Overcoming Discontentment

Let Goods and Kindred Go

If you want this truth in one sentence, here it is: Hold lightly what you value greatly because you can’t keep it forever anyway. This week I re-read the story of Jim Elliot and the death in January 1956 of the five missionaries who sought to bring the gospel to the Auca Indians of Ecuador. They were killed by the Aucas (now called the Waoranis) because the Indians feared the white men and thought they had come to harm them. The missionaries knew the danger they were facing and took as many precautions as possible. But in the end they were killed, and from their death came a groundswell of young people volunteering for missionary service. In her book Through Gates of Splendor, Elizabeth Elliot tells of the frank discussions she and Jim had about the dangers of making the first face-to-face contact with the Aucas. At one point he said to her, “If it is the will of God, darling, I am ready to die for the salvation of the Aucas.” Both sides of that prophetic statement came true. In the years to come, God used the death of those missionaries to bring many of the Aucas to faith in Christ.

“Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also,

The body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still,

His kingdom is forever.”

(from A Mighty Fortress Is Our God)

IV. The most important thing is to give undivided devotion to the Lord. vv. 32-35

This principle comes from verses 32-35 where Paul points out that singles have freedoms that those who are married don’t have. Singles can serve the Lord without as many earthly distractions. But those who are married are divided in the sense that they must (and should) give attention to the needs of their spouses. It’s only right that a husband should care about his wife, and it is natural and normal that a wife should concern herself with the needs of her husband. This is right and good, but the energy devoted to those worthy causes is time and effort that might have been devoted to the service of the Lord. To say it that way makes it sound as if Paul believes singleness is more righteous than marriage. Or that marriage is less godly than being single. But that is not the case. You can serve the Lord effectively either way. But there is an undeniable truth in Paul’s point. Certainly every married person knows that marriage is both a blessing and a heavy burden. Not an onerous burden, but a burden of care and concern, of time and money and prayers and thought and tears and love and energy. To be truly married means giving of yourself unstintingly to the one you love. If you are single, that time and energy could be directly applied to the service of others in the name of Christ. This is Paul’s point. He wishes us to understand that the greatest calling in life is serving the Lord with an undivided heart. Singles have an easier time of that if they will apply their hearts in the right direction.

A Word to Singles

Therefore, let me direct a few words to the singles who may be reading these words. Use your time to serve the Lord. If you are young and unmarried, this is a message you especially need to hear. If you don’t use your days to serve the Lord, you are wasting this part of your life. Don’t spend your days pining away, dreaming about marriage and hoping against hope that the man or woman of your dreams will miraculously appear on a white horse to rescue you. Only God knows whether or not you will be married someday. Leave it in his hands. And don’t spend your waking hours scheming about being married. Use your time and energy to serve the Lord. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to want to be married, or to plan to be married, or to ask God for a marriage partner. Such thoughts are normal and good. But don’t let those noble thoughts become the all-consuming passion of your life. Serve the Lord and let your future rest in his capable hands.