Philippians 4:2-23

Be still: Lord help me cut out the distractions of the world to encounter to you in your Word. Amen

Read: Philippians 4:2-23

I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (v13 NIV)

Encounter: When I was at Bible college, a professor loved to say, 'If you take the text out of context, you are left with a con,' and then he would laugh to himself. I didn’t find it funny, but I have found it to be true. We are in danger of cherry-picking Bible verses and applying our own meaning. The problem is that God will do everything he said he would, not everything we thought he meant when he said it. To avoid disappointment context is essential.

Today’s reading contains one of the most misinterpreted verses in all of Scripture: 'I can do all things through him who gives me strength.' A staple of wall art in Christian spaces the world over and often quoted in the face of great challenges. The popular interpretation is that God will strengthen us to achieve anything: bench press that weight, get the job, or beat the diagnosis. Here, however, Paul is not speaking about challenges, but contentment.

He has learned how to live with plenty and with little, with abundance and with need. In other words, Christ has given Paul strength not to change his circumstances, but to remain content within them.

Ironically our misinterpretation isn’t entirely wrong, because sometimes the greatest challenge is contentment. Discontentment can linger longer than difficulties. Even when life is good, it whispers that what we have isn’t enough. Discontentment distorts our discernment and thus becomes the devil’s playground. He uses it to tempt us outside God’s will in pursuit of something we think will finally satisfy us.

But Paul shows that contentment is possible, not by mustering it up in our own strength, but by recognising our inability to attain it and relying on the strength Christ provides. That’s what Paul did, and he found contentment in God's will, even when that left him chained to a Roman guard.

Apply: Where has discontentment been whispering that what God has given you is not enough?

Devote: Holy Spirit, as you did for Paul, give me the strength to be content right where I am today.