Philippians 4:11-14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Not that I speak in respect of want As if he had said, I do not speak thus feelingly of the renewal of your care because I was unhappy in poverty; for I have learned From God, he only can teach this; in whatever state I am In whatever circumstances God is pleased to place me, whether in plenty or want, in honour or reproach, in health or sickness, ease or pain; therewith to be content Joyfully and thankfully patient. Nothing less is Christian contentment. We may observe a beautiful gradation in the expressions, I have learned; I know; I am instructed; I can. I know how to be abased When it pleases God to humble me, by depriving me of what seems needful for my body; and to abound Having wherewith to relieve others also. Presently after, the order of words is inverted, to intimate his frequent transition from scarcity to plenty, and from plenty to scarcity. I am instructed Μεμυημαι, literally, I am initiated. But as the initiated in the heathen mysteries were believed to be instructed in the most excellent and useful knowledge, the word signifies to be completely instructed in any science or art. The apostle seems to have used it on this occasion to intimate, that his bearing both adversity and prosperity properly was a sacred mystery, in which he had been initiated by Christ, and which was unknown to the men of this world; both to be full and to be hungry, &c. To avoid the temptations, and perform the duties, both of a plentiful and scanty condition, and to be contented in either. I can do all things Which God has made it my duty to do: I can even fulfil all the will of God; through Christ which strengtheneth me Who confers on me the ability of mind and body which I have not by nature. “This is not arrogant boasting. For the apostle glories not in his own strength, but in the strength of another. The fathers, as Whitby informs us, observed three things on this passage: 1st, That the virtue of contentment requires much exercise, learning, and meditation. 2d, That it is as difficult to learn how to be full as to be hungry; abundance having destroyed more men than penury, and exposed them to more pernicious lusts. 3d, That our proficiency in this, or in any other virtue, is to be ascribed, not to ourselves, but to the divine assistance.” Macknight. Notwithstanding, &c. Though I was not dejected by my wants; yet you have well done that you did communicate with my affliction Had a fellow-feeling of my sufferings, and helped me to bear the burden of them, by so liberally contributing to my necessities. Here the apostle teaches us, that the servants of Christ are not to be neglected in their afflictions, because they have learned to bear them patiently.