Learning Christian Contentment
Imagine for a minute that you just won the most amazing sweepstakes ever. You saw this thing in a magazine, you submitted your entry online, and now these people are at your front door to tell you that you won and it’s a big deal: You’ve been chosen for a two-week all-expense paid vacation to anywhere in the world you want to go: You get to stay in five-star hotels, eat at the best restaurants, drive extravagant cars; you get to pick out a whole new wardrobe of clothes that are tailored just for you, and you’re given a three-million dollar gift card to spend anywhere you want.
How’s that sound?
But here’s the fine print: On each day of this vacation, every morning, you have to drink a potion that guarantees that you will feel discontent. It guarantees that although you get to do all of these things, with each thing you do you have an increasing, nagging dissatisfaction that makes you wish you were always doing something different. It’s luxury galore for two weeks, but your inner-state is full-on discontentment — that’s the ‘prize.’ Do you still take it?
This morning in Philippians 4 we’re talking about Christian contentment. And when I use the word “contentment” I mean a state of happiness or satisfaction — that’s what the word contentment means. And when I say Christian contentment, I mean that there’s a Christian way to experience a state of everlasting happiness and satisfaction.
That’s the focus of Philippians 4, verses 11–13, and I believe there’s something here in this passage that if we understand it and practice it, it will absolutely change our lives. This is one of those passages that grabs you by the shoulders and says: Hey, you’ve been thinking about this all wrong. There’s another way to live that’s deeper and richer.
And so my prayer for us this morning is that God would give us ears to hear. In this passage, I think we discover three truths about Christian contentment and I want to show them to you, and before we get started, let’s pray and ask God to help us.
Father in heaven, by your Holy Spirit, would you humble our hearts now to receive what you have for us in your word. In this moment, by your grace, we open our lives to you and ask for you to accomplish your will, in Jesus’s name, amen.
Three truths about Christian contentment … here’s the first …
1) Christian contentment is a secret to be learned.
Paul uses the word “secret” in verse 11, but first let me show you how we get there. Verses 11–13, which is our focus today, is really a detour from the main idea that Paul starts in verse 10. Verse 10 has to do with this church’s financial support of Paul. Paul says, verse 10,
“I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.”
So this church has partnered with Paul for the advance of the gospel. They’ve supported him and his work, and Paul rejoices in the Lord in view of that. He continues this thought in verse 10 in verse 14 — and that’s what we’re gonna look at next week — but before Paul gets to verse 14, he needs to clarify something.
Paul’s Clarification and Detour
Paul rejoices in the Lord not because his needs have been met, but it’s because he values the Philippians’ friendship and partnership, and ultimately their partnership with Paul means that they will be blessed. Paul talks about that in verse 17.
But the thing he wants to make clear in verse 11 is how he views this topic of needs. His needs being met is not the cause of his rejoicing. That’s what he means when he says in verse 11:
“Not that I am speaking of being need.”
He wants this church to know that his needs are not his main concern, and the reason his needs are not his main concern is in the second half of verse 11:
“for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”
And then he goes on this detour. Now Paul is gonna talk about that.
The second half of verse 11 is the big sentence in this passage. I’m gonna read it again because I wanna make sure everybody sees it. If you’re a highlighter person, make this sentence glow. Everybody look at this, second half of verse 11:
“for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”
Then the next verse, verse 12, just explains that sentence. Paul says, This is what I mean —
“I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance [which is another way to say “whatever situation”], I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”
In all of these different scenarios, Paul has learned to be content, which he says here is learning a secret. Christian contentment is a secret to be learned.
And I want to start with this idea of a secret because it implies two things … if Christian contentment is a secret to be learned then …
1) Not every Christian has learned it yet.
In other words, contentment is not part of the original equipment of conversion. Now there is a ton of amazing things that happen to us immediately when we trust in Jesus. When we put our faith in Jesus, right then and there … all our sins are forgiven; we are declared righteous; we are adopted into God’s family; we are indwelled with the Holy Spirit; we are secured a home in heaven! — it’s glorious what happens when you put your faith in Jesus! … but learning contentment is not part of that immediate package. This is something that comes later as part of Christian growth and maturity. You have to learn it. Which means: not all of us have learned it yet …
Which means … hmm … let’s think about this … how do we know if we’ve learned it or not? What might a Christian look like if they’ve not yet learned this secret of contentment?
My guess is that they would be prone to worry — they would be right on the edge of anxiety with most things; they’re quick to envision how badly things could go; which means they fret. Fretting is natural for them. And complaining is too.
It’s easy for them to find what’s ‘off’ with everything — winter’s too cold and summer’s too hot. The airline could always do better; the meal is always missing something. Nothing is ever exactly right, and nothing is ever quite enough.
Every time they get home and they see an Amazon package at their front door, deep down they’re thinking, “Maybe this is enough” — but it’s not. There will be another package the next day, and then the next day and the next day. (That’s what it means when you see all the delivery trucks on your street. It’s just people looking for enough.) Christians who’ve not yet learned the secret of contentment are always looking for the next thing … the next post to see, the next app to download, the next doo-hickey to get — you gotta stay up on what’s going on … so you’re just always chasing.
And I need to be clear about something here: when I say that not all of us have learned the secret, I’m including myself in that. This is probably true in every sermon, but I definitely feel that in this sermon that I’m preaching over my head. And the more I’ve thought about this, I’m not sure that any of us American Christians know the secret Paul is talking about here. I think most of us are all in the same boat here. This topic of Christian contentment is one we need help in.
There’s a country song you’ve probably not heard before, but I think it resonates. I heard this song years ago and it still haunts me. It goes like this:
“We all want what we ain’t got,
Our favorite doors are always locked.
On a higher hill with a taller top,
We all want what we ain’t got.
We ain’t happy where we are,
There’s greener grass in the neighbor’s yard.
A bigger house and a faster car,
We ain’t happy where we are.”
We don’t have much in common with John D. Rockefeller — he was one of the richest men in modern history and he was the first billionaire in America — but there’s a famous story about him after he earned his first billion. A reporter asked him, “Mr. Rockefeller, how much is enough?” And he replied, “Just a little bit more.”
We have that in common with him. That’s how we tend to think too. Always chasing. We need to learn this secret.
If Christian contentment is a secret to be learned, it implies (1) not every Christian has learned it yet; but also …
2) It is possible to be learned.
We’re really on the brink of something here. And this is where I want us all to lean in and say, “Holy Spirit, teach me!” Paul is inviting us in on something, and not just Paul, but the topic of Christian contentment also has a special place within our own theological heritage.
I think Christian contentment is the application of Christian hedonism. And going back 400 years ago, the 17th-century English Puritans cared a lot about contentment and they wrote master-class books on it. And more recently, my old pastor at First Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina, Andy Davis, he has written a book called The Power of Christian Contentment. And in this book he just takes the Puritan cookie jar and brings it down to the bottom shelf. (I want to mention Pastor Davis because I got a lot from his book, which is like a commentary on Philippians 4.)
We can learn the secret of contentment by together standing on the shoulders of others who have learned it. It’s possible. Christian contentment is a secret to be learned — we’ve not all learned it yet, but it’s possible!
Here’s the second truth …
2) Christian contentment comes from Christ-sufficiency.
Now before we’re finished here, I want to give you a definition for Christian contentment, but we need to get there by focusing on Paul’s language in verse 11. Look again at that big sentence again:
“I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”
A Fascinating Word
That word “content” (autarkēs) is pretty fascinating. It’s not a word from the Old Testament, but it’s actually a word from Greek philosophy. The word means literally “self-sufficiency.” And this self-sufficiency was a main teaching in an old philosophy known as Stoicism (we talked a little about Stoicism a couple of weeks ago in connection to verse 6). Stoicism was super popular in Paul’s day, within the Greco-Roman world, and in verse 11, that exact word that Paul uses for “content” (or self-sufficiency), was used over and over again in the Stoic writings of this time. Apparently the Stoic philosopher Seneca loved this word. And it will make sense to you why.
And in a nutshell, what Seneca and these Stoic writings taught was that “whatever happens to you in life, you accept it with no emotional reaction.” You get what you get and your virtue is your ability to be unaffected by the outside world.
And that’s basically how we use the word “stoic” today as an adjective. If somebody seems indifferent or apathetic or non-emotional, we say they’re being stoic.
Sometimes we wish our younger kids were a little more stoic at the dinner table … At our house, at dinner, we’ve got a little thing we say after we serve the kids their food. We say: You get what you get and don’t have a fit. It’s a no meltdowns rule.
And that might make sense when it comes to kids and dinnertime, but Stoicism as a full-blown philosophy for life is dangerous because it says you don’t have emotions because you don’t have needs. You don’t need anything from anybody because you’ve got all you need right here in yourself. You, in and of yourself, are untouchable by things outside of you. You are self-sufficient.
That’s the word that Paul uses — now, is that what Paul means?
Not at all. Get this: Paul knows he can’t do anything apart from Jesus. So, when Paul is using this word he’s messin’ with them! He’s taking this word from Greek philosophy that means self-sufficiency and he uses it to explain his Christ-sufficiency. Track with me here:
Not Funds, Freedom, or Food
We know that Paul was not anti-emotion or anti-need. He’s open about both of them and he talks about them in this letter!
When it comes to emotion, remember Paul said in Chapter 2 that if Epaphroditus had died he would have had “sorrow upon sorrow” (2:27). He would be affected.
And as for his needs, that’s part of the whole reason he wrote this letter to begin with. This church is a ministry partner. Epaphroditus had brought him a gift from this church. They met his needs.
But see Paul wants this church to know that his needs being met — which he’s grateful for (he says that) — but his needs being met are not his ultimate aim. Paul has Christ-sufficiency, which means all he truly needs is Jesus … not funds or freedom or food. Those things are not ultimately necessary for him. But wait a minute? Wait a minute!
Without those those things — without funds, freedom, food… air, water, and nutrients — without those things, Paul would die! So let’s be honest here. Really, Paul?! You’re talking about this Christ-sufficiency. You say all you need is Christ — but what about oxygen, Paul? You need oxygen!
Do you?
Well yeah, I guess you need oxygen to stay alive on this earth … but see this is where Paul has learned something …
He’s thought about this before because death has been a real possibility for him. He’s been imprisoned before — he’s had countless beatings, often near death. Five times he received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times he was beaten by rods. Once he was stoned. Three times he was shipwrecked, a night and a day adrift at sea, floating on a piece of wood in the ocean; he had seen danger everywhere, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
So what if he didn’t have oxygen? He would die. But what if he died?
He’s already addressed this — to die is to depart and be with Christ, and that is far better (1:23). See, death meant gain for him (1:21).
Why? This is where we are getting to the key to this book, and to how the apostle Paul saw everything.
All You Truly Need
Paul staying alive on this earth was not his goal. See, if staying alive here was what Paul was all about, then yes, he needs oxygen. And food and water and — yes, he needs other things besides Christ. If staying alive on earth is his objective.
But if Paul’s goal is everlasting joy in Christ, what does he need for that? All you need for everlasting joy in Christ is Christ!
That’s why Paul can say “Rejoice in the Lord always” — it’s because all we need for joy in the Lord is the Lord.
Look, there’s not a creature or condition or situation on earth that Paul absolutely needs in order to be happy in Jesus. All he absolutely needs to be happy in Jesus is Jesus. That’s the secret of Christian contentment. It is Christ-sufficiency!
The secret of Christian contentment is learning that for what really matters — which is not staying alive here, but what really matters, your everlasting joy in Jesus — all you need for that is Jesus.
That’s the ‘rare jewel’ behind everything Paul says in this letter.
That’s what Paul means when he says:
“I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”
Christ-sufficiency. What I really want is joy in Jesus, and what I need for joy in Jesus is Jesus, and I have him. This is the way church! This is the way to Christian contentment.
But how do we apply this in the throes of life?
We get there in the third truth …
3) Christ-sufficiency comes through Christ strengthening me.
Paul, it’s amazing what you’re saying here, but I need help, man! How does this work in the details of our everyday existence? What about when things are going crazy? Is it ever okay to be unhappy about something, or to experience negative emotions, or to wish things were different?
Of course it’s okay to feel those things, and this is where a definition comes in handy. Christian contentment is meant to be practiced. Remember verse 9: what we’ve learned and received and heard and seen in Paul, we’re supposed to live that out. So when we think about Christian contentment in our daily lives, this is what it means.
A Definition for Everyday
Here’s the definition:
Christian contentment is a presence of heart that delights in Jesus’s plans for us and humbly seeks him to direct us in them.
What we most want is Jesus, but that’s not always on the front of our minds in this world. Because we have all kinds of other stuff going on. One study I’ve seen says that the average person has over 70,000 thoughts a day — and I believe it. And let me just tell you, not all of those 70,000 thoughts are: “Jesus is my greatest treasure.”
Sometimes those thoughts are: I wanna good parking space, I wanna eat lunch, I want to buy a house, I don’t want my basement to flood, I don’t want my child to be sick, I don’t want my wife to die.
70,000 things we think about — some are really important, and all of them connected to things we need, but see, Christian contentment is like an anchor in the midst of those 70,000 things, and when the details are not what we want, we come back to his sufficiency, and we say “Jesus, I have you, help me in this. You have a plan.”
A presence of heart that delights in Jesus’s plans for us and humbly seeks him to direct us in them.
Jesus Who Is Strengthening Me
And the more we learn the secret, the easier it becomes to get there: “Jesus, I have you, help me in this.” I can do all things through you who strengthens me — who is strengthening me. That’s a present-active verb in verse 13. This is a continual, active strength coming to us from Jesus …
Whether it’s plenty or hunger, abundance or need, my favorite meal with my friends or hunger pains alone in a Roman prison, whether it’s a home-run or a strike-out, I can do all things … I can get through anything … because Jesus is strengthening me. His sufficiency in my life comes from his strength. Everlasting joy in him is what we most want, it’s him we have.
So what if you had another offer. There’s the two-weeks vacation sweepstakes offer, but then there’s an alternative offer …
And for this one, you’re going to walk through a painful trial of suffering. You’re going to be publicly humiliated; you’re going to be thrown into prison; you will be deprived basic needs — you will be hungry and thirsty and extremely uncomfortable, but here’s the catch: in the midst of the hardship you will experience a supernatural contentment through the nearness of Jesus that you can hardly imagine. He will be so real to you, so close to you, so sufficient for you, that you will look back at the hardship as one of the sweetest times in your life.
Would you take this offer?
Church, we’re growing. We’re getting there.
It’s true: we can do all things through him who is strengthening us.
And that’s what brings us to the Table.
The Table
My guess is that if you’re here this morning and you’re not a Christian, this doesn’t make any sense to you. That’s okay. But I’d love to talk to you about it.
The heart of the gospel is to have fellowship with God. That’s why God created us, but our sin has broken that fellowship, and as hard as we might try to get back to God, we can’t. That’s why Jesus came. He came to die for our sins, in our place, so that through faith in him we can be forgiven and restored to fellowship with God. That can happen for you right now if you say to Jesus: I am done trusting in me, I trust in you.
I would love to talk with you more about this. I’ll be right up here after the service. Come up, let’s talk.
For those of us who have trusted in Jesus, we have fellowship with God and we’re on a journey to eternal joy in God, and church, Jesus is enough for us. So let’s come to this Table and worship him.
