Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
St Paul's Letter to the Philippians 1:1-2
On 12 September, I concluded the series of Reflections on what Jesus taught about money with His invitation to experience God's rest. This new series that begins today, that I think will run until Christmas, explores how we enter this rest. The series is centred around St Paul’s famous statement towards the end of his letter to Philippi about how he had learned contentment.
I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.I used to think that St James’ letter was the one in the New Testament that dealt most with financial issues but I've been surprised to discover that it's Philippians. James, like Paul in his two letters to the Corinthians, wrote to Christians who were preoccupied with the details of life, who and wanted to live as much like everyone else as possible without actually sinning (although, inevitably, they did sin). Philippians, by contrast, was written to Christians who were preoccupied with Christ. While Paul's great statement of financial contentment is important, it's founded on the much broader contentment that Paul expresses throughout the letter - one that describes what it's like to enter God's rest, although Paul does not use that term.
The letter is unique among Paul’s letters preserved in the New Testament because it wasn't written to address problems in the local church, nor to help a protégée, but simply to thank a church for its gift and to share with it in fellowship. This is why Paul introduces himself as Christ’s servant, not as an apostle, and addresses the letter to ‘all the saints’, not primarily to the church leaders. It was written while he was a political prisoner in Rome and it contains a lot of personal information, both about his past and his current situation, and it’s this as much as the guidance he offers that helps us to understand how he learned contentment.
To be an effective antidote to the prevailing avarice (the love of money) and covetousness (the love of what money can buy) in society, we need to be content with all that our life is. When our contentment is partial, limited to one or two areas of our lives, we remain vulnerable because capitalism and consumerism thrive by undermining all basic human need: the need to feel secure, to be accepted and valued by others and to fulfill our potential. Like bacterial infections - the 'superbugs' - that adapt to thrive in spite of known antibiotics, avarice and covetousness constantly adapt to survive the steps we take towards simplicity and serenity.
If Paul could overcome his privileged heritage and violent past, if he could learn and maintain contentment with all the aggression and hardship that he had had to endure, if he could rejoice as the victim of perjury and at the hands of unjust Government officials, we can learn it, too. Whatever our background, whatever mistakes we’ve made, whatever wickedness we’re guilty of, whatever abuse we’ve suffered, we can be content with life. Whatever the type of suffering we're experiencing, how deeply we feel it, how inexplicable or unfair it is, no matter how long we have had to endure it, contentment is possible. But it doesn't come naturally or easily and, like St Paul, we have to learn.
To be an effective antidote to the prevailing avarice (the love of money) and covetousness (the love of what money can buy) in society, we need to be content with all that our life is. When our contentment is partial, limited to one or two areas of our lives, we remain vulnerable because capitalism and consumerism thrive by undermining all basic human need: the need to feel secure, to be accepted and valued by others and to fulfill our potential. Like bacterial infections - the 'superbugs' - that adapt to thrive in spite of known antibiotics, avarice and covetousness constantly adapt to survive the steps we take towards simplicity and serenity.
If Paul could overcome his privileged heritage and violent past, if he could learn and maintain contentment with all the aggression and hardship that he had had to endure, if he could rejoice as the victim of perjury and at the hands of unjust Government officials, we can learn it, too. Whatever our background, whatever mistakes we’ve made, whatever wickedness we’re guilty of, whatever abuse we’ve suffered, we can be content with life. Whatever the type of suffering we're experiencing, how deeply we feel it, how inexplicable or unfair it is, no matter how long we have had to endure it, contentment is possible. But it doesn't come naturally or easily and, like St Paul, we have to learn.
If you think this series will be helpful, please recommend it to others and encourage them to subscribe by sending me an e-mail at philip.evans@clubhousew1.org .
© Copyright Philip Evans 2014.
What is freely received should be freely shared and not sold for profit, so please feel free to copy these Reflections freely and without cost to others. Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations in these Reflections are all from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
