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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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The Secret of Happiness |
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Philippians
4:13 Fourteenth
Sunday after Trinity September
13, 2009 Philippians 4:13 is one of the most quoted, lest understood, and most abused verses in the Bible today. It has been hijacked by people who tell us we can get anything we want from God if we either just learn how to ask for it, or just have the faith to go out and get it. We can have the promotion, the mansion, the car, the life of luxury; because God wants us to have them and God will enable us to get them. We can even have miracles of healing and deliverance from worldly problems, because, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” That is not the meaning of this verse. The “all things for which Christ strengthens us are those things listed in verse 12. They are “how to be abased, and …how to abound: everywhere and in all things…to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Paul is telling us Christ enabled him to face these things, and in them all to be at peace and content in his soul. He is not saying that if he just trusts Christ for his miracle God delivers him from all pain and problems, pays his mortgage, heals his sickness, gets him a better job, and gives him more toys. He is saying that, by the strength of God, he is enabled to endure life as it comes to him, and to be at peace and content in whatever circumstances it pleases God to put him. This was a timely message for the Philippians. You remember that the Church in Philippi was formed about the year 51 A.D. during the second missionary journey of Paul. It was a church born in persecution and suffering. Paul himself was taken by a mob to the Roman authorities who beat him severely and put him, bleeding and hurting, into stocks in the prison, without medical care or even anything to ease the pain. The Philippian Church continued to suffer persecution after Paul left. Thus, Paul wrote that it was given to them not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for His sake; having the same sufferings they saw in Paul (Phil. 1:29-30), and that they were not to fear their adversaries (1:28). Nor had persecution ended for Paul. Even as he wrote the letter to the Philippians, he was in Rome under arrest and awaiting trial before Caesar. So, when Paul wrote about peace and contentment he was not saying God had stopped the beatings and the stonings and the imprisonments and the opposition and the pain and the suffering, and the hunger and the poverty in his life. He was saying God had enabled him to be at peace and content even while suffering these things. There is no magic formula for achieving this kind of contentment, but there are two things I can say with certainty about it. First, it is not found by seeking it. There are some principles of life that guide us toward it, but notice that I am not saying that if you do this, this, and this, you will automatically receive this benefit and this benefit and this benefit, and, thus, you will be happy Seeking happiness is like trying to find the end of the rainbow. It runs away from you as fast as you run toward it, and there is no pot of gold. Second, the secret of Paul’s happiness is that Paul loved God above all things. The first commandment is to have no other Gods but God. Jesus, quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 said the greatest, or prime, Commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Paul showed us how to do this, for Paul was so identified with his Saviour that he could say for him “to live is Christ” (Phil1:21). Paul loved God so much he was willing to suffer the loss of all things for Christ. Indeed he counted the things of this world as garbage which he gladly disposed of to gain Christ. He counted loss and suffering as gain in the service of Christ. There is something here that we all need to understand; namely, that when we love things more than we love God we become unhappy, angry, and miserable when we suffer the loss of them, or even when things don’t work out the way we want. Paul’s “secret” was that he loved God so much he was willing to accept life as it came to him from the Providence of God. Was he hungry? He didn’t grumble. He didn’t get angry at God. He accepted it. Did he have abundance? He did not “set his heart on it.” He gave thanks for it, but did not let it define his life or his happiness. Was the world a place of decay and sorrow? Paul did not complain. He looked for another life, a better life, a Heavenly life, and that sustained him in the trials of this life. In addition to his personal trials and sufferings, Paul suffered through the general malaise of the world of his day. Paul, a Roman citizen, lived in the twilight of the glory days of Rome. The once great empire was decayed and corrupt spiritually, morally, and politically. Israel was the same way. Paul, who was also a Jew, saw his own people falling into the spiritual and cultural bankruptcy of the Romans. He saw their increasing worldliness, materialism, paganism and their dead orthodoxy that kept the letter of the faith but denied the spirit of it. Paul saw his world falling apart. I often talk to people who feel like their world is crumbling around them. They are worried about children, now adults, who feel no need of Christ or His Church. They are worried about health problems and finances. They are worried about their country. The changes in our culture since the 1950s have left them feeling like strangers and aliens in their own land, and everything they value is “Gone with the Wind.” People like us probably feel this more keenly than most, for we desire to conserve the good things of the past; not only the faith of biblical Christianity, but also the culture that was founded upon it. But this world is fallen, and it is run by fallen people who, even in their best moments, are yet sinners and fools before God. We will always see the flaws in their values and cultures. While this causes us to grieve for them personally and culturally, we must learn the secret of being content while we live in this world. The secret of contentment is simply this; be content with life as it comes to you through the Providence of God. That is simply another way of saying love God, and trust God. I think the entire letter of Philippians is an explanation of Philippians 1:21, “for me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” Until we reach the Heavenly city, we must live in this world, and we will often find ourselves in circumstances we would rather not endure. But, in Christ we can not only endure, but also have peace and contentment in the midst of our troubles. For us, life is more than circumstances. To live is Christ, and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
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