Most of us struggle with contentment in our lives. Perhaps some of it comes from the sin nature we all have. Maybe it’s taught to us since we are often told about things we should have and taught to be upset when we don’t have them.
In Philippians 4:11–13, 19, the apostle Paul reveals the power he was given to be content with his circumstances. Let’s look at Philippians 4:11–12, “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (NASB).[1]
The Greek word Paul uses here for “content” (v. 11) is autarkes,[2] which means “self-sufficient.” Stoic philosophers (who were common and prominent in Paul’s time) used this word to describe human self-reliance. One commentary reveals that this word “described the cultivated attitude of the wise person who had become independent of all things and all people.”[3] It was a calm acceptance of life’s pressures. To the Stoic philosophers of Paul’s day, contentment was the essence of all virtues. But Paul takes this word and uses it to describe how we are not sufficient on our own but sufficient based on someone else.
In Paul’s thirty years of ministry and thousands of miles of travel he has learned to be content. Paul didn’t have contentment early in his life (see Philippians 3 where he declared his zeal was above his fellow Pharisees), but he had to learn it through tough times. He describes his practical real-life experience saying “I have learned” and “I know how” twice in these verses. He knows how to survive, get along in life, and how to make it through tough times. It reminds me of how my dad used to teach our dogs to swim. We’d take the boat out onto the lake. Then he would toss the dog into the water to teach it to swim. Some things you can learn in a classroom; some things can only be learned in the real world.
But what was the “every circumstance” (v. 12) that Paul describes? According to Philippians 4:14 it was affliction but also likely a state of financial poverty.
Paul calls what he has learned a secret. He writes, “I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (v. 12). That “secret,” as we’ll learn next week in Philippians 4:13, is that Christ provides us what we need. Paul again uses the cultural background of the times in which he was living. When he writes “I have learned” it is the Greek word, myeo,[4] which literally means “I have been initiated.” This term was commonly used of the mystery religions to describe the initiation practices of a devotee who wanted to enter their secrets and privileges. The word in Greek is in the perfect tense which describes something that has happened in the past with present effects now.[5] Paul has learned this from past experiences, but it effects how he lives his life now.
With Paul as an example, maybe you have certain ways you have learned to be content. I think what we learn from Paul here is that God is the source of our contentment. And it’s helpful for us to realize that Paul learned to be content even in his difficult circumstances. This gives us hope that we too can learn to be content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves experiencing.
[1] Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.
[2] This is the only occurrence of this word in the New Testament.
[3] Peter O’Brien, Philippians (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B. Eerdmans, 1991), 521.
[4] The lexical form is μυέω but it appears here in verse twelve as μεμύημαι.
[5] “The force of the perfect tense is simply that it describes an event that, completed in the past . . . has results existing in the present time” (Dan Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996], p. 573).