The Secret

An essential difference between Paul and the Stoics.

I said yesterday that what verse 12 shows us is the adaptability of faith. Paul says…

Philippians 4:12 ESV - 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.

Paul knows how to be brought low, but he also knows how to abound. It is often easier to be faithful to Christ in trial and in need than it is in abundance and ease. Witness how many people forget God when all things are well only to remember him again when things get hard. But Paul has learned…

In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need

It’s funny how he expresses it. We can understand when he says “facing hunger.” We don’t want to be face to face with hunger. But he uses the same verb for facing plenty and abundance, as if that is just as perilous.

When we trust Christ, we trust him no matter what. Jesus is not the one ingredient we need to make our lives a success story. Neither did Jesus come so that we could have health, wealth, and prosperity now. Our lives might include those things, or they might not. And when Paul uses that phrase, “the secret,” he’s not using it to sell you that one thing you need to be successful. He is giving you and me and the Philippians the one thing we need to be content in whatever state we find ourselves in, whether that is as a winner or a loser in the world’s eyes. When he says “the secret,” Paul is using the language of the Greek and Roman philosophers again. But like Paul always does, he’s using their language to point them to Christ. The secret is Christ.

In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

Any Stoic would have been able to say that line, sort of like Paul does, but there’s an essential difference between Paul and the Stoics. The difference is the reason behind their contentment. The Stoics taught contentment in self. Paul was content in Christ.

Philippians 4:13 ESV - I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

And there you have the context for the most used-out-of-context verse in American evangelicalism. And now that I have given you that context, tomorrow we will talk about the contentment Paul is describing in that verse.