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What does the word content mean to you? In Philippians 4:11, Paul wrote, "...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." Do you, as I often have, wonder what Paul meant by that statement? Was he satisfied or was he through trying and ready to just give up? After a great deal of study of this verse in its context, I don't feel that Paul was through trying nor was he giving up, but rather he was able to accept his existing earthly condition. If one reads Paul's statement in Romans 8:31-39, he finds why Paul was able to make such a statement. In this verse from Philippians one also knows that Paul's faith was in God and Christ.
There are people, many of them Christians, who quote this verse as their reason for no longer trying because of problems or hard times. Paul was content with his physical situation, not his spiritual situation; he was ever striving toward the high calling of God. (Philippians 3:13)
The apostle Paul had been schooled or trained himself to be content; his contentment was through and in God. Over the years he had taught himself (learned) contentment and we today must do the same. Paul had learned to be content without worldly goods and said, "But godliness with contentment is great gain." (I Timothy 6:6) David Lipscomb said of this verse, "In this concise and weighty sentence Paul expresses both these main ideas that godliness makes us content, and to be content is the highest good."
Our goal as a Christian should be to gain heaven and not the world. Scripture bears out this lesson Matthew 6:24 tells us, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (the world).” I Timothy 6:17 says, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God...” “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4. And in I John 2:15 we read, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Paul taught this with his life. Today we as followers of Christ are to be content with where we stand in this physical life, but we should always be seeking ways to improve our spiritual life. If we place our spiritual life first, God will add as needed to the physical, “...seek ye first the kingdom of God...” Matthew 6:33. Contentment comes when we escape the servitude of things and as William Barclay said, "realize that our most precious possession is our friendship with God, made possible through Jesus Christ."
As Christians, we must learn that as the day to day trials and tribulations come that we like Paul must make the best of them and start from there and move forward. We should be forever grateful to God that He does not tell us each January 1st what is going to happen to us for the entire year. I know of several years in my own life, had I known what each year held; death would have seemed to be the only way out. Our God isn't that way, He brought me through those years as always, and He will continue to do so for all who truly seek Him. (Philippians 4:13, Psalms 23)
Let us through our daily living for Christ learn to say, "...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," and leave the rest to God. "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3:6)
