#228 I Can Do All Things

A funny thing happened as I read a familiar passage of Paul's letter to the Philippians. I saw chapter four, verse thirteen in context for the first time in my life.

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

Paul's words here have become not only a popular Christian slogan worthy of adorning t-shirts and bumper stickers, but a core foundation for the Christian self-help industry. Our traditional interpretation has said that Paul's "all things" are "great things" that we can do for God.

But it was only in reading what comes immediately before that it became clear to me that "all things," for Paul, was not about "moving mountains." It was only in reading Phillipians backwards that I saw that it was not about accomplishing great feats in a life set on fire for Christ. It was not a mission statement for any quest to change the world nor a confidence booster for those bent on such a quest. Rather, "all things" refers not only to great and glorious things, but also trials, tribulations, and the very ordinary suffering of life.

Here is the passage leading up and into 4:13. I have left the wording exactly the same as it is the text, but I've added divisions so as to outline the way in which I think Paul's thought is working. with the emphasis and bullet divisions all mine:

"But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content:

...in whatever circumstances I am:

• I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity.

...in any and every circumstance

• I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need."

So Paul's actual emphasis is on contentment in the face of humility, hunger, and suffering in the same degree as we exhibit in times of prosperity, fulfillment, and abundance. "All things" is "whatever circumstance." It is "any and every circumstance." Through faith in the promise of God, the promise of future resurrection of the body through Jesus Christ, Paul can be content in all things. Paul is not offering a mystical religion that offers extraordinary powers to those who believe. He is not offering a quick-fix. It is not a manifesto of escape from challenges. It is a reckoning with challenges. Continuing to read Phillipians backwards yields this abbreviated version of 3:8-14:

"... I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him... that I may know Him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in... forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."