All Things?

Philippines 4:13

I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

This verse is perhaps one of the more well-known verses in Christian circles.  As a child, it was one of the first verses that I memorized.  I had a test in school?  The Sunday school teacher told me to believe I can do all things through him who gives me strength.  I had to try and catch or throw a ball in gym class without injuring someone or myself?  I needed to believe in the God who gives me strength.  I needed to finish a book report?  I can do it!

As a teenager, the meaning of the verse changed for me.  I needed to be more vocal about my faith and not be concerned about being shunned by my peers?  God would give me strength.  I needed to do ten papers and read fifty pages before the end of the week?  I could do it if I believed.  I needed to do well on the SAT and my college applications?  God would help me.

As an adult, the verse has taken on a whole ’nother meaning in situations like college and living on my own, working a full-time job and paying my own bills.  In college, it was more like ten papers and one hundred and fifty pages before the next class period.  God would, I hope, give me strength.  I need to pay bills I accumulated, sometimes with needless spending?  God would help me do all things.  I need to try to witness to an audience that is hardened, unwilling, and closed to the Gospel or travel around the Philippines non-stop for six months?  God would give me strength.

Throughout the years, this verse has encouraged me in hard situations, but in my older and wiser years, I have come to view this verse in a whole new light.

Something I have learned recently is placing well-known verses in context with their passages and with the particular book, and then with the whole Bible.  When I place this verse into context of the passage, I feel it takes on a whole different meaning than what we’re taught in Sunday school.

If you check out the preceding verse, the author, Paul says (Phillipians 4:12):

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or want.

It is directly after this verse that Paul says he can do all things through God who gives him strength.  Directly after, he says (verse 14), “Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.”  If you read it without the verse breaks we’ve added, it reads like:

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or want.  I can do all things through him who gives me strength.  Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.

Furthermore, if you read the section, you will find that this verse comes in a context of Paul thanking the Philippians for giving him gifts, which I assume to be financial support.  Within this context, then, I feel that there are a few more things to consider when understanding this verse than are necessarily taught in Sunday school.

1) Paul was referring to persevering despite circumstances.  Whether he was poor or financially blessed, Paul found out he could be content in Jesus.  Moreover, whether rich or poor, he found that he could work through all things God asked him to do, whether it was to preach to Jews near home or Gentiles (non-Jews) far away. 

I had a glimpse of perhaps what this might have been like to Paul as I traveled and lived with poor pastors in the Phillippines.  Each week, our team’s living arrangements became less and less what we were used to as Western Christians.  In the last living arrangement, I had to share a bed made for a single person shorter than me with another person taller than me, and neither of us could sleep on the floor because there was a horrendous red ant nest.  That was merely the highlight of the primitive accommodations.  And yet, our team managed to be happy every day in the small things and in our faith.

Now, I feel a particular connection to this notion as I am in a uncomfortable in-between phase which was much like returning to college as an adult and living in the dorms with teenagers and young twenty-somethings, since I received a grant for housing and it was significantly cheaper.  Now I am living in community until I am able to afford a place of my own, and having lived on my own for many years prior, it is definitely not my ideal.  But, like Paul, I can do all things.  And if you are in a less-than-idea living situation or place in your life, so can you!

2) Paul really did mean “all things”. While I feel that Paul was particularly talking about his living circumstances, I feel that there is a contextual basis in this passage and with other stories of the Bible that God can empower us to get through difficult situations or even do things that seem impossible.  I don’t know what life events happened prior to this verse, but I do know Paul was shipwrecked, stoned, imprisoned, to name a few uncomfortable circumstances.  And you know what, he lived through them all, and found his contentment in Jesus!  So yes, I think Paul was talking about more than just living situations in this passage, and a lot of the circumstances were probably a lot more severe than what many of us would face.

3) When he said “all things”, he was referring to all things that God would want him to do.  While I think Paul was referring to more than just his circumstances, I don’t that “all” includes evil things, such as self-serving acts or acts that harm others.  This is, after all, the same passage (Philippians 4) where Paul says in verse 8, “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” 

I think that perhaps if you thought God would give you strength to win lots of money gambling at a casino or that God would give you strength to use ministry as a route for personal glorification, or any lesser-obvious act of self-service, you are using this verse out of context and will be disappointed.  Not that God can’t use sinful people or sinful acts for His ultimate glory, God is big enough to use our messes.  But since Paul was living a life of holiness and service before the Lord, all the things that he was trying to do were true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, and commendable. 

Paul was also doing what he was called to do, and God gave him strength to do all of it.  While we are all called to make disciples, we aren’t all called to take the same route in fulfilling this God-ordained process.  I think, too, in the context of Paul’s life, if we try to use this verse to hope that God will empower us to do something we aren’t called to do, we will be also be disappointed.  

How do we know God’s will and God’s calling?  This is my favorite part: we spend time with God, letting God love on us, getting to know His voice, and we will know our calling since God will tell us, and we will have the strength to do all things.