Three leaders, one chapter

Closing the Philippians series, three members of the Elan Church family share the teaching of Philippians 4. Thurston opens with three attributes of peace, Diane follows with Paul's secret of contentment, and Josh closes with Paul's thanksgiving for the Philippians' partnership.

Peace with others

Thurston notes that Paul begins chapter 4 by urging Euodia and Syntyche to agree in the Lord and asking a true companion to help them. Confrontation is not always easy, but sometimes peace requires healthy confrontation. God calls us to make peace with children, spouses, and coworkers, and to bring peace between others. Thurston remembers two quarreling students in his youth group who each disliked the other only because they believed the other disliked them; once he uncovered the misunderstanding, they reconciled and remain friends today.

Peace within and peace in our minds

Verses 4 through 7 give two ways to grow peace within: rejoicing in the Lord and prayer. Thurston tells of breaking his front tooth on a glass door during a work trip; he was angry at first, but rejoicing was a choice, and handling it with reasonableness let his boss and students see God in him. More recently, a complaint at a summer job left him wrestling with unusual anxiety, and praying on the train, "Lord, I'm feeling anxious... will you give me peace?" brought God's peace. For peace in our minds, he turns verse 8 into a playful call for the nineties kids in the room: say "whatever" to doubt, hate, gossip, and envy by thinking on whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. If you have breath in your lungs, you have something praiseworthy to think about.

The secret of contentment

Diane reads verses 10 through 13, where Paul says he has learned the secret of being content in any situation. Contentment is a learned spiritual discipline, not the result of having enough, and Paul learned it through sufferings listed in 2 Corinthians 11, including five beatings of thirty-nine stripes, three beatings with rods, shipwrecks, and prison, from which he wrote this letter. Contentment invites us to look vertically at our relationship with God and to know our identity in Christ, so that when tests come we are not shipwrecked. Quoting Proverbs 3:5–6, she urges trusting God in all our ways. She offers practical ways to walk in contentment: trust God, stop complaining, think on good things, rejoice, pray about everything, renew the mind with the Word, and give thanks. The often misquoted "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" is about enduring testing through God's enabling grace, not lifting weights or baking cakes.

Not stoic self-sufficiency

Josh explains that the Greek word Paul uses for contentment is the same word the Stoic philosophers used for self-sufficiency. Paul is redefining it: not "I have enough in myself" but "my strength comes from Christ." The world says I have, I can, I am; Paul reverses it to I am enough in Christ, I can through His strength, and I have all I need through His provision. Josh asks whether we are living like the Stoics, relying on our own strength and resources.

Partnership and carrying burdens

Paul thanks the Philippians, the only church that partnered with him in giving. Josh observes a trend of people calling a live stream or an Instagram comment their church and warns that community is a necessity, not an accessory. From Galatians 6:2 he asks whose burdens we are carrying beyond our own household, and who is calling us in the middle of the night. True theology ends in doxology, and the Philippians' gift was an investment that paid spiritual dividends; heavenly investments are made by sowing into the body of Christ.

Five cents or five million

Josh closes with the morning he woke in the worst financial season of his life to find five cents in his bank account, thanked God for gas, food, and paid bills, and told Him it would not matter whether it was five cents or five million. Before he could set down his bag at work, a coworker announced she had retired and demanded her job be given to him, and he left with three times the salary. Ten years later he feels God asking, "Am I still enough for you?" He invites the room to close their eyes, consider whether they are living on their own strength, and lean into God's.