My Thanks For Your Support
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.
Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty. As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I first brought you the Good News and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this. Even when I was in Thessalonica you sent help more than once. I don’t say this because I want a gift from you. Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness. At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Now all glory to God our Father forever and ever! Amen.
Phil 4:10-20
These two verses are stand out verses in Philippians. But you have learned already there are many outstanding verses or passages in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. That is what makes it my favourite Bible “book”. But these two verses are outstanding for yet another reason. You have gathered already from the previous Gem the correct context for these verses. I have always known the context of this passage before us but I guess I have seen the complete passage in a new light as a result of applying Deeper Bible principles to this section. These two verses are truly Gems.
For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
Phil 4:13
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
Phil 4:19
They are both enabling verses. They are both the kind of verses you can take and launch off into a sermon on:
- I can do Everything in Christ’s Strength.
- God’s Abundant Supply.
- I Can Run through a Troop and Leap over a Wall.
- I Can Do Everything and Anything in Christ.
Yes, perfect verses to talk about being a conqueror and a winner and always on the up-side. Even so, but, that being what it may, however, Paul has put a different spin on these familiar, favourite verses. As you know now from Gem 2008, Paul was actually talking about his perceived lack and their perceived lack. In other words, even when we think we are in lack we are enabled. Even when you may think you are disadvantaged having given, you are enabled. How are you enabled? You are enabled firstly by having the mind of Christ in you. Rethinking your perceived lack or struggle in positive terms (4:8). But even more than that, considering that there is nothing you can experience that God will not use for your ultimate good (8:28). Oh not Philippians 8:28! You know there are not eight chapters in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, but there are more than eight Chapters in the letter to the Romans. God is always on your side and always working to forge the mind of Christ in you.
It is for that reason Paul states that he has learned the secret to be content whether he is living in abundance or living with lack. In both states he is content in Christ. He is most certainly not just being stoic as some claim. He has really learned a secret to living care free. Having no anxiety or cares! Does it sound familiar? It sure does. It’s an echo from 4:6. (Philippians this time) Everything is connected with Paul. But as we saw in the previous Gem, Paul was also suggesting the Philippians who have given so generously don’t have to be concerned firstly because there was a period a of time when no gifts were sent to Paul from the church in Philippi. Paul was fine anyway. Even though no other church was taking care of Paul’s needs at that time, God was still in control. Whether Paul had enough or suffered a lack it was still ok. God was still in charge. God uses both times of lack and times of abundance to prove to us we are still under His watchful eye. That my friends, is a good lesson to learn.
The second gem of a verse (4:19) is set in the context of the possibility that Paul was hesitant to receive money from the Philippians with the thought that they may be giving to their own detriment. The kind of thing that we thought with Clarice Bell, a pensioner, giving to us. But with the second gem of a verse, the focus is not on any possible lack Paul may experience, but rather any possible lack the Philippians may perceive. Paul tells them, “My God will supply all of your needs according to His Riches in Glory or according to His glorious riches.” The verse can have either slant put on it. However, the essential point with Phil 4:19 is focused on any perceived lack the Philippians may feel. In other words what is in focus is giver’s remorse or the feeling, “We shouldn’t have done that. Now we have used up our nest egg, the money we had set aside for eventualities.” Paul is telling them – you don’t have to worry about that. My God (and your God) will supply all my needs and all your needs as well. With God in the equation you just don’t have to worry.
Actually it goes further than that because of the presence of another little word in the text of verse 19, the word χρεία or in this case χρείαν (the object of the statement). The word is broader than just a physical need or a monetary need. It covers any sort of need, lack, want, difficulty, hurdle or hard thing that comes into your life. That is a good thing to know when your physical need, your need for food and basic human sustenance is the issue. In these Covid times it is especially poignant because it is likely your need for food and basic staple diet is such because you have lost your job, either through normal circumstances, made redundant or the business has just gone into liquidation. Or maybe you have lost your job because you have felt strongly not to get vaccinated and now the government has passed a new law (regulation) that unvaxed people are not allowed on the premises. This word χρεία covers all of those possibilities.
[χρεία] (chreia)
According to Mounce
- Generally: ‘use’, ‘need’, ‘necessity’, ‘requisiteness’, Eph 4:29; Heb 7:11;
- ‘personal need’, ‘an individual want’, Act 20:34; Rom 12:13; Php 2:25; Php 4:16; Php 4:19;
- as a verb – ‘to need’, ‘require’, ‘want’, Mat 6:8; Mat 14:16; Mar 2:25; Joh 2:25;
- ‘necessary things’, Act 28:10;
- a necessary business, affair, Act 6:3.
According to Strong
‘employment’, an ‘affair’ (business), ‘occasion’, ‘demand‘, ‘requirement’ or ‘destitution’: – ‘business’, ‘lack’, ‘necessity’, ‘need’, ‘use’, ‘want’.
According to Arndt, Gingrich & Bauer
‘need’, ‘lack’, ‘want’, ‘difficulty’, ‘issue’ or ‘demand’, or ‘destitution’.
In short anything that may happen to you, especially in the context of having given to God an offering to be used for His work. How much more will God in Christ act on your behalf to ensure you have what you need. I trust it is clear to you now that Paul is talking about the capacity of God to meet and provide for your concerns because of the fact that you are in Christ. Just stop and reflect on the depth of those thoughts for a moment. If you belong to Christ and you have given to the work of God, then God, who knows what you need and when you need it, has the situation covered. If for some reason, He appears to delay the release of the funds or provisions you need for a specific time, then rest assured that He still has your situation covered. He just has a higher purpose in mind in terms of the lessons He wants to teach you. I have sufficient Ian Stories in store to demonstrate the truth of what Paul is telling the Philippians but I sense this Gem has already grown long enough. It’s time for me to stop. If you want more stories you only have to ask.
I do believe that I have made clear the point of what Paul is telling us here. Rather than a blank cheque to make us rich and overflowing with provision and strength to do amazing feats, Paul is making it clear to those of us following Christ, that we can be content whether we are the giver or the receiver God has us covered. You can trust Him to provide for your future needs even when you have given to His work in the midst of Covid. Likewise, you don’t have to be concerned for the well-being of those who have given to you, who are doing God’s work. God has the giver and the recipient in focus and will not let either of you go destitute because you gave out of a willing and generous heart. You can trust Him implicitly to cover both of you in your respective circumstances. There is another angle to this that I feel to add as a final note. If you have been supporting a work or a missionary or Christian worker and you just can’t manage it anymore, don’t be concerned you are letting the side down by stopping your support. That is another side to Paul’s input to the church in Philippi. When they couldn’t give for a period of time, God took care of Paul’s needs as well as teaching him how to live with less. As I indicated above, God has all the angles covered, so don’t worry.
The true test of life giving love is when we are prepared to give our best with no guarantee of return.
Paul de Jong
For some a cliché, for me a conviction: YOU CANNOT OUT-GIVE GOD! I’ve lost the giving game for 34yrs, raising the bar every year.
Rick Warren
God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of GIVING.
Randy Alcorn
When it comes to giving some people stop at nothing.
Helen Bottel