Rev. Nick Cheek
John 15:1-8 and Philippians 4:10-23
This summer we’ve been walking through the book of Philippians together. I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey as much as I have. Today we come to Paul’s final words to the church in Philippi. As he brings this letter to a close, he leaves the church with one of the most memorable verses in all of Scripture. It’s a verse many of us know by heart, yet one that is often misunderstood when separated from everything Paul has been saying up to this point. So listen carefully this morning. See if you can hear not only the familiar words, but the deeper invitation that lies beneath them.
Scripture Prayer
Do you know what it is? “I can do all things through he who gives me strength.” You got it. Few verses in all of Scripture are as recognizable as these words. I was curious to find out how popular this verse really was, so I googled it. Turns out it is number 4 on the all-time searched verses on the internet. Number 4. People love this verse. Folks of all backgrounds, all denominations, and really even those who wouldn’t consider themselves Christians use this verse. Perhaps nowhere has this verse found a more visible home than in the world of sports. For decades, athletes have carried this passage onto fields, courts, tracks, and gym floors. You’ll find it written on wristbands, stitched into cleats, printed on locker room walls, and inscribed on shoes. Before Steph Curry was an NBA superstar, his mother sent him Philippians 4:13 as encouragement for his very first college game at Davidson. Since then, Curry has written the verse on his sneakers…. And it is not referenced on his apparel. “I can do all things through he who gives me strength.” These words also move from the world of sports and into the daily struggles of our lives. Some of us in here may have written it on a mirror in our bathrooms to help start the day… or we’ve written it on a Post-it note attached to a sandwich in our children’s lunch box, or we’ve referenced it in a graduation card for a grandchild going off to college.
As I prepared this sermon, I couldn’t help but think about many of you… and how over the past year and a half, I’ve had the privilege of sitting with some of you through life’s holiest and hardest moments. I’ve prayed beside hospital beds, celebrated new beginnings, baptized babies, mourned painful losses, listened to fears about the future, and watched many of you carry burdens with remarkable faith. It’s in moments like these that Philippians 4:13 becomes more than a verse we’ve memorized. It becomes a prayer: “Lord, I don’t know if I have enough strength for today, but I trust that you do.” And that is one of the deepest convictions of our faith – that we never face life’s joys or its burdens alone. When life asks more of us than we think we can handle… we lean on the belief we all share… that Christ goes with us. Christ strengthens us. And perhaps that is exactly why this verse has become so treasured.
Yet…. …. the very familiarity that makes this verse so beloved can also lead to its misunderstanding. While it is a beautiful passage, short lines of scripture, when repeated often enough and isolated from their context, can slowly drift away from the stories that originally gave them life. Over time, they risk taking on a meaning dictated more by the surrounding culture than by the story it belongs to in scripture. Sociologist Christian Smith agrees… He suggests that American faith often reshapes religion or scripture into a tool it wasn’t meant for… we can claim certain passages as a support for “individualism, personal success, and self-fulfillment.” In its most extreme forms, a distinct brand of faith can emerge, one that subtly equates divine favor with personal advancement. We begin to view faith through the lens of achievement: gathering more, rising above the crowd, and assuming that God’s primary role is to bless our drive to win. In this mindset, success becomes proof of blessing, and being better or more prosperous than others is celebrated as spiritual victory.
Self -reliance and determination are admirable qualities in many respects. But they can also shape the way we hear Scripture… and before long “I can do all things through he who gives me strength” starts to sound less like a testimony from a prison cell and more like a Christian version of the American dream—as though God’s ultimate purpose is to help us win – to gives us strength to meet our quotas, or outpace our competition, and fulfill our individual ambitions.
The Roman world celebrated this type of individualism and grit, too. When Paul uses the word “Content ” is this passage, he is deliberately making a connection to this cultural mindset. He tells the Philippians, “I have learned to be content in all circumstances.” In Paul’s day, the Greek word for contentment—autarkeia—carried a very different meaning in the culture. In the Roman world, autarkeia was considered one of the highest philosophical virtues. It meant quite literally: “I am self-sufficient. I have everything I need within myself. I can do anything… and everything… and I can do it on my own. I can have it all.” When Paul intentionally borrows that familiar cultural word, his first hearers may have expected him to boast in his own resilience… but he does the opposite. He completely redefines Autarkia. Paul writes, “ I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12 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. 13 I can do all things through he who gives me strength.” [Pause] Here we find that Paul’s understanding of contentment is not rooted in personal willpower or mental toughness. He acknowledges that he is content, but not because he has mastered his circumstances on his own… but rather, because he is rooted in Christ. He is bearing witness to a Savior whose presence is enough. Paul knows… through experience, that Christ’s strength does not spare us from hardship; rather…it sustains us through it. It does not promise that every dream we have will come true; it promises that no circumstance- not success or failure, abundance or need, freedom or imprisonment- can separate us from the grace and strength of the one who walks with us.
Nearly nineteen hundred years after Paul wrote these words from a Roman prison cell, another Christian would wrestle with the same contentment… from a prison cell of his own. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and theologian, wrote from Tegel Prison while awaiting execution by the Nazi regime. In his letters, Bonhoeffer warned against reducing God to what he called a “God of the gaps,” writing, “… God is not a stop-gap; he must be recognized at the center of life, not when we are at the end of our resources.”
Now, Bonhoeffer wasn’t criticizing people for praying in difficult moments, nor was he saying we shouldn’t cry out to God when we are sick, grieving, overwhelmed, or needing strength—he did that very thing himself. Instead, he warned against treating our faith as a backup plan… something we keep on reserve until our self-reliance fails us – Calling upon God to close the deal we cannot close. To heal the body we cannot fix. To mend the relationship we cannot mend. To fulfill the dream we cannot reach. In that posture, God is no longer the center of our lives; He is simply the mechanism we use to fill our own gaps. Bonhoeffer believed that this vision of God is far too small. Christ is not simply the one who helps us fulfill our personal ambitions; Christ is not merely sitting at the margins of our lives, stepping in only when we have exhausted our own strength. Christ is the very center… the one in whom we live, move, and have our being. That is why Paul is content with ALL things. Because Christ is with him… through all things.
Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding of Philippians 4:13 is that we stop reading too soon. We memorize verse 13, print it on coffee mugs, write it on our shoes, and quote it before life’s biggest moments. But Paul doesn’t stop there. The very next sentence reads, “Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.” That verse is every bit as important as the one that comes before it. After declaring, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” Paul immediately thanks the church in Philippi for standing beside him in his suffering. We can’t miss this important piece of the story. Here we realize that Christ’s strength did not present itself in some mysterious or magical way to Paul while he was in chains. It took on flesh through the ministry of the Church. In the Roman world, prisoners were not fed or cared for by the state. If no one came to provide food, clothing, medicine, or companionship, they suffered alone. Survival often depended entirely upon the generosity of family and friends. Paul knew this reality firsthand. The Philippians prayed for him. They encouraged him. They gathered their limited resources and sent gifts to sustain him while he sat in prison. The strength of Christ was made visible through a community that refused to let one of its own suffer alone.
Again… there is something deeply countercultural about this idea. It brings a new meaning to the phrase, “I can do all things.” The truth of Paul’s story… is that he could not… not without the body of Christ – The church – supporting him and refusing to abandon him in his need. Paul would not have survived his time in prison… without help. Friends, the same is true for us. We can’t really make it on our own… and we don’t have to. We don’t have to adopt this individualistic… culture around us. The truth we share… and God’s people… is that Christ continues to sustain us through the faith, generosity, and care of each other. We are able to endure “all things” because Christ has given us folks to walk this often challenging journey together. That has always been God’s way. Again and again, the Church becomes the hands and feet of Christ, bearing one another’s burdens and making the love of Christ tangible.
If I could sum up Philippians… since this is our last sermon in the series… it would be this underlying theme – God’s people… working together. Throughout this letter… Paul has spoken of building a partnership in the gospel, of sharing together in God’s grace, of having the same mind and attitude of Christ, and of looking not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others. From beginning to end, Philippians is not the story of isolated Christians finding strength on their own. It is the story of a people bound together in faith, learning to carry one another through every season of life.
May that… be our story, brothers and sisters. May we, Trinity…. Continue to walk together… through all things… content that the love and strength of Christ walks with us.