Not that I speak in respect of want
Contentment
I. The great lesson. “I have learned,” etc. Man might very correctly be distinguished as the discontented animal.
1. We are not content with life in its severer aspects.
(1) We do not know how to be abased, neither are we instructed to be hungry. In the fields and woods we find organic life most responsive to changing environment--the spreading tree at the first chill beginning to modify its leaf, to retrench its branchery, to economize its flower; the bird of the orient at the first scent of a less genial air preparing to sacrifice in size or ornament to adjust itself to an altered sphere; but man rebels to accept a dress less rich or resources less abundant.
(2) The apostle had learned this lesson of accepting adversity with noble cheerfulness. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9; 2 Corinthians 6:9-10). How immense the distance between this and stoicism. That with its insensibility and hopelessness is the confession of inability to deal with the problem of suffering. Thousands since St. Paul have mastered the same lesson. A lovely child of wealthy parents was brought to the poet artist Blake. Sitting in his old worn clothes, amidst poverty, he looked at her very kindly for a long while without speaking, and then gently stroking her long bright curls, said, “May God make this world to you, my child, as beautiful as it has been to me.”
2. We are not content with life in its fairer aspects.
(1) We do not know how to abound, neither are we instructed to be full. The fairy chorus of the bees in the limes is expressive of a sublime content, and the blackbird in the ripe cherry tree asks for nothing but to be let alone, a wasp half buried in a melting nectarine has forgotten its fretfulness, the chirp of the sparrow looking at a golden harvest sheaf rises into something like music; but man at his best estate is consumed with regrets and repinings.
(2) The apostle has learned this lesson. The problem of affluence is one that many deep thinkers have had to give up. Oriental asceticism finding men full of power and wealth and yet unhappy thought the remedy lay in stripping life of its amenities. The same failure is confessed by Catholic monasticism, and by men like Thoreau. But the apostle found joy in all the gifts of God, and realized through them a still higher capacity and power of service and blessedness.
3. We are not content with life under any aspect.
(1) A lady was out in the fields when her little daughter begged to gather wild flowers. Having gathered a nice few she murmured when the mother wished to continue her walk. “Well, get all in the field if you like,” said the mother. Then for a while the eager creature ran about plucking the coveted things, only at last to burst into tears because she could not gather all. Thus is it ever with poor human nature.
(2) Now in opposition to this, Paul has learned the difficult lesson thoroughly, and intimates that not only could he endure uniform prosperity or adversity, but could pass from the one to the other with serenity. It has been thought that our ancestors did not grumble so much at the vicissitudes of the climate as we do--they had not the same opportunity for instituting odious comparisons. It was not their custom to rush off to Cannes for a fortnight, or to contrast the ferocious frosts of the North with the balmy atmosphere of Palermo. The chief grumblers at the weather, we are told, are those who thus feel the force of the contrast. And, really, the severest trial of the faith and temper of men is in widely contrasted experiences. Much of the bitter discontent of our age is found in that strange mingling of riches and poverty, things grand and grievous in close succession. But Paul is undismayed by any possible combination of events. He is not the victim of circumstances, but their master. He could be exalted without pride and abased without despair; full without presumption, empty without fretfulness.
II. The grand teacher. “I can do all things,” etc. Let us see how Christ teaches the supreme art.
1. Christ sets man right within himself. We think our discontents are circumstantial, but really their origin is to be sought in the anarchy of the soul. Many philosophers have perceived this and have sorrowfully turned away from the painful problem, or confessing that the inner discord is incurable. This is Schopenhauer’s position, but it is the work of Christ to do what he declares impossible. “Has there ever been a man in complete accord with himself?” asks the German. Yes, Paul, here. It is the unique work of Jesus Christ to restore purity, energy, harmony within our hearts. “A human being is the possibility of many contradictions,” and it is the work of Christ to attune the subtle chords of our reasonable and immortal nature, and bring forth in our heart the music of heaven.
2. Christ makes clear to us the whole sphere of life.
(1) Some modern sceptics teach contentment by narrowing the horizon, by denying our ideals and hopes, and thus strive to make life as prosaic as possible. If this could be done it would be a mighty misfortune. All civilization arises in the sense of discontent. As soon as the savage feels a sense of want, he has been started on the grand tour. The history of constitutional government is a noble discontent. That a man is discontented with his caste and seeks to improve himself raises the whole social order. Dissatisfaction with manual labour stimulates invention, and art, and science. Christ never attempts to contract our horizon, but mightily reinforces the romantic element in our nature.
(2) But whilst Christ discovers to us the infinity of life, He teaches the relative importance of the sphere of the senses and of the spirit. We soon get to the end of the possibilities of sensual and social enjoyments. We can enjoy very little however vast our resources; having just so much nerve force, so much appetite, five senses, twenty-four hours in the day and sixty minutes to the hour.
(3) But Christ opens to us a new world of ambition, and pleasure, and hope, in our moral life and destiny. Never does the New Testament give us any immoderate promises in the carnal sphere (1 Timothy 6:6-8; Hebrews 13:5). But out and beyond Christ opens to us boundless regions in which our nature may find fulness of joy. To destroy the larger thought and noble restlessness of the heart would leave man a maimed and wretched creature, and strike a blow at progress; but to leave man his instinct for greatness, his dreams of glory, his aspirations for knowledge, and power, and felicity, teaching him to expect his full satisfaction in the regions of his higher being and destiny is to fill him with sublime content.
3. Christ teaches us that all the events of this present life equally contribute to our personal and everlasting perfection. The apostle knew that the end of life was not more or less temporal good, but the hallowing of the spirit to God’s love and service. “All things work together for good,” etc. It was in that knowledge that Paul found deep reason for resignation. The finest races have a composite character. Who can analyse the elements of our own. Now Paul has got an insight into the analogous fact that the widest ranges of circumstance and experience would create the finest type of moral life. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Contentment in all things
There never was a pupil who graduated in any university with such a diploma as that. There never was penned such a record of attainment as the result of education. A man is educated just in the proportion in which by his soul-power he controls the conditions of life. An uneducated man is controlled by his conditions. What did Paul learn?
I. To be content. But it was a very poor kind of learning if by content is meant stupidity, want of aspiration and enterprise. If Paul meant, I consider one thing or place just as good as another, poverty as good as riches, slavery as good as independence, he had learned nothing useful. But he did not mean that. He had learned to be content because he carried about with him that which made any circumstances blessed. Englishmen are laughed at because they travel on the continent with their household and all its comforts; and when they camp down in a poverty-stricken village they feel better off than if they had nothing but herbs and rocks to subsist upon; and so are content. Now suppose we imitate that inwardly, and carry in ourselves such a store of inspirations, such an amplitude of moral life as shall make us superior to every circumstance! When a man is living so near to God as to have his whole being pervaded with Divine power, why should he not say, I am content wherever He is.
II. He was content in all things. A great many have learned it in single things.
1. The mother says, loving her child, I am content. She will forsake exhilarating pleasures and entertaining friends for the nursery, and there she is happy.
2. There is a gay giddy girl, for whom is predicted no enviable future; but her time comes. When love finds her, and wakes her up to her true life, and she becomes a wife and mother, how all the frivolity is gone. She has learned to be content. Take her out of that and she has not learned the lesson.
3. There are others who would be perfectly content if they could have fortunes made or their ambition gratified.
4. But where are those who can say, “Put me where you will and I will make it a paradise. Give me children and I am happy; take them away and I have still that which will make me happy. Give me husband, wealth, learning, or deprive me of them, and I am content”? Here is one at any rate.
III. He was content to alternate between different states. Men get used to things, so that if you let them have one state of things long enough they will adapt themselves to it; or give them, if you change, time enough to get used to the next, they will continue to bear it. But Paul says, “I have learned both.” It is as if a man were oscillating between the extremes of heat and cold, and in the sudden transition from one to the other should be content. Yet there is a power in the soul if rightly cultured that shall enable a man to pass from any state to another and say, “I am content.” Here is a man who is reduced by an adverse stroke of fortune from affluence to beggary, and if he be a Christian what is to prevent him saying, “I have lost a little dust; but God is mine, Christ is mine, heaven is mine. The ocean is not spilled even if my cup is. My coat is very useful; but should it be stolen it is not I.” Conclusion:
1. This is not a miraculous state. There are those who think that apostles do not belong to the common race.
2. This is not a superficial power, but one which requires developement. “I have learned.” It took him forty years to learn it, and you must not be discouraged if you cannot all at once put on the virtues which were the result of forty years’ experience. (H. W. Beecher.)
The tendency of Christian principles to produce true contentment
There have been few persons whose patience and temper have been so severely tried as Paul’s (2 Corinthians 11:26-27), and as he writes he is a prisoner. Do not think, however, that he was not subject to the same infirmities as other men. So far was a contented disposition from being natural to him he tells us that he had acquired it. Where had he]earned this lesson? At the feet of Gamaliel or from the heathen philosophers? These might have commended the virtue of contentment, and shown its reasonableness, and its necessity to happiness, but to put their followers in possession of it was not in their power. Paul learned it at the feet of Jesus, in the school of Christian experience, where we may learn it too.
I. Christianity takes away the natural cases of discontent.
1. Pride. Men are naturally proud. They think nothing too good for them, and if anything be withheld it is not according to their deserts; hence discontent. Christianity removes this. Humility is its first lesson. The Christian has been convinced that he is a sinner, and his high thoughts, therefore, are overthrown. So far from having been treated worse than he deserves, he feels that he has been treated better. Pride therefore yields to humble gratitude.
2. Self-preference. We naturally love ourselves with excessive fondness. In comparison with our own affairs all others are of no value. While others possess advantages which we do not, or are free from troubles which we experience, envy naturally arises. Christianity regulates this self-love by commanding us to love our neighbour as ourselves. Those who do this are free from envy and repining and so are content.
3. Covetousness. Men have naturally a strong desire for the things of this world, and the more they have, the more they crave. Ahab was only like many others. Here Christianity brings a cure (Luke 12:15). It reveals far more valuable riches than earth can give, which are sure and abiding, and knowing this he is content.
II. It furnishes very powerful motives for the exercise of a contented mind.
1. The disciples of Christ are under the strongest obligations to walk in the footsteps of their Master. In His life contentedness was very conspicuous. No one ever had such provocations to discontent as He. Shall we, then, murmur at our light afflictions when Christ bore so much for us.
2. True Christians are convinced that their lot, whatever it may be, has been chosen for them by their Lord. Can they, then, be dissatisfied with the appointments of their Sovereign, whom they are bound to obey and serve?
3. Their lot has been chosen in infinite love to their souls. Christ knows what is best for His people, and will order all things for their good. With this conviction how can the real Christian be otherwise than contented.
III. Practical uses.
1. For correcting the error that religion destroys cheerfulness. We see that its natural tendency is the very reverse. Look at the proud, selfish, or covetous man, and see what a miserable being he is. Compare him with the tranquil apostle. Surely, then, that which promotes contentment cannot be destructive of happiness.
2. To stir up Christians to their duty. There are many who, on the whole, live under the influence of religion, who nevertheless when disappointed or afflicted betray impatience. The fact is pride, self-preference, etc., are not completely broken. Then call forth your principles into more lively exercise. What grace could do for Paul lit can do for you. (E. Cooper, M. A.)
The school of Christ
I. What the believer can learn when Christ teaches.
1. To be content amidst the world’s changes. What a changeful life was that of St. Paul’s from the time he left his father’s house for Gamaliel’s school to his imprisonment at Rome. We are all subject to disturbing changes from increase or loss of wealth, friends, position, etc., and only in the school of Christ is there rest for the soul. The believer has “the unsearchable riches,” so nothing can impoverish him; peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, so nothing can fatally disturb him; is “kept by the power of God,” so nothing can harm him. He may, therefore, well be content.
2. To be submissive amidst the world’s trials. We all encounter a good deal that humbles us, but that is very different from learning how to be abased. This knowledge takes away half its burden and bitterness. Christ teaches this by encouraging us to cast our burden on Him, and by strengthening that faith which produces conformity to Him.
3. To be heavenly minded amidst the world’s enjoyments. “I know how to abound.” Count up your mercies and your trials and see which abounds.
II. What the believer can do when Christ strengthens.
1. He can suffer the will of God.
2. He can vanquish his spiritual foes.
3. He can fulfil all his duties to God and man. (W. Cadman, M. A.)