Philippians 4:10-20, Delighting in the LORD (6)

Paul’s letter to the Philippians

This letter is Paul’s testimony to the “satisfied heart” that comes to those who have put their trust in Christ.  The key terms are “joy” and “rejoicing.”  And here’s the big thing: PAUL IS WRITING FROM PRISON where he is incarcerated for preaching the gospel of Christ.  He is the personification of, “Blessed/Happy are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”  Here are just a few highlights, although I highly recommend the entire letter on this subject of heart-satisfaction.  Everything Psalm 37:11 promised in terms of “abundance of peace/shalom” is evident in Paul’s testimony to the Philippians.

·       1:18: He rejoices from prison because Christ is being exalted.

·       1:21: His life is bound up in a total submission to and exaltation of Christ. “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” 

·       3:3: He describes Christians as those who “rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”  Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 2, was trying to do nothing except put his confidence in the flesh.  Paul rejected this “feel good” approach to satisfying the heart.

·       3:10-11: Paul did not take a laissez-faire approach to life.  He did not just sit back and wait for God to do what needed to be done.  His strong pursuit was to “know Him (Christ).”  What have we learned from Eliphaz and from Isaiah?  We learn Christ through the word of God and by our obedience to it, by walking in the narrow and difficult path.

·       3:14: Again, Paul was an ambitious and energetic man.  But he was not self-centered.  He pressed toward the “goal” to which God called Him, the goal of Christ-likeness. 

·       4:11: Paul testified to the contentment he had, regardless of his bank account.  Paul knew what Jesus told the man who wanted Him to make his brother share the inheritance: one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses (Luke 12:15).  Paul’s life had an abundance of peace (Ps. 37:11; Isa. 55:2)!

Here is an important question for us.  What legacy, what testimony will I leave for my children and grand-children?  It’s not the sermons or little spiritual “jabs” I deliver to them about how it should or shouldn’t be.  It’s the life I lived, and specifically, the approach I took to the satisfaction of the heart.