The Secret of Contentment
In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable. Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions. And the God who gives us peace will be with you. In my life in union with the Lord it is a great joy to me that after so long a time you once more had the chance of showing that you care for me. I don’t mean that you had stopped caring for me—you just had no chance to show it. And I am not saying this because I feel neglected, for I have learned to be satisfied with what I have. I know what it is to be in need and what it is to have more than enough. I have learned this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little. I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.
Phil 4:8-13
I toyed with the notion of Stoicism in the previous Gem when I mentioned the Stoic term aretÄ“ (verse 8) in passing. I told you there are those commentators who think that Paul is simply being Stoic, following the thinking of Stoicism. If it looks like Stoicism, smells like Stoicism, sounds like Stoicism, uses the words of the Stoics, then it must be Stoicism. “Content” in this section, being content and having contentment is a notion straight from the world of Stoicism. I gave a more complete run down of Stoic thought in Gem 1717 when I covered the background to Paul’s encounter with the Epicureans and Stoics in the Agora in Athens and then later when called before the Areopagos. So I won’t do it again in this Gem. The word for “contentment” was a favourite word to the Stoics. They would love this part of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. [AutarkÄ“s] or [autarkeia] was often the focus of Stoic thought. To be content was to be self-sufficient, to provide for all that which made you happy by yourself, of your own means. [Autarkeia] embodied the idea of being inwardly self-sufficing. A man should be sufficient in and of himself and able by the power of his own will to the resist the forces of circumstance. Paul is using here the Stoics favourite word but giving it new meaning. The Stoic made himself independent of external circumstances through the power of his will to block and resist the attraction of external things. That is not what Paul is talking about here.
But for this Gem I want to continue to discuss the idea that Paul was borrowing from the Stoics. Some commentators think that Paul was chiding the Philippians. Such commentators make more out of these words than I believe Paul intended in Phil 4:10.
I rejoice . . . after so long a time you once more had the chance of showing that you care for me.
Phil 4:10
The idea suggested here is that the Philippian church forgot about Paul “for a long time” – [Ä“dÄ“ pote] “now at length”, “now at last you have remembered me again”. I don’t believe that is what Paul is meaning at all. In fact he goes on to say: “I don’t mean that you had stopped caring for me—you just had no chance to show it. And I am not saying this because I feel neglected, for I have learned to be satisfied with what I have.” [GNB]
Allow me to share a story from our experience. When we were in our first phase of service with Wycliffe we were supported 100% by one church, even when we were in training at BCNZ. While at Bible College over a period of three months the church support just stopped coming. It was like they had forgotten us. Things were getting tight financially and we had come to rely on the money that came each month from church. With each passing month and no additional money in the account for the new month we found ourselves in a new situation. Our fees were paid and the larger issues of life were taken care of but it was the day to day running of the household, putting bread on the table and petrol in the car that became the challenge. This continued over those three months. After two months, one morning I sat down to write a letter to the church treasurer (yes a letter; not an email) with the motivation to just ask him what was happening. I had written the letter and it sat on my desk in the BCNZ flat to take up to the office and post that day. When I opened my daily reading book “Word for Today”, I read the words from Hudson Taylor, “I will never ask any earthly agent for help to supply my needs. God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies. If I ask another I can’t be sure it is what God wants me to do, so I will rely on Him to supply.”
Needless to say I tore up the letter and put it in the rubbish bin. That day when Tania went into the bank in the afternoon she got the bank statement and found that the church money was being paid into a different account of ours from the one it usually went into. There was three month’s worth of church support money in that other account. One the same day we received a letter from someone with a cheque in it and an apology for the fact that they had written out the cheque some time before and put it in an envelope but had forgotten to post it. I wrote back to them and told them not to worry about the delay. God had used the delay in a remarkable way to teach us the true source of any funds we might receive and that had been a major part of the lesson learned.
We have been living like this now for over forty years and have learned the secret that it is God who provides in mind blowing ways, but we need to understand that the source it not well-meaning people and come to rely on them to provide our needs. Hudson Taylor’s perspective was very timely that day. It became a major memorial stone to me that our supply always came from God. You can read my Ian Stories to find out more from stories written in both Nuggets and Gems. Our source of income confounds both bank managers and tax department people. It just does not make logical sense. One bank manager told us in order to secure a loan we would have to write to all of our supporters and get them to sign a guarantee that they would keep giving to us consistently over a stipulated period of time. I told him we would never do that. No one can guarantee anything like that because we don’t know what is up ahead of us financially or health-wise. A supporter might get sick and not be able to work or lose a spouse who was your major breadwinner. That is particularly true in these Covid times. Our confidence is not in human supporters, it is in God alone. The times when one supporter has suddenly had to stop and a new person tells us they would like to begin supporting us or increase their support from what it has been is mind blowing. The timing of it all is under God’s control. Your confidence can’t be placed on your job, your health, your current circumstances. We know now, since Covid that confidence in anything other than God can be shaken in blink of an eye.
Paul makes it clear in his letter to the Philippians, that he is grateful for the fact that they are supporting him again, after a period of time. he doesn’t castigate them for the absence of support as to whether they had forgotten him or not. In fact Paul said:
I don’t mean that you had stopped caring for me—you just had no chance to show it. And I am not saying this because I feel neglected, for I have learned to be satisfied with what I have.
PHIL 4:10-11
I don’t think for a moment that Paul was a secret Stoic. I think the same God who trained up Paul in the ways of heavenly accounting practices is the same God who trained Ian and Tania. And I totally understand how that endeared the Philippians to Paul as a result of a long standing relationship between them. A relationship not forged by money given, but as a result of their obvious care and concern for him in their partnership with him in the work of sharing the Good News of the Gospel. (Phil 1:5) Do you see how it all ties together?
There is so much more I could say about these things but I will leave it there. I have given you some links to past Ian Stories in this Gem. I also added two Ian Stories to Gem 2002 but noticed in going back to it that the Ian Stories had dropped out. There is something not working correctly on the website and I have notified the Webmaster and it will be corrected. However the two stories are there in Gem 2002 now, so it might make more sense if you go back and take another read of that Gem and also the Nugget on The Marks of Jesus – Holiness as well.
We haven’t finished yet. There is more to come on the matter of Contentment.
I will never ask any earthly agent for help to supply my needs. God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.
Hudson Taylor
Make sure you realise your provision ultimately comes from God and not from the hands of human compassion.
Ian Vail
Contentment makes poor men rich, discontent makes rich men poor.
Benjamin Franklin
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Helen Lemmel
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace.
love the Hudson Taylor quote.
I think the same God who trained up Paul in the ways of heavenly accounting practices is the same God who trained Ian and Tania. — this sentence really got me ! Thanks Ian for sharing your story!
Thanks Merry for the comment. What gets me in all things God does, is that when we get it, really get it, it all makes such sense and hangs together because the Bible always presents a unified message. When it doesn’t seem to make sense that tells us we are not interpreting it correctly.
To do otherwise is to set ourselves above the wisdom of God and claim that He has got it wrong; that the Bible contradicts itself. How arrogant is that when you really look at that attitude?