The Apostle Paul says this in the middle of his letter to the church in Philippi. His life has had some pretty crazy highs and lows by the time he pens these words. Paul’s or rather Saul’s beginnings are pretty admirable. He has managed to become a Roman citizen and is accepted in those circles, and he is also a Jewish Pharisee, meaning that he is a spiritual leader within Jerusalem and has spiritual authority in other towns as well. He says himself, you can’t get anymore Hebrew than him. He has all the right blood lines and upbringing that would set you apart in his day. He’s on top of the world.
Well, he has been persecuting the Church of Jesus Christ until Jesus Himself meets him on the road and changes both his life, and his name. At that moment, all those friends and followers he thought he had, completely desert him. He should have some new friends right? These Christians whom he has now joined their side? Nope, because they are terribly afraid of him, and I mean he did originally go to their town to kill them so they have cause for their fear. But all that to say, he went from being the man everyone wanted to be friends with to the one no one would dare talk to, probably even look at.
These things continue to happen to him. He will preach and watch God do powerful things through him only to turn around and find people hunting him down to kill him, making vows that they won’t eat until he is dead. God provides rescue and sends him to another town only to survive three different ship wrecks on three different journeys. He has stayed at Lydia’s house, a very wealthy business woman and had every luxury, then found himself trying to keep warm while sleeping in the streets moments later.
I’m sure you’ve heard or quoted the verse, Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” As you read through this letter, Paul wasn’t talking about making an NFL team or winning a medal at the olympics. He wasn’t talking about getting a good grade on a test or hitting a personal best on your deadlift max. He was talking about being able to walk through the highs of life without holding onto them too tightly or growing proud and walking through the lows of life without getting angry or bitter. Paul has learned to be content in Jesus, not matter what circumstances surround him. He learned by both book knowledge and from experience, what it is like to have and trust Jesus. He has learned who God is from the written word and experienced who God is in such profoundly intimate ways that he knows God.
In his book, “To live is Christ, to die is gain,” Matt Chandler says it like this. “We learn contentment from God’s Word and its application to our hearts as we walk with Him through the highs and lows of life. We learn contentment not by primarily learning coping skills or response strategies in times of difficulty and adopting ambivalence in times of comfort, but rather by learning just how all-surpassingly good our gracious God is. Paul’s point is not summarized in the learning of advice or a set of helpful skills; his point is summed up in knowing God. If you just know God, have a sense of His depth of love and abundance of grace all for you in Christ, you’ll consequently find wealth appropriately unimpressive and suffering appropriately untroubling.”
Paul’s maturing in Christ looks like just knowing God more and more. The deeper he lets the truth of who God is and what He has done for him set deep into his heart, the less he wants anything else besides Jesus. In fact, the suffering he experiences makes him feel closer to Jesus, knowing the suffering that Jesus did for him. And the more he knows God, the less the world entices him. He gets a clearer picture of what awaits him in heaven and knows that nothing here can compare to that glorious place.
Paul wraps up his letter by thanking the Philippian Church for their partnership in the Gospel work that he is doing. If you look back at chapter 1 verse 5, he starts his letter that way as well. All through out the letter Paul speaks of the encouragement he feels from their willingness to suffer with him in his work and the love that he has for them. I get the sense that even though they have not been shipwrecked or beaten or stoned, Paul feels they have suffered right along with him as they have participated in suffering themselves as they gather gifts to send him and help him in this great journey of spreading the Gospel. He thanks them for their gifts, acknowledging that he would have been content without them. Nonetheless, it was good of them to share in his troubles, and at the time of his writing, they are the only church that has. Then verse 17 says, “17 Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. 18 I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19 And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”
He knows that the Philippian Church hasn’t really given them to him in the first place, but have offered these sacrifices to God. They have willingly shared in his suffering, as they have given their lives to Jesus and His Gospel. They have been true sharers in Paul’s affliction and we see the fellowship of the Church working together as a masterpiece.
I have been thinking about what it means to share in the suffering of Christ in this day. What would Jesus be doing if He was walking around today? There is so much suffering, so much injustice, so much hatred and cutting people out of things. So much slavery and murder and slander and gossip and indignation. So much focusing on the speck of dirt in your bother’s eye while ignoring the plank in your own. How do I make my life look more and more like Jesus? How do I participate in His suffering?
I believe it takes knowing those who suffer. Seeing everyone as a person first and foremost and stepping into their lives. I believe it means being content with less in order to help someone in great need. I believe it means being willing to risk your reputation or your finances to be in common cause with someone’s affliction.
After Paul thanks them for participating with him, he reminds them that the Lord will meet all their needs according to His riches. I think that he’s saying that all the ways in which they have been willing to suffer and sacrifice for the Lord will be repaid to them in an eternal way that surpasses whatever they have given up. I don’t think there is any hint of God owing them, but He is a gracious God. Jesus Himself says that if we want to give our kids good things, even with how sinful and broken we are, imagine how much the Lord loves to give us good gifts. The deeper we secure our hearts in what Jesus promises in eternity to come, the easier we can walk through suffering and the less tempting the fading cheap pleasures of this world appear.
Suffering and pain obviously hurt, or they wouldn’t be called suffering. The presence of pain does not indicate the absence of God. And I don’t think I would go out searching for pain, but I do have a longing to look for ways to sacrifice my pleasures, my abundance, my time, my energy and offer those in worship to the Lord. I have been thinking, what can I give up in order to step into someone’s pain and share in their suffering. How can I participate in their lives in a way that makes them feel the way Paul felt about the Christians in Philippi?
This is my mission now. I’m just starting out on it but I want my life to count for eternity and the Gospel in ways that cost me something. They may not be huge ways and you may never hear about them on the news or even in Christian news articles, etc but this is where I believe true joy is found. It is found in the giving of ourselves completely to our Savior and following Him as He goes to meet the least of these. Will you join me?
Your Fellow Traveler
lacey
Find True Joy 