9:7), with love (1 Corinthians 13:3), happy and blessed (Acts 20:35), and “party-time” enjoyable (1 Timothy 6:17). Even if we give away everything, without the right emotion, it’s all pointless. (1 Corinthians 13:3).

Does it matter to God if our giving brings us positive emotion and enjoyment?
Is this experience more likely when our giving does good by fulfilling an inner desire?
Think about the future possibilities for your own giving. What types of good works would you most enjoy creating? What would match your inner desires?

Achieving enjoyment from our own personal consumption is limited. Bingeing by stuffing in even more often ends poorly. But enjoyment from accomplishing good works is unlimited. In 1946, Professor Richard Lenski explained 1 Timothy 6:17-19 this way:

“Riches furnish a rich man special means for tasting this enjoyment. He can be in only one suit of clothes, sit only in one chair, eat only one meal at mealtime; but with his wealth he can reach out in a thousand directions and work good.”³²

How does the enjoyment from accomplishing good works differ from personal consumption?
Which is more enjoyable to look back on a month later? A year later? At the end of this life? After this life?

This passage says, “To do good.” This Greek word is special. It had never appeared anywhere before in all of Greek literature except one time in the Book of Acts.³³ There, it describes God.

“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.” (Acts 14:17).

In Acts, the word describes God richly providing us with material things. In 1 Timothy, it describes our response to God’s rich provision. We respond to God’s blessings by blessing others. We imitate God.³⁴

How is using our rich provision from God “to do good” a form of imitating God?
If what we have was a gift to us, how does that make sharing it with others easier or more enjoyable?
How does this relate to gratitude?

In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul encourages people to give. He explains,

“But in this matter I give you an opinion; for my doing this helps forward your own intentions” (2 Corinthians 8:10, WNT).³⁵

Good giving helps a person accomplish their intentions.

What about your intentions? If money were no object – the sky is the limit – what impact would match your inner desires?
If you could accomplish any change with a gift, what would it do? How would it make a difference in the world?

Notes and references

Professor Abraham Malherbe writes, “The infinitives thus describe how wealth is to be enjoyed, namely in the ways it is used: first, simply by doing good, stated in a verbal form (agathoergein) that captures the favorite ergon agathōn of the Pauline Epistles; second, stating the same thing with a similar favorite expression, erga kala, but explicitly describing the doing of such works as being rich in them (ploutein en ergois kalois); third, giving specificity to these general directions, to be generous and sharing (eumetadotous, koinōnikous).” [Malherbe, A. J. (2011). Godliness, self-sufficiency, greed, and the enjoyment of wealth 1 Timothy 6:3-19 Part II. Novum Testamentum, 53(1), 73-96. p. 89.]
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“To do good” is agathoergein from agathos (good) and ergon (work). The quote references ergon. Hill, G., & Archer, G. (2021). HELPS Lexicon [Software]. HELPS Ministries Inc. www.thediscoverybible.com.
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Lenski, R. C. H. (1946). Interpretation of St Paul’s Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. Augsburg Fortress. p. 730.
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“This is the first time agathoergein occurs in Greek literature.” [Malherbe, A. J. (2011). Godliness, self-sufficiency, greed, and the enjoyment of wealth 1 Timothy 6:3-19 Part II. Novum Testamentum, 53(1), 73-96. p. 92.]; “‘Do good’ is a single word in the Greek, a word used in only one other place in the New Testament, where it speaks of God showering his good gifts on his hearers (Acts 14:17).” [Hughes, R. K. & Chapell, B. (2000). 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus. Crossway Books. p. 162.]
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Similarly, Paul points to Jesus’s gift in his fundraising appeal letter in 2 Corinthians 8:9. This imitation of God is also known as “the mimetic gift – one gives in order to follow the example of Jesus.” [Chastenet, P. (2022). Giving under God’s gaze: Figures of the gift in the Bible and in the work of Jacques Ellul (C. Roy, Trans.). In J. M. Rollison (Ed.), Jacques Ellul and the Bible: Towards a hermeneutic of freedom (pp. 168-188). The Lutterworth Press. p. 171.]
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Weymouth New Testament
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