“How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:10-13, NLT).
There had been a previous time when the Philippians had sent Paul aid and there had now been a long delay. Paul wants them to know that what mattered to him, even more than the financial gift, was their relationship with him. He knew that they cared for him even when they couldn’t send a gift. He also wasn’t sending them a fund-raising letter. He has learned to be content with whatever he has.
When Paul used the word for “content” (“autarkes”) he used a word common in Philippi. It was a favorite word of the Stoics which was one of Greece’s most popular philosophies. “Contentment” was a keyword for Stoicism, one of the key Greek philosophies of Paul’s day and well known in Philippi. Stoics used “autarkes” in a different way than Paul uses it here.
The Stoics’ goal was to reach the place where nothing and no one is essential to you. The highest attainment was when you lost all feeling for yourself and others. T. R. Glover said, “The Stoics made of the heart a desert, and called it peace. The Stoic said, ‘I will learn to be content by a deliberate act of my own will.’
“Paul said, ‘I can do all things through Christ who infuses his strength into me.’ The Stoic was self-sufficient; but Paul was God-sufficient. The man who walks with Christ can cope with anything.”
The Stoic knew no power outside himself that could help him bear the hardships of life. Paul had strength for everything he faced but it wasn’t his personal strength. His strength for facing the different conditions of life came from God who gave him strength. Paul is grateful for the gift the Philippians sent him but he is totally dependent on God who gives him strength for all things. We can say, as Paul did, “I can do all things through Christ who infuses His strength into me.”
