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Printer Friendly Version“For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances
I am…I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”
There are no words perhaps more familiar to us than these from Paul’s
concluding thoughts to the Philippians. They are very simple words yet full
of great power and promise. They attract us at the very deepest of our soul,
like a warm fire on a cold night. For whom among us does not long for this
very attitude and outlook on life to settle down over us like a comforting,
reassuring blanket? And yet, for many, if we were to be honest with ourselves,
this longed-for description seems like an unattainable reality existing a
million miles away. Could we really ever become people who truly were as content
with being cold, hungry, alone, and hurting as we are safe, secure, warm,
and well-fed?
For Paul the apostle, the answer was resoundingly yes. When
we remember what we know of his own personal situation as he writes this letter,
the fact is made even more concrete. Through Paul we can learn something significant
about what life can become as we pursue God with all that we are.
It is interesting that these words that gain so much attention
from this middle part of chapter 4 are in fact merely an explanation of a
more significant statement that Paul has just made. This sentence that precedes
these verses frequently goes overlooked. Paul declares that he is joyful that
at last the church has found a way to once again directly contribute to his
ministry.
He then hastens to explain what he means by that statement.
His joy is not because he wants something from them; he is content to follow
Jesus and take what comes his way. This is where these verses we love so well
come in. Paul is utterly and totally dependent upon God and knows that God
will give him whatever is needed.
Thus he lays aside any selfish motivation for wanting the Philippians
to be involved. His joy comes from his knowledge of what their involvement
in his ministry will do for them. They will learn to see God the way Paul
has; they will watch God provide and protect as he has for Paul. That will
produce in them the kind of faith it has produced in Paul.
My wife and I spent several days recently with a missionary
couple our age that was on furlough from the field. Their family situation
was similar to ours – several young children close in age, a reality
that causes many well-meaning people to question their wisdom in serving God
overseas. Our conversation with them was life-altering. Their passion and
trust in Jesus was clearly evident. In spite of the pressures of a large family
traveling the world, moving from church to church, speaking dozens of times
a week, being separated from family for long periods of time, living in a
strange culture and learning a new language; in spite of the difficulties
of raising the extensive financial support for such a family in a difficult
economy and the uncertainties that are part and parcel of that reality; in
spite of all of this, there was great joy that exuded from every pore in their
spirits. These were minor obstacles; Jesus knows what he is doing. The money
that is required will come from Jesus through those that he calls.
They were not about the business of fund-raising but of communicating
the stories of how God was at work and extending the privilege of being involved
to others around the country. No anxiety, no fear, no questioning about what
lay ahead. For this couple, life was not rooted in what they could see they
had in their possession; it was rooted in the joy of following Jesus where
he led and inviting others to do the same.
After our time together, I remarked to my wife, “Those
two make me want to do what they do!” And it is true. There was something
deeply significant about a life lived in complete abandonment to God’s
calling and promises that nothing we can ever fabricate for ourselves will
even come close to touching. When we join together and begin following Jesus
out into the world on his mission, we are changed. We are changed because
God is free to work in us and through us. The more we watch God work, the
easier it is to truly be happy “no matter the circumstance” and
the deeper our confidence grows in living out the life God calls us to. So
it was for Paul, too. He had learned contentment and trust in Christ because
he had experienced God’s provision and strength in those many times when
Paul’s own resources were completely inadequate.
What is the secret to becoming a great church marked by that
singular confidence in God? Go where Christ goes, follow where Jesus leads,
get involved in the calling to be a light to the nations. Invest our resources
and energies into helping those on the front lines of ministry. Seek hard
together for finding ways to deploy people into ministry. Become radically
committed in the long-term to building the kingdom of God.
Paul is able to make these statements here at the end of his
life because he’s lived a life of active obedience to God’s commands.
A life thus lived gives opportunity for God to demonstrate his faithfulness,
power, goodness, and great compassion for his children. When we are in the
heat of battle, facing the world that wants to persecute and reject, we do
indeed run into our own weaknesses, we fall short, we experience great need
or hurt or suffering. But those are the times that God’s strength comes
through, that we are delivered, and that our capacity for peaceful freedom
in spite of any circumstance is deepened yet again.
Consider what a community of faith might look like if it possessed
the characteristics spoken of here in Philippians 4:
First, a healthy body that has a lasting impact on the world
is a body that actively demonstrates compassion for others. Paul writes that
the Philippians “have been concerned, but have had no opportunity to
show it” (4:10). Now they have found a way to demonstrate their compassion
and commitment to the gospel.
One hallmark of the Body of Christ is an abundant concern for others.
Demonstrations of compassion and support over the years are
the bedrock of the relationship between Paul and the church; they have let
the Gospel he brought to them early on influence them to that degree. This
compassion and commitment ought to undergird everything we are about still
today. If we are to take the gospel seriously, it will compel us to go to
places and to support others in places where there is tremendous human need
and tremendous spiritual persecution.
During the Second World War Dr. Ernest Gordon, later Chaplain
of Princeton University, was a prisoner of war in Thailand. In his book, Through
the Valley of the Kwai he reflects on the difference between two Christmas
seasons he spent in prison. He says that in Christmas 1942 there were thousands
of American soldiers in that prison who robbed the sick among them, mistreated
one another, and did not care whether the other prisoners lived or died.
During the following year, a healthy American soldier began
giving his food to a sick buddy to help him get well. In time the sick prisoner
recovered, but the buddy who had given him food died of malnutrition. The
story of the man who sacrificed his life to save a buddy made the rounds of
the camp. Some of the prisoners remarked that he was a lot like Christ. Some
of the soldiers began to recall passages from the Bible they had learned years
earlier under far different circumstances. One of the passages stated, "This
is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love
has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
Some who were Christians took heart and began to witness to other men. The
prisoners began to ask about Christ and to meet for Bible study. When they
began to know Christ as Lord the entire atmosphere in the camp changed from
despair and desperation to hope and compassion. When Christmas of 1943 arrived,
Dr. Gordon said, 2000 prisoners assembled for worship. They sang carols and
someone read the story of the birth of Jesus from a Gospel account. Much more
was different. In spite of their hunger, prisoners who were well shared food
with the sick to help them gain strength faster. They cared for one another.
They agreed that the difference came about because of faith in Christ and
people who lived his love in the midst of unloving circumstances. The choices
they made were for righteousness and not evil. (Citation: Dr. Wayne Peterson,
Critical Choices; PreachingToday.com)
Great compassion lived out even at great cost brings both the
giver and the receiver into the life of God in a way nothing else can.
Secondly, a healthy body that has a lasting impact on the world
is a body that has learned contentment in all circumstances. Paul’s confession
that he had “learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (4:11)
resonates with us at a deep, visceral level. We were made for this kind of
freedom. God never intended for us to be bound by the need to take care of
ourselves and make life work. He intended for us to cultivate his creation
in all kinds of ways, to share life freely with one another, to serve one
another, to pursue the goodness of his world. He created Adam and Eve to have
dominion over the earth, to work the soil, to enjoy fellowship and intimacy
with Him and each other. He put them in the garden and gave them everything
they needed to live. God, from the beginning, designed reality in a way that
man’s very basic necessities are provided for him, provided for him by
God.
Years ago, Russell Conwell told of an ancient Persian, Ali Hafed,
who "owned a very large farm that had orchards, grain fields, and gardens...
and was a wealthy contented man." One day a wise man from the East told
the farmer all about diamonds and how wealthy he would be if he owned a diamond
mine. Ali Hafed went to bed that night a poor man--poor because he was discontented.
Craving a mine of diamonds, he sold his farm to search for the rare stones.
He traveled the world over, finally becoming so poor, broken, and defeated
that he committed suicide. One day the man who purchased Ali Hafed's farm
led his camel into the garden to drink. As his camel put its nose into the
brook, the man saw a flash of light from the sands of the stream. He pulled
out a stone that reflected all the hues of the rainbow. The man had discovered
the diamond mine of Golcanda, the most magnificent mine in all history. Had
Ali Hafed remained at home and dug in his own garden, then instead of death
in a strange land, he would have had acres of diamonds. (Citation: G. Sweeting,
in Moody Monthly, May, 1988, p. 95.)
Our “own garden” is the garden of life itself, following
God, loving Him with our whole heart, mind, and soul and loving our neighbor
as we love ourselves. To dig in our garden means we cultivate and practice
ways of expressing and showing that love. To show love to God is to trust
God wholly and believe what He says. He has promised to provide everything
we need if we will “seek first His kingdom” (Matthew 6:33), to let
our main priority in life be letting His kingdom be made real in our own personal
lives and in the life of our community. When we spend our life “digging
in this garden” we find an abundance of wealth and treasure that is the
treasure-store of heaven itself.
Finally, a healthy body that has a lasting impact on the world
is a body that actively walks with confidence in daily living. Paul was absolutely
serious and literal when he said “I can do everything through him who
gives me strength” (4:13). One quality of a dream-family is a confidence
that God’s plans and purposes for people do come to pass and that whatever
God calls people to have or do, they can have or do. There then comes a willingness
not only to do what God might someday ask, but to expect it and to eagerly
embrace it, even if it is hard.
Elisa Morgan, president of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) International,
writes:
I'm probably the least likely person to head a mothering organization. I grew
up in a broken home. My parents were divorced when I was 5. My older sister,
younger brother, and I were raised by my alcoholic mother.
While my mother meant well—truly she did—most of my
memories are of my mothering her rather than her mothering me. Alcohol altered
her love, turning it into something that wasn't love. I remember her weaving
down the hall of our ranch home in Houston, Texas, glass of scotch in hand.
She would wake me at 2 a.m. just to make sure I was asleep. I would wake her
at 7 a.m. to try to get her off to work.
Sure, there were good times like Christmas and birthdays when
she went all out and celebrated us as children. But even those days ended
with the warped glow of alcohol. What she did right was lost in what she did
wrong.
Ten years ago, when I was asked to consider leading MOPS International,
a vital ministry that nurtures mothers, I went straight to my knees—and
then to the therapist's office. How could God use me—who had never been
mothered—to nurture other mothers?
The answer came as I gazed into the eyes of other moms around
me and saw their needs mirroring my own. God seemed to take my deficits and
make them my offering—"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power
is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9).
It is not our abilities or ideas in life that get us anywhere,
but our willingness to respond humbly to whatever God wants to do and then
invest the energy of our life into pursuing that calling. Rather than relegate
the significant ministry of life to those who “are qualified”, we
become like children eagerly asking their father what they can do for him.
God wants to show Himself to the world but He shows himself most often through
the weak and powerless.
Holy Compassion, Holy Contentment, Holy Confidence: what a contrast
to so much of what life looks like in our culture today! We work hard with
our hands building our future, gathering around us those things we believe
will make for a better tomorrow. We invest years into gaining the nice house,
the secure job, the well-funded retirement account. We worry about health
insurance and the rising costs of oil. We get hung up on elections that we
are convinced will radically shape our own future. So much of our life is
aimed at attempting to bring about a better tomorrow. And yet so many, even
in the Body of Christ, grow more and more discontented every day.
That’s how it always ends up, though. When a person made
in God’s image buys the line of self-sufficiency and self-provision,
it becomes a life-consuming, maddening chasing of one’s own proverbial
tail. We were never made to be individuals driven by self-concern. We were
not created by God to consume life simply in order to try to enjoy it at the
end. The worst kind of oppression is that that comes when we spend our whole
life attempting to make ourselves free from worry, fear, anxiety, and purposelessness.
The great irony in the matter is that we work so hard to find peace, security,
and meaning and end up with exactly the opposite.
Musician Billy Joel has won many awards, including Male Artist
of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year.
Joel recorded an astounding twenty top-40 hits during the '80s, nine of which
reached the top ten. Joel was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame.
But on a personal level, his life has been less than accomplished.
"The happiest times in my life were when my relationships were going
well," the 53-year-old singer said. "But in my whole life, I haven't
met the person I can sustain a relationship with yet. So I'm discontented
about that. I'm angry with myself. I have regrets." Joel has been married
twice; his second marriage, to model Christie Brinkley, ended in 1994 after
nine years. "You don't get hugged by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,"
he says, "and you don't have children with the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame. I want what everybody else wants: to love and to be loved, and to have
a family." (From PreachingToday.com)
As children of God, as believers following Jesus, and as brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ, we are called to something radically different. A life that truly leads to peace, to contentment, to meaning, to happiness, to freedom. That is offered to us in the midst of a world gone wrong. And it is a life we see exuding from this Philippian church that has invested so much into Paul. When you are focused on the mission of God’s kingdom, when you serve selflessly and give of your own resources, when you are invested into things of eternity, it is much easier to discover what we all most desperately want. Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.” And so it is. To follow Jesus out into the world, to let his mission become our mission, to stand shoulder-to-shoulder supporting one another in serving the world, and to show compassion to those around us is the means to life and life abundant. Here and here alone shall we then find the contentment and dependence that comes only from God. But when we find it, nothing ever is the same again. It is today ours for the taking.