Philippians 4:10–23

¹⁰ I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. ¹¹ Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. ¹² I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. ¹³ I can do all things through him who strengthens me. ¹⁴ Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. ¹⁵ And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. ¹⁶ Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. ¹⁷ Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. ¹⁸ I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. ¹⁹ And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. ²⁰ To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. ²¹ Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you. ²² All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household. ²³ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

One of the more fascinating articles I think I have ever read was written by Daniel Cordaro for Greater Good Magazine: Science-Based Insights for a Meaningful Life. It is entitled “What If You Pursued Contentment Rather Than Happiness?” In it, Cordaro discusses how, while at Yale University, he led a research team seeking to understand the human mind throughout time and culture.

In their research, one of the last groups they studied was a “remote group of former nomads high in the Himalayas of Eastern Bhutan.” This group was “one of three uncontacted villages on planet earth.” They traveled deep into the Himalayas and came to the village of around 200 families. There, they opened up their laptop and exposed the villagers “dozens of facial and vocal expressions.” These folks had “no electricity, no internet, no cell phones, no printed media—nothing.”

Cordaro and his team were impressed by how accurately these villagers identify the various emotions expressed in image and sound. He writes:

But there was one emotion that didn’t behave like all the others. It was different.

The emotion was contentment, and while we were working on translating our study, our guide, Dr. Dorji Wangchuk, stopped for a moment when we reached this word. “In our culture, this emotion is very special. It is the highest achievement of human well-being, and it is what the greatest enlightened masters have been writing about for thousands for years.” Now that was a conversation starter, and I asked him for the translation. “It’s hard to translate it exactly, but the closest word is chokkshay, which is a very deep and spiritual word that means ‘the knowledge of enough.’ It basically means that right here, right now, everything is perfect as it is, regardless of what you are experiencing outside.”

This was the moment when lightning struck for me, and I immediately felt chills down my entire body. No matter where I went on planet earth, all of the cultures I interacted with revered contentment as one of the highest states to cultivate in life. Yet in the West, we were obsessing about happiness—and feeling more anxious, depressed, and stressed. I decided to dig in and see what kind of ancient secrets could be revealed through a scientific investigation of the most underappreciated emotion in history: contentment.

In fact, Cordaro and his team finally concluded that human beings around the globe adopt one of two basic strategies for living life: “More Strategy” or “Enough Strategy.”

In “More Strategy,” people want more and more and more. The problem with “More Strategy,” he writes “is that it’s simply not sustainable.” In “Enough Strategy,” people are content. One more statement from Cordaro:

While poring through thousands of years of ancient wisdom traditions, my team and I were shocked to find that the ancients almost never used the word happiness when they were talking about what it means to be well. More than 90 percent of the time, they used the word contentment, and described it as a state of “unconditional wholeness,” regardless of what is happening externally.[1]

This is absolutely fascinating.

It seems to me that contentment is most challenged by two realities: lack and gain. When we have little. When we have much.

Interestingly, in the prison cell from which he wrote the letter to the Philippians, Paul experienced both of these realities. He experienced the lack that prison presents its occupants. And he experienced the gain of a very kind gift sent by the Philippians through their courier, Epaphroditus.

In our text, Paul concludes his letter by reflecting in the crucible of the collision between lack and gain. And what he says is profoundly helpful to us in the living of these days.

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Philippians 4:1–3

¹ Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. ² I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. ³ Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

In an astonishing article entitled, “One Japanese Soldier Continued to Fight for 30 Years After WWII,” James Barber of military.com tells the story of Hiroo Onoda.

When Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda was deployed to Lubang in the Philippines in 1944, he was instructed to hold the remote island until the Japanese Army returned. Onoda took the orders very seriously and fought a guerrilla war on the island for more than 10,000 days until he finally surrendered in 1974.

This is an absolutely true story. It’s not like his country forgot him. Search parties could not convince Onoda that Japan had lost the war. They carried photos from Onoda’s family members, but he thought they were fakes because, since his hometown had been bombed and rebuilt, the buildings in the images didn’t match his memories.

For most of his lonely war, Onoda served alongside fellow Japanese soldier Kinshichi Kozuka, but Kozuka fell in 1972 when he was shot by the local Filipino police. When Onoda returned to Japan, he wrote a bestselling memoir, married and lived quietly until he died at age 91 in 2014.[1]

Again, this is astonishing! In the article, Barber asks, “How does a soldier know when the war is over?” It is a good question.

In many ways, a lot of us are like Hiroo Onoda. We are born into a world of conflict and we are conditioned by our fallen nature and the world to maintain combat readiness and, indeed, combative engagement. But when we come to Jesus, He tells us that all of that is over. Jesus brings us peace. Jesus tells His disciples that the war is over between them. But sometimes it takes some time for followers of Jesus to learn that they really can lay their arms down and embrace the peace that Christ has won. Sometimes we have to learn over time a new posture, a new mindset.

This fact is demonstrated in our text. Here, Paul is going to encourage two women in the church to stand together in unity and peace. What is more, he is going to encourage the church to help them lay down their arms.

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Philippians 3

¹⁷ Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. ¹⁸ For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

In 1686, Isaac Newton presented his three laws of motion. They are:

1. An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force.
2. The acceleration of an object depends on the mass of the object and the amount of force applied.
3. Whenever one object exerts a force on another object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite on the first.[1]

Newton’s third law—more popularly expressed as “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”—is not only a scientific law, it is also a social and religious law.

It is true: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Movement in one direction will result in equal movement in the opposite direction unless something disrupts the movement.

Human beings tend to live in the extremes, and perhaps nowhere more clearly than in how they relate to God.

Now, God is the great center and grounding of all life. He is reality itself and the foundation of life itself. But human beings, fallen as we are, wildly and widely miss the grounding of God by our frantic and mad efforts to grasp Him. So we continuously swing past the grounding foundation of God while moving toward this or that extreme.

We see this in the scriptures. Paul had to deal with it all the time. And we see it now in his next words to the Philippians.

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On Tuesday, May 21, 2024, I presented my paper, “Baptist Postures toward Francis of Assisi” at the annual meeting of the Baptist History and Heritage Society in Raleigh, NC. I am not posting the article here as I need to clean it up a bit and as I am submitting it for possible publication to a journal. However, I did want to post the audio here.

The paper would have taken me 45 minutes to read aloud as it stands and I had 25 minutes to present. So please forgive the rushed nature of this.

Philippians 3

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. ¹⁶ Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

I had a dear friend who passed away some years ago. I miss my friend. He loved the Lord, was bold in his witness for Christ, faithfully served the church, and was a great encouragement to me. He spoke the truth in love to me and I came to value him greatly as a brother in Christ.

I will never forget what he told me one day. He told me that before he came to know Jesus, he lived a very rough life. He did the kinds of things that many folks do before they come to know Jesus. And then, in part through the ministry of his pastor, he was radically saved. He came to know Jesus and turned from what he used to be. And for years and years he sat under the ministry of this pastor.

He told me that he loved his pastor but that his pastor had a bad habit that used to really hurt him. His pastor had the habit of saying to my friend, “You know, I remember what you used to be like. I remember how you used to be. I remember how rough you used to be.”

My friend told me that he would say this to him consistently over the years: “I remember what your used to be like. I remember how rough you used to be.”

And my friend said that he came to dread the comment. It hurt him. It embarrassed him. And it also showed him that no matter how much he served and tried and grew, his past was still brought up to him.

He said that one day his pastor said to him, “You know, I remember what you used to be like. I remember how rough your life used to be.” And my friend said that on this occasion he heard the voice of Jesus telling him: “I don’t. I don’t remember what you used to be like. I don’t remember how rough your life used to be. You are forgiven. You are free.”

I want to talk about letting go and pressing forward toward Jesus.

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Matthew 26

 ⁴⁷ While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. ⁴⁸ Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” ⁴⁹ And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. ⁵¹ And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. ⁵² Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. ⁵³ Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? ⁵⁴ But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” ⁵⁵ At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. ⁵⁶ But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

One of the vintage protest songs of the 1960s was Bob Dylan’s 1963 “With God on Our Side.” It is a song about how America and ostensibly all nations tend to think that God is on their side whenever they go to war. It is, again, a classic example of the protest music of that era.

Oh my name it is nothin’
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that the land that I live in
Has God on its side

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
l’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side

I’ve learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side

Then, Dylan’s song takes an interesting turn:

Through many dark hour
I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you
You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side[1]

In my opinion, this is brilliant. It is one thing for different nations or peoples or individuals to claim divine sanction in the sometimes-murky waters of international or interpersonal conflict. But surely not every conflict that has two sides can claim God, right? So Dylan appeals to one conflict in which the listener must clearly conclude that, in point of fact, it is possible for somebody to act, believing they are doing what is right, and yet be very far away from God. And the example Dylan points to is the example of Judas. The point is clear enough: If Judas did not have God on his side, then it might just be that we do not have God on our side when we think we do!

It is the premise of Dylan’s argument that I want to applaud. It is a premise that Dylan seems to believe is utterly unquestionable and self-evident. And he is right: Judas did not have God on his side! Dylan believes that anybody listening to his song, even in the turbulent days of the 1960s, will agree with him. Whatever Judas thought about the rightness of his cause, he was devastatingly wrong. God was not with him and, in fact, he was acting directly against God in his betrayal of Jesus!

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Philippians 3

4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

I am intrigued by the late-12th/early-13th century Christian Francis of Assisi.

A lot of the world is intrigued by him as well. Francis was a wonderfully strange and fascinating man who tried to imitate the life of Jesus as literally as he could as he understood it.

He was born around 1181 and died on October 3, 1226. That he died in 1226 makes one particular painting of Francis very interesting indeed.

This particular portrait is situated “[i]n the Chapel of San Gregorio in the lower church at Subiaco” and is very likely dated before 1224 AD.[i] Others date the image to 1228–29. What that means is we very possibly have in this painting a fairly accurate depiction of what Francis actually looked like, as it was painted either before or very shortly after his death.

Francis grew up popular and loved and in affluent circumstances. He was not necessarily rich, as we would think of it, but probably something like upper middle class. His father, Pietro Bernardone dei Moriconi, was a hardworking and successful cloth merchant and businessman.

Francis was loved by his French mother, Pica di Bourlemont, and, apparently, by all who knew him. He was fun. He was the life of the party. And he was happy.

Then, Francis, along with the other men of the region, went to war in one of the local skirmishes of that area and time. He was imprisoned for a season and seemed to have returned a changed man.

He was troubled. He began to seek for God. And he grew discontent with who he was inside.

Francis said that he heard the voice of God telling him to rebuild His church. He took that to mean a literal rebuilding. So he took some of his father’s cloth, sold it, took the money, and tried to give it to the priest of a dilapidated little church.

His father was furious. Francis never asked his permission to take and sell the expensive cloth. His father essentially sued him and drug him before the bishop of Assisi, Bishop Guido. There, Francis acted out one of the most famous acts of renunciation in all of Christian history. There, before his father and the bishop and an onlooking crowd, Francis said that his father was no longer his father and that only God was his father. He removed his clothes before the shocked crowd and went out into the world to become the man we know him to be today.

As I say, it was a stunning act of renunciation. Why did he remove his clothes? It was not just to be dramatic. Rather, cloth, clothing, silks, and garments had defined not only Francis’ comfort but his old life. The family lived well off the sale of such clothes. So in removing them, Francis was saying that his old life was over. It was gone. Now he was going to live a new life, the life of Christ.

But he was saying something even deeper than that, really. He was also saying that he had changed in terms of what he valued, in terms of what mattered to him. What mattered to him now was Jesus and Jesus alone and he would spend his life to walk with Jesus.

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Philippians 3:1–3

¹ Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. ² Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. ³ For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh

Some years ago, some of us went on a mission trip to Mozambique, Africa. Near the end of the trip we were able to go on a wild game safari at Kruger National Park in South Africa. One of the really fun things about the wild game safari was trying to spot the big five apex predators of Africa: the lion, the leopard, the rhino, the elephant, and the buffalo. It was really an amazing experience.

At one point during the safari, our truck stopped on the road along with some other trucks. Walking along the side of the road were some small to average-sized looking wild dogs. I commented on them to our driver, who was extremely knowledgeable. What he said surprised me. Looking at the little pack of “painted” dogs, as they are sometimes called, he said: “Most dangerous thing out here.” I said, “What?” He said, “Most dangerous thing out here.”

Now, let me repeat the list of the apex predators of Africa: lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, and buffalo. Not to mention how deadly hippos are! But here the driver was calling these dogs the “most dangerous” thing in the whole park?

“How can that be?” I asked.

He explained. He said that the wild dogs were the most dangerous thing out there not because they were big but because they were unrelenting. They never stopped. They hunted in packs and were fast but, above anything else, they could keep going. Many of the fast animals in the park could hit great bursts of speed, but for only so long. These average-looking dogs could keep running and running and running until they flat wore their prey out. And when their prey fell down in exhaustion, it was over. They also have very sharp teeth!

In short, you do not want to be hunted by a pack of African wild dogs.

Beware the dogs!

Oddly enough, Paul will say the same thing in our text: “Look out for the dogs!” And his reasons for warning the Philippians about these dogs were the same as the warnings of our driver: the dogs are unrelenting, they will not stop, and they are deceptively deadly in their bites.

Who on earth is Paul talking about? Let us consider the marks of empty religion. Let us consider the marks of true faith.

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