Covetousness can bring about one's destruction. He says such a man is like a wild animal that leaps at bait hung over a pit. The animal falls in, impales itself on a sharp stake below, and is totally destroyed. In light of these reasons, I hope that we will pay heed to this biblical counsel to avoid covetousness. In our earlier study we said that the Greek word for contentment is autarkeia.
Auto means self and arkeia means sufficiency, so autarkeia means self-sufficiency.
Christian contentment has no regard for circumstances in which we find ourselves. Come what may, Christians are sufficient in themselves, but this is only through God's abounding grace. Christian contentment means a self-sufficiency due to the absolute sufficiency of God's abounding grace that he pours out in plenty to everyone who looks to him. The skill of self-sufficiency is something which we as disciples are to learn, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself teaches us this skill through our Christian experience. When we learn it, we will possess a wonderful skill.