Contentment and confidence are rare commodities these days. Contentment can oftentimes be nothing more than passivity dressed up in the expensive clothing of religious language and the cheap lipstick of cultural philosophy. Confidence on the other hand, can oftentimes be nothing more than reckless hype and emotional response.
It doesn’t seem too shocking to me that in a day and age with an ever-increasing hostility and coldness to the gospel (even in the church) that true contentment and true confidence are rare commodities with counterfeits masquerading around like they’re the real deal; offering hope in self-sufficiency.
Sometimes I catch myself believing that if my circumstances could change then I would find contentment. If the kids would stop arguing, if my friends would see things the way I do, if our country would get its act together, if the evil or broken things in this world (discrimination, spousal abuse, murder, abortion, child neglect, government scandal, Covid19, etc.) would get fixed, then I would feel content.
What a blatant lie this line of thinking is; that somehow, contentment is contingent on circumstances that are out of my control.
Confidence, on the other hand, can be just as elusive as contentment. When I begin to believe that if I just listen to the right political pundits or activists or if I spend enough time researching the gobs and gobs of opinions on Covid19 or if I saturate myself in all of the legal battles that are raging across our nation right now in pursuit of legislating morality, then I will gain the confidence needed to stand against all the evil in this world.
What a blatant lie this line of thinking is; that somehow, confidence is contingent on understanding or legislating things that are beyond my ability to fully understand.
Why does my heart believe these lies? Why do I obsess over things that are out of my control? Why do I hunger and thirst for knowledge that is above my pay grade? Why do I believe that controlling uncontrollable circumstances will give me contentment? Why do I believe that knowing what is unknowable will give me confidence?
Could it be that believing lies is easier (on the wide path to destruction) than seeking true contentment and confidence (on the narrow path to eternal life) at the foot of the cross?
I imagine that some of the same questions might have rolled through the apostle Paul’s mind as he sat in what must have felt like a miserable existence at times in his Roman jail cell wondering what had become of the church that he had planted in Philippi twelve years ago.
I can imagine that the apostle Paul had a different end game envisioned twelve years ago that didn’t include the suffering of back-stabbing friends that landed him in his current predicament; I doubt that he envisioned the suffering that was coming his way the day he met Jesus on the road to Damascus thirty-some years ago.
And yet, here he is, thirty-some years into following Jesus, twelve years after planting Philippi, coming to the end of his letter to this beloved church, while he sits in chains for preaching the gospel. Where would he find contentment and where would he find confidence? Well, I think the apostle Paul had learned that true contentment is the direct result of true confidence and Christians find both (contentment and confidence) in the truth that “all who are in Christ are God-sufficient instead of self-sufficient”.2
PHILIPPIANS 4:10 – 13…
10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. – This is the Word of God for the people God today. Let’s pray…
#1: PAUL’S CONTENTMENT (VSS. 10 – 12)
The apostle Paul says, “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound” (vss. 10 – 12).
Paul’s contentment was not founded on the Philippians’ concern for him and it certainly wasn’t founded on the lack of difficult circumstances. Nevertheless, he had learned how to be content in whatever situation he found himself in, brought low and abounding. How is this even possible?
How did Paul learn to be content despite his circumstances? One answer can be found earlier in this letter where Paul describes the mind of Christ that belongs to every believer through our union with Christ in his life, death and resurrection.
This putting on of the mind of Christ who “being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (2:8). This humiliative mind of Christ is exactly what enables the apostle Paul to be content in every circumstance whether he was brought low or abounding.
Consequently, this mind of Christ was also the remedy for the issues of self-centeredness and pride that the apostle addressed in that same section (2:3 – 4). It’s interesting to me to think about how self-centeredness and pride can be the direct results of a lack of contentment.
The bottom line here is that the apostle Paul wasn’t interested in the false hope that was promised by the self-centered and pride-filled philosophical ideologies of his day.3 Paul was only interested in the true hope that flows out of the promises of the gospel where humility breeds contentment at the foot of the cross. Where have you been searching for contentment lately?
#2: PAUL’S CONFIDENCE (VSS. 12 – 13)
When the apostle Paul says that “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” he’s simply stating that his contentment is founded on his confidence and his confidence is founded on the secret that has been revealed to him and the secret that has been revealed to him is that he “can do all things through him who strengthens me” (vss. 12 – 13).
Paul’s confidence was not founded on his Roman or Hebrew citizenship; it wasn’t founded on the Philippians’ love or care or concern for him; it wasn’t founded on any false or fading hope that the philosophers of his day proclaimed.4 Paul’s confidence was founded on the hope of the crucified, risen and returning Christ.
It’s interesting to note the lack of complaining and arguing in what Paul is saying here. He dealt with the issue of complaining and arguing earlier (2:14 – 15) and his remedy to that issue was to work out his own salvation in Christ (2:12 – 13) therefore he found no confidence in complaining or arguing about the terrible circumstances of his life because he found his confidence in working out his own salvation in Christ who strengthened him to endure all things (4:13).
If ever there was a man who could complain and argue about his lot in life; who had the influence to rally believers behind him to stand against all things unholy in the culture; who could have mustered up some false confidence rooted in the vain trappings of reckless emotional responses, Paul would have been that man. But he was not that man because his confidence was rooted in the humility and saving grace of the cross of Christ.
Philippians 4:13, where Paul says, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” has been abused by Christians throughout the ages who live by a philosophical worldview that promotes the message of triumphalism.5 This is a philosophy that says, that if Christians will do their part, then God will restore the world to its rightful order. The problem with this kind of philosophy is that it ignores the fact that context controls the meaning of the text.6
True confidence does not emanate out of the idea that a Christian worldview will prevail or win our world back from the clutches of evil. True confidence rests in the suffering of the cross of Christ. Stop for a minute and think about the suffering that the apostle Paul had faced since that’s the true context of Paul’s contentment and confidence.
When we think about Paul’s suffering in the book of 2 Corinthians, we find numerous passages of Paul’s experience and theology of suffering that bolstered his contentment and confidence in Christ.
2 Corinthians 4: Paul refused to move off the mountain top of the gospel despite the rejection he experienced from those who were blind and despite the light and momentary suffering he had experienced. Paul’s position in Christ gave him the confidence to say “I believed, and so I spoke” (vs. 13) and “knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus… so we do not lose heart… as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen… the things that are unseen are eternal” (vss. 14 – 18). Paul’s confidence was rooted in the unseen things that are not of this world.
2 Corinthians 6: Paul defends his ministry and instructs believers to not “receive the grace of God in vain” (vs. 1) because, through many hardships and sufferings (vss. 2 – 10) the apostle Paul had not ceased to speak the truth of the gospel freely to them and the only thing that actually restricted them from hearing what he was preaching, was their “own [childish] affections” (vss. 11 – 13). Once again, Paul’s confidence was rooted in the gospel.
2 Corinthians 11: The apostle Paul again defends his ministry against false apostles who preached a different gospel (vss. 1 – 6); who accused Paul of unfounded sin even though he “robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve” the Corinthians (vss. 7 – 8) because of his deep love for them (vss. 9 – 11). Nevertheless, even though the Corinthians were treating him so poorly, Paul says that he would continue his ministry among them “in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms” as Paul does even though Paul knows that just as “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light… their end will correspond to their deeds” (vss. 12 – 15) because Paul’s ministry is genuine and has been proven through his own extreme suffering for the sake of the gospel. Therefore, Paul, will boast in Christ and Christ alone (vss. 16 – 31). Paul’s confidence was rooted in Christ alone.
2 Corinthians 12: Paul proclaimed that even though he had begged God to remove his sufferings, God had kindly stated that “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” which lead the apostle Paul to say that “I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness… For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (vss. 8 – 10). Paul’s confident contentment was deeply rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
This is why the apostle Paul says in Colossians that it is Christ whom “we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me (Col. 1:28 – 29). This is why Paul tells the Philippians that “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). This is Paul’s confidence; Christ crucified, risen and returning.
APPLICATION AND CONCLUSION…
Contentment and confidence are rare commodities these days. Contentment can oftentimes be nothing more than passivity dressed up in the expensive clothing of religious language and the cheap lipstick of cultural philosophy. Confidence on the other hand, can oftentimes be nothing more than reckless hype and emotional response.
It doesn’t seem too shocking to me that in a day and age with an ever-increasing hostility and coldness to the gospel (even in the church) that true contentment and true confidence are rare commodities with counterfeits masquerading around like they’re the real deal; offering hope in self-sufficiency. But Paul’s contentment was rooted in his confidence in the crucified, risen and returning Christ.
There’s no philosophical ideology in Paul’s claim to contentment; there’s only a theology of the cross of Christ. There’s no fear mongering in Paul’s message that seeks to recklessly stir people up with hype and emotional response; there’s only a theology of the cross. Paul didn’t find contentment or confidence in the false hope of ideology or philosophy.
As we come closer to the end of 2020, a year that has been full of disappointment, fear, and uncertainty… what are you looking to for contentment and confidence? Would someone’s acceptance give you the contentment and the confidence that you long for? Would your political party getting the “W” give you the contentment and the confidence that you long for? Would the eradication of a virus give you the contentment and the confidence that you long for? What are you looking to for contentment and confidence?
The apostle Paul found a quiet contentment and a resolute confidence at the foot of the bloody cross, in the doorway of the empty tomb, in light of the hope of heaven. I pray that the Spirit of the living God would lead you to this place and that you would find your contentment and your confidence in the cross of Christ because at the end of the day, “all who are in Christ are God-sufficient instead of self-sufficient”.7 – Amen! Let’s pray.
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 R. Kent Hughes, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon: The Fellowship of the Gospel and the Supremacy of Christ (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, ESV Edition, 2013), 185.
3 Ibid., 185 – 186.
4 Ibid., 186.
5 Ibid., 188.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid., 185.