The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity.
Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:
I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:10–13)
A few weeks ago we mentioned Lord Congleton, who did an experiment with the offer of pardoned debts, to see if he could explain grace and forgiveness to his many tenants. On another occasion, Lord Congleton happened to pass one of his kitchen servants and hear her say, “Oh, if only I had five pounds, I would be perfectly content.” He thought about that, and wanted to see someone who was perfectly content. So he found the woman and said he had overheard the remark and wanted to now give her the five pounds she had wanted. He did so. She thanked him profusely and with great joy. Congleton left the kitchen, but then paused outside the door for a moment to listen. As he did so, as soon as the woman thought he was gone, she said, “Why, oh why, didn’t I say ten pounds?”
Contentment is what the Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs called a Rare Jewel. It is not rare to see people in pursuit of contentment, but though the world is filled with rich and poor, people with plenty and with poverty, contentment is scarce and rare among them all. It shouldn’t be so among Christians, for Christians have the secret of true contentment. It is not automatic. Spurgeon said, “Now, contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and if we would have it, it must be cultivated. It will not grow in us by nature; it is the new nature alone that can produce it, and even then we must be specially careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God has sown in it.
In these verses, Paul gives us perhaps the clearest New Testament insight into contentment. The circumstance for Paul’s discussion of contentment is that Paul has just told the Philippians to rejoice, but now he shows them that he does it himself. He rejoiced when Epaphroditus arrived with the monetary gift he needed.
If you recall, Paul had arrived in Rome for his trial, but was now under house arrest. He needed money both to support him, and to pay for a lawyer to represent him to Caesar. Three months into his house-arrest, Timothy arrived to help. That freed up Aristarchus to go back to Greece and explain Paul’s need to the churches. Apparently, of all the churches, only the Philippians took up a generous gift, and sent it to Rome by the hand of one of their own beloved leaders, Epaphroditus with Aristarchus. Along the way, Epaphroditus got terribly sick, very likely with malaria but pressed on to Rome, knowing how urgently Paul needed the money.
When Epaphroditus and Aristarchus arrived with the financial gift, Paul’s team nursed Epaphroditus back to health, and now Paul’s case will be heard in court. Paul then writes out this letter, and sends it back with Epaphroditus.
Here now is Paul’s thank-you for their gift.
But it isn’t a straight thank you note. Instead, Paul uses this moment to teach them about contentment. He is going to teach them the mindset, the attitude of contentment, the real meaning of contentment, as well as the means of contentment.
I. The Mindset of Contentment
But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity.
Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:
When he says their care has at last flourished again, he explains what that means by saying, they had wanted to help him, but they had not been able to – maybe they lacked the finances, maybe they didn’t have a messenger to send the money.
Wiersbe says, “They had been concerned, but they had lacked the opportunity to help. Many Christians today have the opportunities, but they lack the concern!”
But now he quickly qualifies why he rejoiced. “Not that I speak in regard to need”
In other words, I’m not rejoicing primarily because you met my financial need, that you solved the poverty need. He is not devaluing their gift, or saying he didn’t need it. He did! He is saying his great rejoicing was not in the physical gift itself, but in them and their giving. As he’s going to say in verse 17 “Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. (Philippians 4:17). Paul’s real joy is in people, not in things. He rejoices in the spiritual reward and fruit that comes to a church that supports missions, not the money that comes from that church. Paul was content with regard to physical state, and so their gift made him rejoice for other reasons.
It takes a heart right with God, a heart content to be more thankful for the heavenly and eternal reward that is coming to your donors than for the money itself.
Paul’s contentment is also protecting the gospel of grace, and the symmetry of relationships here. In Roman culture, Romans believed that only the truly content could be friends with each other, because any financial need made the one a patron and the other a client. So in Roman culture, you didn’t say an outright thank you, if you were equals. Instead, you acknowledged the gift and hinted that you would return the favour in an even greater way. So Paul makes sure he doesn’t appear to be a client of the Philippians so they don’t misunderstand the nature of the relationship. And he hints in verse 19 that their gift will be returned to them in a greater way, though not by him, but by God Himself.
It’s important even in our relationships to try to preserve this principle. Sometimes a rich brother or sister needs to allow the poorer brother or sister to pay for a meal to preserve the symmetry in true Christian friendship. “I know you can pay, and I know you feel it is honourable to do so when you have the greater wealth. But understand, letting me pay is not you shirking your responsibility. It is simply allowing there to be relationship symmetry between us, letting me be the giver and you the recipient for a change.”
Now, this brings us back to what Paul is going to say to explain why he is not really rejoicing in the actual money. Without taking away anything from the value of the monetary gift, Paul says: for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:
Paul is content, and that means the money isn’t the source of his joy: it is the Philippians themselves.
Now before we unpack the meaning of contentment, let’s focus on the way Paul puts this. He says, I have learned to be content. This word learned is in the active voice. Paul is doing the learning. It did not happen to him, or come upon him, or grow on him. Whether the school of contentment was a school he deliberately enrolled in or not, Paul has paid attention in class, learned the lessons, and has been getting passing grades.
Paul is choosing contentment, not finding it. Paul is pursuing contentment, not experiencing it. Paul is submitting to contentment, not arriving at it. You see, phrases like finding contentment, experiencing contentment, arriving at contentment all sound passive, as if contentment is what happens to you. Contentment, in this thinking, is a result, not an action. Contentment is what you get, not what you choose.
But here Paul tells us that he has learned contentment. This is the mindset of contentment.
Contentment is something the Christian can come to understand, accept, embrace, memorise, practice and then experience. This is why the writer of Hebrews can command contentment: “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5).
Such is the mindset of contentment. But what is the meaning of contentment?
II. The Meaning of Contentment
I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:
I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Let’s examine that word content, for a moment. The Greek word is a compound of two words. One is the word for self, and the other is the word for sufficient, enough. Self-sufficient. It is used only here in the New Testament, but it was a very important word for Greek philosophers, so the Philippians would have recognised it.
The idea is a fulness, a completeness, a stability, and a peace that is contained within you internally, and does not rise and fall with the outside circumstances. Like the human body. As warm-blooded, we are made by God to have an inner thermostat that regulates our body temperature at around 37C. When it is hot around us, our body sweats to cool itself; when it is cold, to pumps blood in different ways, and alerts us that we need insulation. But internally, our body stays the same temperature, unless we get sick.
Contentment is like that in your soul. Contentment is maintaining the affections we saw in verses 4 through 7, regardless of the outward circumstances.
Verse 4, you choose to rejoice in the Lord, not in circumstances. Verse 5, you choose to exercise meekness in the face of your trials. Verse 6, you choose to pray with thanksgiving, and obtain peace as a result. Combine joy, meekness and peace, and you have contentment. And as we saw, you can choose joy, you can choose meekness, you can choose prayerful peace.
Contentment is a chosen attitude, unaffected by what happens around you. Paul explains by giving us the two extremes when it comes to circumstances:
I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.
Abased: If my circumstances are humiliating, where I’ve been shamed, I’ve lost, I’ve been forced to make do with little. Life is hard, exacting, tiresome, and I seem to be scraping by on almost nothing. Paul says, I know how to live like this. Which is another way of saying, I know how to be content in this situation. I can still rejoice, and maintain mildness and bring my needs to God with thanksgiving.
Abound: If I have plenty, if things and money and supplies are in abundance, if every need is met, and many of my wants. Paul says, I know how to live like this, which is to say, I know how to be content when life is like this.
“Oh,” says an objector, “what’s so special about that? I’d also be content if I had everything I wanted.” Actually, as most people know, most rich people are not content, and the ability to acquire has only produced a greater desire to acquire. Instead of bringing contentment, for many wealthy people, riches have put contentment even further out of reach. No, it is often a greater virtue to find contentment when things are abounding than when things are abased.
Paul says, I have found contentment in the extreme of lacking and the extreme of being full.
Now he says, Everywhere and in all things, in any and in all circumstances, I have learned. Again that word, but this time, it is the English translation of a different Greek word to the one in verse 11. This word was actually used for when someone was initiated into the pagan religion with its mysteries. Paul means, I have been fully brought into the school of contentment, learning every exercise. How so?
I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
He speaks of his experience elsewhere:
in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— (2 Corinthians 11:26–27)
God has brought Paul through the experience of every need met, and real deprivation, or glorious abundance, and extreme lack. Through the testing of poverty and plenty, Paul has had his internal thermostat tested in both freezing temperatures and desert heat, in mountaintop altitudes and equatorial humidity. He has learned, in all those situations to rejoice in the Lord, not in circumstances. He has learned to be meek and gentle as to Christ, and not because of circumstances. He has learned prayerful peace, not by waiting for circumstances to come right, but by praying with thanksgiving about whatever circumstance he is in.
Do you think Paul was sometimes tempted to complain? Do you think Paul was tempted to grumble, or perhaps to become boastful and proud when he had much? I’m sure he was. But Paul had learned that he needed to have this constant internal state of joy, meekness and peace. So that meant an active choice of where to set his affections, of what to rejoice in, of how to react and respond to provocation, or what to do with anxieties.
Now the way to keep failing at this school is to think of your contentment like a cold-blooded creature functions. Cold-blooded creatures’ body temperatures drop or rise with the environment. So when it is cold, a cold-blooded creature slows down and is sluggish; when it is warm, they speed up and are active. Some Christians think it is okay to treat life that way. When circumstances are warm and good, I can be cheerful and happy, and grateful and constructive. When circumstances are down, I have the right to be grumpy, and pouty, and murmuring and negative and critical. But that is the opposite of Christlike contentment.
Christlike contentment is a warm-blooded, thermostat-controlled steadiness that says, I find joy, I find meekness, I find peace whether things are up or down. And we should expect that God will deliberately put us through all kinds of temperature to teach us this kind of inner thermostat.
III. The Misunderstanding of Contentment
Now being content does raise some questions. Does being content mean I should accept problems and pain, and seek no resolution? If I’m sick, am I supposed to be content and not seek health? Does this mean we should be content with a low-paying job and never seek more, seek improvement? Does contentment mean we should accept mediocrity? If I say that my child’s room is messy, can he or she reply, “I have learned in whatever state my room is, therewith to be content”? Does contentment mean complacency? Should we not strive to do more and be more and achieve more for Christ, because we are content? To put it simply, what is the relationship between contentment and ambition, contentment and desire? When is ambition and desire sinful discontent? When is what appears to be contentment mere complacency and apathy?
The answer is found in this very epistle. Looking back into chapter 3, we find that Paul has no problem with spiritual ambition.
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13–14)
Nor was Paul afraid to change or address his circumstances. The very context of this letter was Paul’s need for money to improve his situation while under house-arrest.
Christian contentment is not apathy. Christian contentment is not spiritual lethargy, laziness or sluggishness. Christian contentment is not complacency. All of those are sins of slothfulness, wanting ease and avoiding sacrifice or responsibility or discipline. To confuse them with contentment is the excuse of the sluggard, pretending that my complacency is contentment. A person who is complacent and apathetic is not rejoicing in the Lord, he is finding pleasure in himself. The lazy man is not meek or peaceful, he is weak and cowardly.
“Contentment with earthly goods is the mark of a saint; Contentment with our spiritual state is a mark of inward blindness”. – A.W. Tozer
Nor does contentment never seek to improve what is broken, or poor, or painful. The Bible does not suggest that pain or poverty or sickness or struggle is the ideal state. We should try to alleviate our suffering, improve our lot. But what contentment says is this: while my outward man may be suffering, I can still find this joy, meekness and peace. I am not trapped or a prisoner of my suffering. I can say, God Himself is enough for me, and while this outward suffering goes on, my joy is intact.
Real contentment still lives a zealous life of pursuing God, seeking Him, desiring growth. You can be content and ambitious, because contentment has to do with your joy, meekness and peace. Joy, meekness and peace don’t destroy desire, they direct it, and control it and discipline it. The affections of contentment deliver us from covetousness. They tell us when our joy is now in things and circumstances. They show us when our desire is becoming an anxious lust, because we have lost our peace, and our gratitude. They show us when ambition or desire crosses the line into idolatry: into lust, covetousness, pride, vanity.
Paul was a zealous man, a spiritually ambitious man, a man filled with energy, who didn’t deliberately pursue pain or poverty. But his inner thermostat had settled on the joy, peace and meekness regardless.
But all this leads us to how Paul could do that. How could he have this joy, peace and meekness regardless of circumstance?
IV. The Means of Contentment
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Here Paul makes the fundamental difference between the way this word was used by the Graeco-Romans and the way he meant it. The word for contentment in verse 11 was used by two important schools of philosophy, the Stoics, and the Cynics, and in some ways, they saw it as the ideal state to reach. For the Cynics, reaching self-sufficiency was reached by giving up your earthly possessions, and becoming indifferent to society. They even did things that were culturally odd or scandalous, and instead of settling down in society, travelled about.
The Stoics focused more in reaching inner tranquility, regardless of circumstances. In fact, a Roman philosopher who lived at the same time as Paul, Seneca, writes in his works that “the wise person will develop virtue” whether “in riches” or “in poverty,” “in his own country” or “in exile,” “as commander” or “as a soldier,” “healthy” or “sickly” (Ep. Mor. 2.309; cf. 9.13). The happy man is content with his present lot, no matter what it is, and is reconciled to his circumstances” (De Vita Beata 6).”
It sounds almost as if Paul has embraced the Stoic philosophy: become indifferent to outward circumstances, use inner self-discipline, harden yourself to suffering, and be less lured and softened by pleasure.
But here we see the great difference between what a Christian is doing and what today’s self-made man is doing, the key difference between what a born again Christian is doing and what Jordan Peterson is doing. The Stoic says, stop complaining, clean your room, man up, find the good in life, accept what is, and all along, the strength is within – my will, my self-discipline, my self-mastery.
But the Christian says, I can be independent of circumstances only by being dependent upon Christ. Faith is my strength, faith is the victory. By faith I rejoice in Him, even when the fig tree is bare, or even when tempted by a lavish feast. By faith I maintain His humble self-emptying mind, even when my poverty makes me want to blame or resent, or my plenty makes me want to boast and be smug. By faith I look to Him in prayer with thanksgiving rather than fretful worry over my lack of money, or my worry about losing my plenty of money.
The Stoic might be content, but it is a hard, grim-faced, proud contentment in my ability to weather storms and become indifferent to what life throws at me. Biblical contentment is filled with childlike joy: whatever He gives is right, so I submit to Him with joy and peace and meekness. My circumstances are not wild and impersonal, they are governed by my Lord. So I look at them with meaning, and I see the kind but hidden purposes of my God, and my contentment is in Him.
So while this verse has been quoted by boxers about to pound their opponent’s face to a pulp, or skateboarders, or even by unbelievers in motivational speeches, the real context is contentment. I can be content in all circumstances because of Christ who strengthens me. Paul says, because my focus is on the Person controlling the circumstances, my inner thermostat remains fixed on Him, and therefore unwavering.
In the 1700s, an English pastor, Dr. Stonehouse, was passing through Salisbury Plain, and became fearful of the colour of the sky. He saw a lone shepherd named David Saunders and asked him what weather it would be. “It will be,” said the shepherd, “what weather pleases me.” Dr. Stonehouse was surprised and asked him to explain. He said, “Sir, it shall be whatever weather pleases God; and what weather pleases God pleases me.” To place your faith in the Person of the circumstances is to find an unchanging source of joy, meekness and peace. He Himself is enough.
So how is your inward experience? Is it more like the cold-blooded creature, whose whole life slows or speeds up with the environment? Or is it like Paul’s, the warm-blooded Christian who has died with Christ and risen with Him. When you rejoice, remain meek and peacefully pray though the circumstance ebbs or flows, rises or falls, you show to the world that Christ is a greater treasure than anything you can get or lose in this. Your contentment magnifies Christ, and shows that gaining Him is of surpassing worth. Psalm 23 is shown in your life: The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not lack: Yahweh is my Leader and Feeder: I have more than enough.