PREVAILING CONTENTMENT – Philippians 4:10-13
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on October 7, 2012 under 2012 |
Preached Sunday, October 7, 2012 from Philippians 4:10-13
Theme: Prevailing contentment comes by to learning—in all things—to rest in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This verse comes in the last of the main sections of Paul’s letter—a section that gives us the ‘practical purpose’ of this letter. It was written by Paul as a ‘thank you’ for a large gift that the Philippians had sent to him while he was enchained in a Roman prison cell. They had heard about how he had been suffering; and after they gathered together a collection to help with his financial support, they sent it to him by the hand of a dear brother named Epaphroditus.
Before Epaphroditus returned home, Paul wrote this letter that we now have in our Bibles, and asked him to take it back to his brothers and sisters in Philippi. Among the many things that Paul wrote to them in it, we find this in Philippians 4:10-13;
But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need (Philippians 4:10-12).
And then comes those wonderfully encouraging words in verse 13:
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
This closing “thank you” section of Paul’s letter goes all the way to verse 20. And there are several great lessons to be learned from what he says in it. But today, I ask that we just concentrate on verses 10-13—on Paul’s great affirmation of the sufficiency of Christ in his life; and of how he learned, through Christ, to be “content” in all things.
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Let’s take a moment to consider the thing that Paul speaks of in this morning’s passage—’contentment’.
The word that Paul uses in the original language to describe this thing—the one that’s here translated “content”—is is one that comes from putting two Greek words together into one. The first word (autos) means “self”; and the second word (arkeō) means “to be sufficient” or “to be enough”. When you put them together, the word autarkēs means “to be sufficient or enough for one’s self”.
But we shouldn’t understand Paul to be saying that he was ‘self-sufficient’. Rather, what he meant was that he had an inward sufficiency—and inward sense of “enough-ness”—that was not dependent upon any external circumstance or any material provision. The best word to use to describe this ‘sufficiency for one’s self” is as “contentment”—true, prevailing contentment.
There are two other places in the New Testament where this word appears—and both of them are in another two of Paul’s letters. First, we find it in 2 Corinthians 9:6-8, when Paul was writing to the Corinthian believers about being generous in their giving. He encouraged them not to hold back—as if they had to be afraid of giving too generously; and told them:
But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work (2 Corinthians 9:6-8).
That word “sufficiency” is the same word that is translated “contentment” in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. We need never be afraid of giving. God is not only able to give us more than enough to give in order to serve the needs of others; but also, along with it, “all sufficiency in all things”—that wonderful sense of prevailing contentment with Him as our Provider.
The other place it appears is in 1 Timothy 6. There, Paul warned Pastor Timothy to be on the alert against false teachers who mislead the people of God. Such false teachers were characterized by a sense of ‘greediness’—who “suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself” (1 Timothy 6:5). And Paul goes on to speak of how important ‘contentment’ in the heart of the man of God is—using the very same word that he uses in our passage this morning:
Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content1. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (vv. 7-10).
The kind of contentment that Paul speaks of, then, is a very important thing to have. It’s something that, quite frankly, shows us to be true followers of Jesus Christ.
But more than that—it’s something we all genuinely need. People need to have that sense of contentment. People even bring great hurt upon themselves when they try to fill that need for contentment in wrong ways. When they seek that sense of inward contentment through the things of this world or through pleasant circumstances, they become frustrated. The things of this world cannot satisfy the soul; and the circumstances of life are outside of our control. And when the soul is left unfulfilled by the things of this world, people try even harder to achieve that sense of contentment through harmful ways—through false religions or false philosophies that give a false sense of ‘contentment’; or through the temporary sensation of ‘contentment’ that comes from drugs, or alcohol, or sensual gratification.
The whole time long, the God who made us for Himself offers us the contentment that our souls truly need. It comes only through a relationship with His Son Jesus Christ. And that is what Paul is illustrating to us in this opening part of the “thank you” section of his letter. He is showing us how that prevailing, inner contentment—that prevailing sense of ‘sufficiency for one’s self’ in all things, and in all circumstances—comes only by resting in the sufficiency of Someone else. It comes by learning to find our contentment in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ.
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Now; consider with me the circumstances that Paul was in when he wrote these words. We find those circumstances mentioned in verse 10; where he writes; “But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity.”
As soon as Epaphroditus came to Paul with a generous financial gift from the Philippian believers, Paul’s heart was encouraged. In the original language, Paul uses a form of the verb that can be translated, “I was rejoiced . . .!” The gift that they sent to him made him very happy. He knew that they loved him and cared about him; but he also knew that—as much as they had wanted to be a support to him in times past—they had been unable to do so. But now, their heartfelt concern for him “flourished” again. Just like a beautiful flower, it “bloomed” once more.
And I think that it’s a wonderful quality of Paul that he wanted them to know how happy this made him. Paul was certainly not an ungrateful person. His heart was deeply moved by their love for him. In fact, he turned it all back—as he always did—upon the Lord. He said, “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly . . .” In verse 4, he called them to “rejoice in the Lord always”; and now, he was letting them know that that’s what he was doing—”rejoicing in the Lord” that the Lord Himself had moved upon their hearts to support him in his need.
But then, Paul says something in verse 11 that has caused a lot of problems for a lot of students of the Bible. He says, “Not that I speak in regard to need . . .” It almost sounds as if he had just told them how much he rejoiced in their gift, then turned around and took the joy out of it by telling them that he really didn’t feel like he needed it.
Many have suggested that Paul was being a bit cold and indifferent to the Philippians when he said this. But nothing could be further from the truth! Paul was taking advantage of a ‘teachable moment’. Do you remember what Paul said in verse 9? He told them, “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.” Paul was ever mindful of the fact that he was an example to his brothers and sisters of what it looked like to live the Christian life. And now, he was going to show them what it looked like to live the Christian life in his particular position of deep need.
It wasn’t that Paul was ungrateful when he said, “Not that I speak in regard to need . . .” Rather, it was that he was a God-saturated man who was prevailingly content in the sufficiency of Christ. And he wanted his readers to experience the same contentment that he experienced. He wanted to launch-off, in this ‘teachable moment’, into a lesson about ‘ prevailing contentment’—using himself as an object lesson as he sat in a miserable Roman prison cell.
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Now; to really get a grasp on the lesson that Paul sought to teach, I ask that we work backwards through this passage. Let’s begin by looking at verse 13; and see . . .
1. WHERE PAUL’S CONTENTMENT WAS CENTERED (v. 13).
He wrote; “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” That’s how it’s translated in the version of the Bible that I’m using. Some other versions of the Bible have it this way: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me”. But it’s obvious that the “Him” that he speaks of is Jesus Christ. As he said in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Jesus was everything to Paul—including his source of strength in the trials of life.
Just think of the ways that Paul affirmed elsewhere in Scripture that Christ had “strengthened” him. Paul, in and of himself, was unworthy to be a preacher of the gospel. He had been an enemy of Christ. But in 1 Timothy 1:12, he said, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry . . .” Jesus “enabled” him to be what He had called him to be. And when Paul went off in obedience to the call of God to preach the gospel, the Lord Jesus continued to enable him in all of his trials. Even near the end—after all the terrible threats that he faced, and after all the attempts others had made to silence him—he was able to say, “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear” (2 Timothy 4:17).
And dear brothers and sisters in Christ; I believe Paul would have each of us say the very same thing—that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. As Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:20-21;
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21).
And that works down, in a very practical sense, to this whole matter of ‘prevailing contentment’. You and I, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, are not subject to the circumstances of life. Our joy is not dependent upon material resources or upon outward events. Our sense of sufficiency in all things is dependent upon the unchanging sufficiency of Jesus Christ Himself; the Son of the Almighty God, who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
Ask yourself how your overall sense of ‘contentment’ is. Is it unpredictable? Is it cheaply gained and easily lost? Does it go up and down with the circumstances? Then check your heart and see where your contentment rests. Paul’s contentment was unshakable, because it was centered in the unchanging Person of Jesus Christ—who strengthened Paul for the doing of all things.
If our contentment is centered in Jesus, our contentment will be as unshakable as Paul’s.
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That’s what Paul says in verse 13—”I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” That who Paul’s inner sense of sufficiency was centered upon.
But how effective was the sufficiency of Christ? How well did it serve Paul in the various circumstances of life? Let’s go back one more verse to verse 12; and see . . .
2. WHAT PAUL’S CONTENTMENT LOOKED LIKE (v. 12).
Paul wrote; “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Paul truly experienced it all. He had been “abased”—and that’s a word that was sometimes used to describe a river that was running low and dry. But he’d also “abounded”—just like a river that overflowed. He’d known what it felt like to have a belly that was full and satisfied, but also what it was like to be hungry and with no certainty where the next meal was coming from. He knew what it was like not only to have the bank account full, but also to be in a state of poverty.
And yet, his sense of inner sufficiency was unaffected by these changing circumstances. He knew how to “be” all these things—whatever they were. Most of us have learned something of what it’s like to be either one or the other—prosperous or poor; full or empty; abounding or abased. But few of us know what it feels like to be both. For some of us who have been poor, one of the worst things that could happen to us would be to suddenly become prosperous. I’m sure that’s why—in the mercy of God—many of us are not prosperous as we might like to be. We wouldn’t know how to handle it. It would destroy us. But for some others of us who have been comfortable and prosperous in life, one of the worst things that could happen would be that we would lose it all. We wouldn’t know how to bear up under the loss. We wouldn’t know how to be needy. But Paul knew, through Christ, how to have a sense of inner sufficiency—a prevailing contentment—in both conditions.
Whenever I think of Paul’s words here, my mind always goes to his words in 2 Corinthians 11. He was writing about false teachers that were seeking to elevate themselves and their false gospel above him. And he wrote;
Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? (2 Corinthians 11:22-29).
What ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ this man experienced! In terms of our own human resources, any one of those experiences would have been more than most of us could take. And yet, Jesus Christ strengthened him and upheld him in all the various extremes of life. As he says in our passage today, “Everywhere and in all things . . .” That pretty much covers it all, doesn’t it? He was even proving it as he wrote these words of victory—sitting as he was in a dark, dank Roman prison cell awaiting possible execution.
And dear brothers and sisters in Christ; I believe he would tell us that the same can be true for you and me. If we keep our sense of sufficiency centered in the Person of Jesus Christ as Paul did, then we will be empowered by Him to experience the same prevailing consistency of ‘contentment’ in all of the challenges of life—just as Paul experienced.
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So; in verse 13, we see where Paul’s contentment was centered—”I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” And moving backwards in this passage, we see what this contentment looked like in practice—” I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”
But now, we come to verse 11; and to one of the most practical elements of this whole passage. It’s there that we learn . . .
3. HOW PAUL’S CONTENTMENT WAS ACQUIRED (v. 11).
You see; Paul was made of the same fallible flesh and blood you and I are made of. Such prevailing contentment in Christ—a contentment that stayed constant in all the various ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ of Paul’s amazing life—didn’t just come naturally for him. There was no magic formula for Paul’s contentment. He didn’t become a ‘prevailingly content’ man as a result of some sudden ‘spiritual’ experience. It was an ‘acquired’ trait that became his in the same way it must become ours—and that is by practice.
Look at what he says in verse 11. “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content . . .” The word that he uses for “learned” refers to being ‘taught’ something so that it becomes a custom or a habit. It’s the same word that he used in verse 9—”The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do . . .”
In fact, if you will look once again to verse 12, you see further indications of acquiring ‘contentment’ in all things by ‘learning’ it. He said, “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound . . .” These are words that describe what used to be called “good, old fashioned ‘know-how’”—the kind of know-how that only comes by experience; the kind that only comes as a result of trial and error; the kind that only comes from failing, and then learning from your mistakes, and getting right back up and trying it again until you “know how”.
And he goes on further in verse 12 to say, “Everywhere and in all things I have learned . . .” And the word that he uses for “learned” here is a different word than the word “learned” in verse 11. This is a particular word for learning that has to do with being ‘initiated’ into a ‘secret’. It would be something that Paul didn’t know naturally, but was taught it by another. That’s why the New International Version translates this, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation . . .”
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So; Paul knew the “secret” of experiencing prevailing contentment in life. It came by resting in the sufficiency of Christ alone—and not in the circumstances of life. It was a contentment that proved itself in actual experience—so that whether he prospered or suffered need, whether he was full or famished, he enjoyed a satisfying inner sufficiency through Christ. And it was not something that came any more natural to him than it would to us—but was something that he ‘learned’ by trusting Jesus in the school of everyday experience.
How, then, can this be true of you and me? How can we experience the sort of contentment that Paul experienced? Obviously, the first thing you must do is to make absolutely sure you have entered into a relationship with Jesus by faith. He wrote that he aspired “be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Philippians 3:9). Just as Paul himself had done, you must cease from trusting in your own good works to make yourself righteous before God, and consciously place your trust in the cross of Jesus Christ alone. You cannot have the contentment that is the gift of God’s grace through Jesus unless you are in a relationship with Him by faith.
But it’s not enough to have placed your faith in Jesus Christ at some time in your life. You must maintain that relationship, keep it vital and living and growing, and actually ‘abide’ in Christ daily. As Jesus said;
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 5:1-5).
And finally, as you abide in that relationship with Jesus, and continually grow in dependency upon His complete sufficiency, you must “learn”—by practical experience—to bring that sufficiency to bear in the changing circumstances of life. In the ups, in the downs, in the abasing times, in the abounding times, turn all to Him. Keep Him at the center. Thank Him for your needs and for His provisions. Rejoice in Him in the times of abundance. Acknowledge that He is in control of them all—and that, in them all, He never changes. Trust Him in everything because it is by Him that you are able to do all things.
Do that—just as Paul did—and the God of peace will truly be with you!
The word in verse 6 that is translated “contentment” is our word autarkēs. But the word translated “be content” in verse 8 is a different but related word—the second half of that compound word, arkeō; which can be translated “enough” or “sufficient”.
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