The last few days, we’ve been talking about contentment. As Paul has shown us in Philippians 4, it’s possible to learn to be content in any and every situation… as long as we’re willing to go through the sometimes painful education process. Most people don’t even make it that far, though, because they trip at the first step: wanting to be content. Our culture doesn’t celebrate people who are content to be in need, it celebrates people who pull themselves up by their bootstraps and find success.
Watch just about any “feel-good” movie, and you’ll see what I mean. Cinderella Man tells the true story of a boxer who was on top of the world until the Depression hit, and he was begging for money on streetcorners to feed his kids. But then, he got a lucky shot back in the ring, and made a huge comeback to win the heavyweight world title. The Pursuit of Happyness is all about a single father’s dream to become a wealthy stock-broker. After sleeping in subway bathrooms with his son while he works as an unpaid intern at a brokerage house, he finally makes his millions. Hollywood churns out plenty of rags-to-riches stories. But I haven’t seen too many stories of people who went from riches to rags, and learned to be content in the humble circumstances they found themselves in.
There’s only one way to learn contentment, or even to want to learn contentment. It’s in the next verse of Philippians 4: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
This is one of the most quoted verses in the Bible and also one of the most misinterpreted. We like to take this verse, rip it apart from the verses before it, and use it to convince ourselves that we can achieve anything we set our minds to. “I can do anything” is the anthem we shout to ourselves… “through Christ’s strength” is the sidenote we mutter.
Obviously, we know there’s got to be some limit to this statement – we can’t do everything through him who gives us strength, right? If we look at the context of the verses before, it’s pretty clear that Paul is saying, “I can do all these things through Christ who gives me strength. I can be in need or I can have plenty … I can be well fed or hungry … I can live in plenty or in want … and I can do all these things only through Christ’s strength.”
And what’s more, I can build a desire for contentment only through Christ’s strength. Whether I’m driving a new Porsche or a 20-year-old Yugo. Paul mastered the art of being content in both situations. In the bad times, he knew how to suffer without doubting God’s faithfulness. In the good times, he knew how to enjoy success without giving in to pride and feeling too secure. But only through Christ’s strength.