One day Jean Raffaeli, the famous French art critic, was
walking near the village of Barbizon when he saw the renowned French artist
Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot painting the meadow in front of him. In the
foreground were wild flowers and rolling hills. In the distance was a large
stand of trees.
As Raffaeli looked over the shoulder of the artist, he
could see that Corot had painted in a small lake that was missing from the scene in front of him. So he said to
the artist, “But Monsieur Corot, is it permissible to paint a pond where there
is no pond?” Corot turned and said, “Young man, it is noon and I have been in
the field since 6:00 am. I have become very thirsty, so I painted water into
the picture to refresh myself.”
How different from Paul. The scene in which Paul finds
himself is more barren than a meadow on a hot summer day. He’s in prison in
Rome. He’s shackled between two imperial guards. He has a sentence of death
hanging over his head. But instead of asking the Lord to do what He did for him
years earlier in Philippi, he declares, “for I have learned in whatever
situation I am to be content.”
There’s no talk of escape. No discussion of another
earthquake. There’s no plea for the Philippians to join him in praying for a
loosing of his chains. Instead, Paul focuses on his own contentment.
In 1970 one of the great thinkers of the 20th
century, Abraham Maslow, died in Menlo Park, California. Unlike Sigmund Freud
and other practitioners of psychology who oriented their work toward pathology
or dysfunction, Maslow focused his work on the psychological health. He studied those who he called “vitally
alive, positive, full-functioning, and radically happy.” In the process he
developed a theory that held that one’s mental and emotional health was the product
of meeting an ascending list of innate human needs. It’s titled , “Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs.”
He described a well-adjusted, fully-functioning person
as “self actualized.” In fact, he claimed that such a person lives a life in
which all the needs from food and water to love and esteem are met, and
therefore, the person has maximized his/her full potential.
As he studied such people Maslow reached the following
conclusion, “Without exception, I have found that every person who was
sincerely happy, radiantly alive, was living for a purpose or a cause beyond
himself.” Interestingly, he named Jesus as a “fully actualized person.”
When you come to the fourth chapter of Philippians you
find that Maslow could have easily put Paul on that list. Look what he says in
Sunday’s text: Philippians 4:10-13. After establishing joy and peace as divine
gifts received by all Christians, Paul adds a third: contentment. We will dig
deeply into contentment this Sunday in a message entitled, “Joy in a Contented
Life.” In preparation for Sunday, in addition to reading our companion text, II
Corinthians 9:6-10, you may wish to consider the following:
1.
What does Paul mean when he says, “I can do all
things through him who strengthens me?” (verse 13)
2.
How is this different from William Henley’s
famous poem, “Invictus”?
3.
What does the word “rejoice” mean? (verse 10)
4.
How do “happiness” and “joy” differ?
5.
How does Paul use the finished work of Christ to
inform his feelings regarding his circumstances?
6.
What can you find out about his word “content”
in verse 11? Does he use it elsewhere? (Hint: II Corinthians 9:8)
7.
What is the “secret” Paul mentions in verse 12?
8.
How is fact “the savior” of our feelings as
Christians?
9.
How is verse 12 a summary of what Paul tells us
in verse 1-12?
10.
What three ways does Paul identify as a means of
growing contentment?
See you Sunday!
