But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
Parallel translations
- WEB But having food and clothing, we will be content with that.
- KJV And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
- NKJV And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
- NASB If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.
- NLT So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Having food and clothing, we should be content. Life's basic provisions are enough for the satisfied believer.
Overview
Paul names a simple standard for contentment: having our basic needs of food and covering met is sufficient grounds for satisfaction. This is not a vow of poverty but a heart freed from craving more. It echoes Jesus' teaching not to be anxious, trusting the Father who knows our needs and provides.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Heb 13:5–6Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
- Matt 6:11Give us this day our daily bread.
- Matt 6:25–33Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
- Gen 28:20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear,
- Prov 30:8–9Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion.
- Deut 2:7Indeed, the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. The LORD your God has been with you these forty years, and you have lacked nothing.
- Eccl 3:12–13I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and do good while they live,
- Prov 27:23–27Be sure to know the state of your flocks, and pay close attention to your herds;
- Deut 8:3–4He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
- Eccl 2:24–26Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God.
- Gen 48:15Then he blessed Joseph and said: “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
There is 'one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all' — the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.
How 1 Timothy 6:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.