Philippians 4:10-23
I Have Learned to Be Content
10Now I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.
11I am not saying this out of need, for I have learned to be content regardless of my circumstances.
12I know how to live humbly, and I know how to abound. In any and every situation I have learned the secret of being filled and being hungry, of having plenty and having need.
13I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
14Nevertheless, you have done well to share in my affliction.
15And as you Philippians know, in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church but you partnered with me in the matter of giving and receiving.
16For even while I was in Thessalonica, you provided for my needs again and again.
17Not that I am seeking a gift, but I am looking for the fruit that may be credited to your account.
18I have all I need and more, now that I have received your gifts from Epaphroditus. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
19And my God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
20To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.
21Greet all the saints in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send you greetings.
22All the saints send you greetings, especially those from the household of Caesar.
23The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Berean Standard Bible
Paul is writing the last part of his letter, and he has to say thank you for money. The church at Philippi had collected it and sent it to him in prison, and a man named Epaphroditus carried it the whole way. Before he thanks them, he spends several verses making sure they understand he had not been asking for anything.
I am not saying this out of need, for I have learned to be content regardless of my circumstances.
Learned is the important word there. It means the contentment was acquired rather than assumed, and he says as much again at verse 12: in any and every situation he has learned the secret of being filled and being hungry.
He also tells them he learned it in two different situations. One is going without, and that is the one we expect. The other is having plenty, and that one catches people out. Most of us would never think of a full cupboard as something you have to learn how to handle, but Paul did, and he put both situations on the same list.
Then comes the sentence everybody knows.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
He is still talking about that list. Being full and being hungry, having plenty and having nothing. He means God gives him the strength to stay steady in any of them, which is a smaller and much more useful promise than the one people usually take from it.
Once that is out of the way, he thanks them properly. He tells them they did well. He says he is not after a gift for its own sake but after what the giving will do for them. And he calls the money they sent a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. They sent money to a prisoner, and Paul lays it on an altar.
He ends by telling a church that has just given away what it had that God will supply all their needs. That sentence is easy to hear as a promise of whatever we ask for. He writes it to people who had just parted with money they could have used.
The letter closes with greetings, and some of them come from believers inside the emperor's own household, sent by a man the empire is holding in chains.
How We Know
Verse 22 sends greetings from believers of Caesar's household, and the phrase names the emperor's own establishment rather than the government.
Lightfoot, working through what was known of it, describes its members as including slaves or freedmen, and notes that they were a body prominent enough to deserve a greeting of their own.
So this is not a boast about friends in high places. It points at the servants inside the imperial house and says that some of them belong to Christ, written by a man the empire was holding under guard.
- J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, Macmillan, London, the note on Caesar's Household, pages 171 to 178.
Questions
1 Paul has to thank them for money. How does he start?
AnswerBy telling them he did not need it. He says he is glad they showed their concern again, then adds that they had not had the chance before, and he gets the whole business of not being needy out of the way before he says thank you.
2 Paul says he learned to be content. What does that word tell you about how it went?
AnswerThat it did not come naturally and it did not come quickly. Learning something means getting it wrong for a while first. He is not describing a calm temperament he happened to be born with.
3 Which do you think is harder to be content with, having too little or having plenty?
AnswerPaul says he had to learn both. Most of us only think about contentment when money is tight. He puts having plenty on exactly the same list, as something that also has to be learned, and most people never treat it that way.
4 "I can do all things through Christ." What are the all things he means?
AnswerThe ones in the sentence just before it: being full and being hungry, having plenty and having need. It is a promise of strength to get through either one, not a promise that we will succeed at whatever we decide to attempt.
What This Means for Us
Paul had to learn contentment, and so will we. What he says next is where it came from, and it is not discipline or gratitude or managing himself well. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Underneath the contentment was a settled confidence about who was doing the strengthening.
We tend to file contentment under what to do when money is short. Paul puts having plenty on the same list, as a thing that has to be learned, and nobody ever warns you about that half of it. A family can be far more anxious in a good year than in a lean one, and in both cases for the same reason: it has quietly stopped believing God is the one holding it up.
The gift still mattered to him. He did not need it, he took it anyway, and he called it an offering to God, which means trusting God to supply and receiving something good from other people were never in competition.
So pick one thing this family has plenty of at the moment, and start further back than how well you are handling it. Would God still be enough if it were gone tomorrow? Let the answer to that decide how you hold it.
Prayer
Father, teach us to be content when we are short and when we have plenty, because we are much worse at the second than we like to admit. Thank you that you take what we give away and call it an offering. Give us what we need, and keep our hands open while you do it. Amen.