“He Who Loves Money Will Not Be Satisfied”: Contentment

The Preacher of Ecclesiastes has tested pleasure, work, and wealth, and he reports that loving money is a hunger that grows with feeding. Paul, writing to Timothy, does not condemn having things. He says that contentment is what turns godliness into gain, and he warns that those who “want to get rich” fall into a trap (1 Tim. 6:9). In Philippians, from prison, he says he has “learned to be content” (Phil. 4:11). The word “learned” matters. Contentment is described as something trained, not something a man is born with or without.

Materialism and well-being. Dittmar, Bond, Hurst, and Kasser (2014) pooled 753 effect sizes from 259 independent samples. Placing money and possessions at the center of one’s goals and beliefs was reliably associated with lower well-being (r = −.19 for the broadest measures). The associations were strongest for risky health and spending behaviors and for negative views of oneself. They were weakest for life satisfaction. The authors’ analyses suggested that the link may run through poorer satisfaction of basic psychological needs such as connection and a sense of competence.

Why more never feels like enough. The paper’s Bonus section introduced the brain’s teaching signal: dopamine neurons fire most when an outcome is better than expected, and as rewards become predictable, the signal moves from the reward to the cue that predicts it (Schultz et al., 1997). Applied here, this suggests why a raise, a new truck, or a bigger house tends to stop satisfying once it becomes normal. The brain stops signaling once the reward is expected. This is a reasonable inference from basic reward research, not a finding about wealth itself.

What the studies cannot tell us. The materialism research is correlational. Unhappy people may turn to money, as well as money-focus making people unhappy. The effects are real but modest. And Paul’s contentment rests on Christ’s sufficiency (“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me,” Phil. 4:13), which no survey measures. What the research supports is narrower: a life organized around getting tends, on average, to be a less satisfied life.

Practice

Living it out

Five practices drawn from this passage. Each says how strong the research behind it is. What the labels mean.

1. 1

   Name the “enough” before you get the raise

   Write down what you and your wife consider enough income, house, and savings for this season, and what you will do with anything beyond it.

   ModerateMaterialistic goals are linked to lower well-being across hundreds of samples (Dittmar et al., 2014). Setting an explicit “enough” has not been tested directly.
2. 2

   Practice contentment as a discipline, out loud

   Once a week, thank God specifically for something you already own and use.

   EarlySmall but real. Gratitude practices modestly improve well-being (Davis et al., 2016, cited in the paper). Their effect on materialism specifically is untested.
3. 3

   Wait before you buy

   For any purchase you didn’t plan, wait a set time, such as a week, before buying. Notice how often the desire fades.

   EarlyFits the reward-prediction research (Schultz et al., 1997) and Addition 15’s counsel to change the setting. The waiting period itself has not been tested.
4. 4

   Spend on people more than on things

   When you do spend freely, tilt it toward shared meals, generosity, and time with others.

   StrongStrong that spending on others raises happiness more than spending on oneself (Dunn et al., 2008; see Addition 13).
5. 5

   Fast from the feed that sells to you

   For a month, unsubscribe from retail emails and mute shopping content.

   EarlyEarly, by inference. Cues drive reward-seeking (Schultz et al., 1997). Cutting advertising exposure has not been tested here.

Studies cited on this page4

1. ↗ Davis, D. E., Choe, E., Meyers, J., Wade, N., Varjas, K., Gifford, A., Quinn, A., Hook, J. N., Van Tongeren, D. R., Griffin, B. J., & Worthington, E. L., Jr. (2016). Thankful for the little things: A meta-analysis of gratitude interventions. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(1), 20–31. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000107
2. ↗ Dittmar, H., Bond, R., Hurst, M., & Kasser, T. (2014). The relationship between materialism and personal well-being: A meta-analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107(5), 879–924. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037409
3. ↗ Dunn, E. W., Aknin, L. B., & Norton, M. I. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science, 319(5870), 1687–1688. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1150952
4. ↗ Schultz, W., Dayan, P., & Montague, P. R. (1997). A neural substrate of prediction and reward. Science, 275(5306), 1593–1599. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.275.5306.1593