simple answers. Phil 4.11-12

I have learned the secret of being content

the Church of Mathias Rex, Cluj, Romania.

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Phil 4.11-12

I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.

Step 1 to learning the secret of being content in any and all circumstances is to be in any and all circumstances. "Any and all circumstances" does not include the vagaries of life visited upon everyone by virtue of being alive. Paul does not have a secret for how anyone can be content with their better-than-average lifestyle or their lower-than-average lifestyle, or with their job or marriage or retirement plans. He has no advice for deciding on a job offer or investing or saving or a new house, or for losing your job or investments or savings or house. Paul has no advice on any of those because he didn't have any of those. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health are circumstances people find themselves in by being alive. There is no secret to living: you just do it.

The wisdom of God is not given to inform us how to live and how to be content with what we have. The Spirit is not given you guide us in our life decisions: whether to buy or not buy a house or a car, whether to apply or not apply for a job, whether to marry this person or not, how to save for your retirement, or any other life choices that your non-Christian neighbor faces. The Sprit of God is given solely to guide us in God's decisions.

When you live in the world, your choices are yours, the outcome is yours, the successes and losses are yours. God has no concern with it. The decisions you make as a sentient, self-determinate person are yours. Whether you are content or not is of no consequence to God.

If a person does not make his own decisions in life but allows God to make those decisions, then the responsibility is God's. God is responsible for the outcome and the successes and losses. God is concerned about someone like Paul being content in any and all circumstances because God is good. He cares about those who care about him. God is pleased to light the path for a person who gives his life to knowing God and following Christ and listening to the Spirit. If a person faces any and all circumstances for God, God teaches that person how to do it. Being content in any and all circumstances becomes the responsibility of God.

The secret is not one you probably want to learn. It is not actually a secret. It is a secret only because Paul has no intention of telling us what it is, because it is not a secret for the curious. It is a secret which anyone can learn: First by facing any and all circumstances, then by staying on the path long enough to need to know.

Finding out what Paul meant is simple. Accept his values and way of life as your own, then do what he did. You'll find out if you really want to know:

Phil 3.8 I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish.

1 Tim 6.8 If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.

Phil 3.10 I want to know Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings.

Get rid of your stuff and don't go back. Get rid of your religion, traditions, superstitions, self-deceptions, and comfortable beliefs. Take what food and clothing you have and be satisfied with those, without spending time and money looking for better. Start walking toward Christ on his path, not yours, and determine to take whatever you discover along that path. In no time at all, maybe ten or twenty years, you will know the secret of being content in any and all circumstances.

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Phil 3.10 is a combination of the NRSV and the NASB. The NRSV has "sharing" for the Greek word κοινωνία (koinōnia). That is a weak translation. The point is that the closer a person gets to Christ, the closer one gets to his cross. On that path to the cross, there are sufferings littering the road. Stepping around them means you don't really want to know Christ. The act of accepting each one moves you closer to Christ and further from where you were, and where others are. The increase in distance makes you less and less understandable, but the need to be understood remains just as keen. This inability to find someone who understands can, in itself, take you off the path. But if you remain on the path, there will grow a fellowship: a knowledge that you are understood by him. It's not a powerful motivation but it is a certain one.

It is impossible to want to know Christ and then refuse his sufferings, and his cross. He will make it more and more possible to take the next step, if you actually take each step. There is no cheating. Saying no to the hardship is saying no to the path.