Content In Christ – Part 1

Paul’s rejoicing again! It seems like he’s either been rejoicing or telling the Philippians to rejoice all throughout the letter to the Philippians. In chapter 4 verse 10 he’s rejoicing that the Philippians have revived their concern for him. They found out that Paul was in prison, and they immediately gathered money and supplies to send to him. That’s just what this church was like. They were known for being a generous church. They were generous because they were content in Christ. They were content having Jesus above everything else. They must have learned that contentment from Paul: I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content (Phil. 4:11).

Contentment leads to generosity. When we aren’t content with our life situation, we’ll naturally want to grasp and hold on to every advantage that comes along so that we can get to that place of contentment that we desire. It’s like Zacchaeus. In Luke 19 Jesus met a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector–a rich dude. This guy’s whole life was about money. He was singularly motivated: get more money. No matter how much this guy had, he was never content. People in the city would have hated him because he was constantly taking their money (that’s confirmed later when the people call him a “sinner”). When Jesus meets Zacchaeus, he invites himself over to stay at Zach’s house that night. Zach said, “Absolutely,” and probably thought that all of his wealth would impress Jesus.

Now, we don’t exactly know what they talked about that night. Luke didn’t write their conversation down. But we do know what Zach did the next morning. He stood up in front of everyone and said to Jesus, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” BOOM. Like that, he gives away half of his fortune. AND he’s probably going to lose the other half when we restores four times the amount to all the people he swindled out of their money. How is it that the biggest penny-pincher has now become the most generous guy in the city? How could he change that much overnight? Jesus tells us: “Today salvation has come to this house.” That night, Zach came to Jesus. He put his faith in Jesus, and he is now IN CHRIST. He’s found contentment in life in a way that money never brought him. He’s experienced the forgiveness, acceptance, love, and compassion of Jesus. And now, because of his contentment in Christ, his grasping at money has been transformed into incredible generosity.

Are you content that you have Jesus? We’re all going to battle with contentment in Christ, because there are so many other things that promise to bring us joy.

Check out Part 2 HERE