Most of us struggle with contentment in our lives. But in Philippians 4:11-13, 19 the apostle Paul reveals the power he was given to be content with his circumstances.
PAUL LEARNED TO BE CONTENT
“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.” (Philippians 4:11–12)[1]
The Greek word Paul uses here for “content” (v. 11) is autarkes[2] which means “self-sufficient.” Stoic philosophers 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? It was affliction (v. 14), but also likely a state of financial poverty. He calls this a secret. He writes, “I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (v. 12). 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.
PAUL LEARNED TO RELY ON CHRIST
“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
Here Paul describes what is possible. The word “things” is a pronoun which means it has to be defined by something or qualified by something else (what is called an antecedent). And those “things” are what Paul has talked about in Philippians 4:12 which were humble means, prosperity, being filled, being hungry, having abundance, suffering need.
Paul says that what is possible is based on the secret (which is Christ). Again, Paul is contrasting those Stoic philosophers of his time who said that you can be content by being sufficient and reliant on yourself. Paul learned to be content in poverty not because of his self-sufficiency, but because of his God-sufficiency. Paul was not content because he was self-sufficient with his situation. He was content because of Christ who strengthened him to get through every circumstance. His circumstances changed, but his contentment did not because his contentment was based on Christ, not his circumstances. The joy Paul mentions sixteen times in this letter did not come from poverty or prosperity, his joy came from Christ.
Paul says that was possible is based on the filling power of Christ. When he says that Christ “strengthens me,” it means Christ “infuses strength into me”[6] or that Christ “pours strength into me.” The same phrase is used in 1 Timothy 1:12, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service” (emphasis added). Paul’s source of strength was Christ and that was his secret in getting by with a lot or little.
Paul described that was possible was not based on himself. The focus here is not on me and how I improve my circumstances. There is nothing here about how to get what you need. What he has learned is not “how to escape” or “how to improve” but instead, “how to make do with where I am.” This is not some self-help manual, “If you don’t like your life, change it.” I remember once talking to a non-Christian and asked him what he thought about the Bible. He told me he thought the Bible contained good principles for achieving success in life. But the Christian life is not about us, it’s about God and how He interacts with us.
Paul reveals how to get through and how to survive through the circumstances he was enduring. The self-help version of Philippians 4:13 goes like this, “I can do all things through myself because I try hard.” But Paul’s version is, “I can do all things through another person and his name is Jesus Christ.”
PAUL LEARNED TO TRUST GOD’S PROMISE
“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)
These are Paul’s final words as he comes to the close of his letter. He knows that the people of Philippi likely have struggles and will encounter difficulties like he did, so he gives them one last encouragement and direction on how to be content.
Notice the emphatic “my” at the beginning of the verse. We must remember the personal God helps us. Paul says, “my God” (emphasis added). He could have said, “God got me through” or “God will take care of you.” But instead he says “my God” is the one who helped me and He will help you. The God that allowed him to be put in prison is the same God that would sustain him through it.
Notice a full promise is described. He writes that God “will supply all your needs.” That’s the promise that they need to hold on to in their lives. This is a declaration of what God will do for us. When the food pantry is bare or the bank account is empty, God will provide.
Notice the basis for the promise. It says “according to” which is the reason or the basis for why God can supply every need that we have. It tells us why he can supply every need. And this is why Paul says he can be content and get through every circumstance: God does it. As Warren Wiersbe once said, “Contentment comes from adequate resources.”[7] And as Christians our adequate resource is God.
God is sufficient to get us through the various trials of life. God won’t fix every problem, but He will help us through every issue. God won’t heal every sickness, but He will strengthen us to endure it. God won’t restore every broken relationship, but He will help us forgive others and live in peace.
[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] αὐτάρκης. 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).
[6] Vincent, Marvin Richardson Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1887), p. 460.
[7] Warren Wiersbe, Be Joyful (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2008), p. 147.