“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. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:11-13)
Last month we said that contentment is the state of mind and heart where one’s desires are satisfied with what God has provided. It is a choice we make as the natural outgrowth of humility and a trust in God’s promise to provide for our needs.
Contentment is not a personality type, nor should it be confused with having low expectations. Some people just don’t want much out of life and so they are hard to disappoint. There is a mindset which says, “Well, I’m just a miserable sinner so if the mechanic does a cruddy job fixing my car, or I have to walk from the far end of the parking lot at Costco in the rain without an umbrella, that’s no more than I really deserve.” This outlook was what Karl Marx had in mind when he famously noted that religion (meaning Christianity, primarily) is “the opiate of the people.” He meant, among other things, that believers use their religion as a mood-altering drug to excuse themselves from personal accountability. Marx’s observation gains credibility when we consider the strands of Christianity where “simplicity” is an article of faith. But “simplicity” is not all that simple, as anyone who has had experience with that life will testify. Further, the Bible speaks forcefully and repeatedly in terms of blessing. Not just “pie in the sky, bye and bye” (to quote Reverend Ike’s famous line) but also of those who are “rich in this present world.” The fact is that there are those highly-skilled professions practiced by believers which are valued in society and are compensated accordingly. There are also those whom God, in His providence, has unilaterally chosen to receive wealth unbidden, as it were. But the Bible says that God made both the rich and poor, and Paul says he has had experience with both conditions. He was a brilliant religious lawyer, presumably with the compensations attendant to that. Later he was a preacher of the Gospel of Christ, with the distain and poverty which came there from. “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity.” He has experienced both and knows how to handle both. As we go through life many of us will have experience with both as well. Do we know how to live in them?
The good news in all this is that Paul says he “learned” to be content. And if Paul learned so can we. What did Paul learn as regards prosperity?
- Don’t be conceited. To be conceited is to have a higher opinion of oneself that is warranted. There is also a false or fanciful aspect to the concept. Wealth may delude people into thinking they are something that they are not. But there is simply no intrinsic connection between wealth and character.
- “Do good, to be rich in good deeds, ...be generous and willing to share.” We are stewards, not owners, of what God entrusts to us. The generous man will be blessed.
What about poverty? Paul had “suffered the loss of all things” and knew how to live “with humble means.”
Interestingly, poverty may also confuse one’s view of oneself. Poverty is not a virtue but it can have a way of making us focus on the fundamentals. Paul said that should prosperity is “godliness with contentment.” After food and clothing everything else is gravy. (ref. 1 Tim 6:6-8)
The secret of contentment whether one is rich or poor is to fix our hope on God, not on our circumstances.
How did Paul cope with the fickle finances of his ministry? “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” By “all things” Paul is not talking about doing well on a math test or coping with a difficult coworker but rather being content in the temporal circumstances God has ordained at any given time and trusting that He has a good plan for each one of us.