You Can Do All Things
This post can be read on its own. It continues my reflections from last week on Philippians 3-4. You can also listen to me read both articles (and subscribe for future audio versions) via this link.
Paul is soon to discuss joy and how "The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything.” He will even go so far as to say, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
But unfortunately, these coffee-mug verses ignore one of the most essential aspects of Paul’s letter to the Philippians: suffering.
When we are united to Christ we are also united with his sufferings. There is an “all things” verse that you will not find on a coffee mug. It’s only twenty verses earlier:
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things
You can’t do all things in Christ unless you are first willing to lose all things. Paul says our union with Christ includes a union with his suffering (an aspect often left out of “identity in Christ” sermons, which I admit has been a flaw in my own sermons on these texts). Listen to Paul:
that I may know him and the power of his resurrection,
and may share his sufferings,
becoming like him in his death,
that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Losing everything is worth it! Paul continues:
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect,
but I press on to make it my own,
because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
When you are his and are found in him, everything changes. All your successes turn to rubble as he crowns you with steadfast love and faithfulness. All the radiance of your acheivements grow dims in the light of his glorious grace. All your social media statistics, your bank account savings, and your well-kept photos of family members; your truth-telling, friend-making, and job-working; all your beauty, goodness, and faithfulness; all of it is forgotten before him and his glory.
But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
We must think like Paul. He tells us to. If we are to be mature, we must forget our successes and achievements and focus on Christ and the glory that awaits us. It is not wrong to receive glory from others when we do good. But our motive is, first and foremost, to give glory to God.
There are some, their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame. They set their minds on earthly things. But we will receive a glorious body like that of Christ. We must think about that.
To achieve joy and contentment, we must do the following: unite ourselves with Christ’s death and resurrection (see my post from last week, or read Romans 6), let our requests be made known to God with thanksgiving, and finally, we should think. We renew our minds with whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, excellent, or worthy of praise.
If we do these three things, we will be well-equipped to handle suffering. As the story of Naomi shows, suffering can often bring about bitterness. Some of this is quite natural. You suffer and mourn, and some people, including your friends, are not very good at weeping with those who weep. Or they give you so much sympathy that, to them, your whole life becomes about the suffering. It’s hard to be a good friend.
And so it can be very difficult for the one who suffers to be comforted, understood, and loved. If you are suffering you might be less fun to be around, less energetic, and less available. And so your friends aren’t like friends. And you become bitter. And you internalize their frustration with you and spin it around in your head (when you could instead be praying it up to God). It creates a bad cycle. You become too tense to take a deep breath. Suffering becomes suffocating.
I wonder what the deal was between Euodia and Syntyche, the two women that Paul asks to be of the same mind in the Lord (which alludes back to what Paul said about humility and unity in Philippians 2). I wonder if these two women experienced suffering as they worked beside Paul: they “have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel,” and Paul’s gospel work was not easy. I wonder if after they experienced suffering, their relationship was torn. And I wonder if that’s why Paul wrote about union with Christ’s death and resurrection in Philippians 3. Maybe that’s the situation behind Paul’s call for us not to be anxious but to “present your requests to God.”
Regardless of their situation and regardless of our present circumstance, we must prepare ourselves for suffering through union with Christ, with prayer, and with right thinking. We need to consider the value of our efforts and achievements, all of it as murky water under the bridge, against the shining salvation offered in Christ.
If we do this, we will understand that no suffering is without purpose. We will know that no pain can bring us out of being present in him. If we do what Paul asks, our minds will be guarded by the unthinkable: we will receive the peace of God which surpasses our mind’s understanding.
Think on these things.
12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength. 14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.
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