One of my favorite childhood memories is going shopping with my mom (or more accurately, watching her shop). During one of these trips, I ventured into the home decor section of a department store. Looking through the variety of floor mats, signs, and table covers, I noticed a common Bible verse, Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I was intrigued. Out of the many verses in the Bible, why did people pick this verse? Viewing Philippians 4:13 in context, it becomes abundantly clear that the purpose of the verse is not Hallmark encouragement, but an exhortation to be content in hardship.
In Philippians 4:10-12, Paul thanks the Philippian church for their concern for his physical safety (v. 10) but reminds them that he has “learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (v. 11). He continues in v. 12, saying “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” Paul wrote Philippians in prison, repeatedly starved and beaten, living in a state of despair (2 Cor. 1:8). Paul’s afflictions remind me of Job 1:20-21, Job’s response to Satan taking away his livestock, his property, and even his children, “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” How profound is it to not only endure and be content in hardship, but rejoice and worship in hardship.
Job and Paul are not exceptions to the norm. The Old Testament is suffused with stories of men and women working through hardship, striving to be redeemed, anticipating eternal rest in the arms of their Heavenly Father. Yet, when the eternal blessed hope of Christ finally arrived, he did not inaugurate a period of ease, but rather a period of cross-bearing, a lifestyle which Bonhoeffer might call costly grace. Ironically though, many modern Christian circles have forgotten the concept of costly grace and as such, lost the glory of hardship.
We can never appreciate the glory of hardship if we are still living under a paradigm of cheap grace. Instead, we must be obedient. Obedience teaches us to behold, and in beholding, we appreciate the glory of God. C.S. Lewis describes glory as the ‘divine happiness’ that comes from the deep love of the Father through Christ:
The promise of glory is…almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ…that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination…shall please God. To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied…it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is. (C.S. Lewis, Weight of Glory).
When our singular focus is on beholding the glory of God, then whatever hardship comes our way, we receive joy from knowing that we are enduring for ‘divine happiness’. It is only when we realize the profound weight and beauty of costly grace that we understand the depths of Paul’s heart when he wrote passages like Philippians 1:20-26:
…as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
When we encounter hardship, we rejoice because we know that we are identifying with Christ in his suffering, allowing us to draw still closer to him, to behold still more of his glory. Indeed, when we appreciate the glory of hardship, it is only then that Philippians 4:13 becomes true, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” because my hardship is principally not about me, but rather about persevering in the faith to achieve eternal glory and oneness with Christ.
As we go about our lives, it is easy to lose touch with the heroes of the faith, to go about hardship alone or blind to its purpose. Because of this, I would like to return to Bonhoeffer, the man who lived by his word and paid the cost of discipleship in repudiating the evil of Nazi Germany:
The fact is more certain than that we shall be able to finish our work in his service, more certain than our own death. This assurance that in their suffering they will be as their master is the greatest consolation the messengers of Jesus have. As is the master, so shall the disciple be, and as the Lord, so the servant (216).
Not only should we be content in hardship, but rejoice in it as well. It behooves a Christian to live with the blessed assurance that Bonhoeffer and Paul had so that they may be strong and courageous, lest they fall away in the face of hardship. When we endure, our faith is perfected, and we are made “more than conquerors” as it says in Romans 8:36-37:
As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
My prayer is that Christ’s church may rise up to be “more than conquerors.”
Penn Epistle 