Philippians 4:11
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content in any circumstance.
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content in any circumstance.
Paul is praising their giving to him, but he wanted to make it clear what his motivation was. He is not trying to put pressure on this church. He does not want them to think he expects them to continue “funding” him indefinitely.
He is not using his office as an apostle to make demands on these people.
Remember, he had earlier spoken of some people who are enemies of the cross, and he said their god is belly (Philippians 3:19). But he is not like them. And one reason, I believe, was that he had learned to be content in plenty or with little.
Similarly, Jesus said, "Watch out and guard yourself from all types of greed (Luke 12:15)."
Paul did not
- paint having to go without an existential crisis.
- link their giving to him as necessary for their prosperity.
- want to create a dependent relationship in which he begins to see the Philippians as his source.
And when he said he had learned something, he was saying that it is a point of maturity that God has helped him to reach. His priority is
- about the will of God and not excess,
- not about comparing himself with others,
- not how he is rated among the richest pastors, as if that is a measure of his validation before God.
When he says he has learned to be content,
- he presents it as a good mindset, having told them that what they see and hear in him they should do (Philippians 4:9).
And this is not the verse place he mentioned the virtue of contentment.
and constant bickering by people corrupted in their minds and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a way of making a profit. Now godliness combined with contentment brings great profit. For we have brought nothing into this world and so we cannot take a single thing out either. But if we have food and shelter, we will be satisfied with that. Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evils. Some people in reaching for it have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains. (1 Timothy 6:5-10)
Here are what Paul wants people to avoid:
- Thinking that godliness is a way of making a profit
- Longing to be rich/having the love of money
- Mind corruption and being deprived of the truth
- many senseless and harmful desires
Because they can produce these results:
- Plunge into ruin and destruction
- Straying from the faith
Therefore, he encouraged these attitudes:
- Being satisfied with food and shelter
- The priority of godliness + contentment
- Living like we brought nothing into the world and would take nothing away (the priority of the world to come)
- Living like godliness + contentment brings great profit.
In that letter to Timothy, Paul says the bad tendency does not come from nowhere; it comes from a thought process that has gone awry.
We see something like that in Genesis 3 with Eve, where the wrong action began with the wrong thought, desire, and decision.
James wrote that when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin (James 1:14-15).
The wrong thoughts, desires, and pursuits are all reflected in the 1 Timothy passage.
And Paul did not say that those people were merely misguided. Just as he has learned to be content, he also does not want people to learn the opposite. But the seed of lies can do that to people.
After some people finished telling lies in the name of God, we may think that we are doing the will of God if we are not greedy, discontented, and in the throes of the love of money and the acquisition of things, including experiences.
Jesus was asked to divide an inheritance. He did not just politely decline (Luke 12:13-21); he also launched into a talk about the dangers of all kinds of greed. He ended with a parable that highlighted the importance of being rich with God.
He used "rich" in a spiritual sense, just as Paul used the word "profit" in a spiritual, more expansive sense in that Timothy passage.
It is interesting the vehemence with which Paul spoke against those whose god is their belly, calling them the enemies of the cross (Philippians 3:19). These are, in my opinion, preachers/proclaimers, not some random church members.
Look at the vehemence with which he spoke in that Timothy passage, saying some people are corrupted in the mind and deprived of the truth. And also Jesus saying Watch out and guard yourself from all kinds of greed.
We need to heed their warnings.
From Addiction to Freedom by Favour Oyinloye
