Examine yourself - Contentment 007

Examine yourself - Contentment 007

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
(2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV)

LEARNED

Paul did not learn contentment from just the scriptures or the Holy Spirit.  He learned contentment in the crucible of life.  (NOTE: People experience – endure hardships yet not learn contentment –- would you say it was the combination of experiences, scriptures and the Holy Spirit?)

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;
on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.  (2 Corinthians 11:24-28 ESV)

So, any questions?

We do not learn contentment from being in a situation that breeds contentment.  The contentment Paul learned was a contentment in adversity - in life threatening circumstances, in knowing that the above difficulties (what an understatement) would probably continue to present themselves.

Paul accepted Christ's teaching that in this world we would have tribulation and be hated.  He accepted persecution and other dangers.

There are two aspects to the crucible in which he learned contentment.  The first was the crucible of persecution and the second was the crucible of life.  Life here is full of uncertainty and danger.  Life here, as a follower of Christ, is full of certain danger.  Paul accepted that - it is what it is.

He didn't try to control of conquer his circumstances.  He didn't try to manipulate or manage the conditions or people he lived among.  It is what it is.
He accepted that.

But he accepted that within a specific context.  That context was the sovereignty and faithfulness of God in Christ.  Paul did not WANT to be beaten or stoned or naked or hungry.  He did not seek these things in some warped quest for higher spirituality.  They were simply what they were.

But Paul also accepted that his sovereign and faithful God was in total control and that anything that happened was in God's control and for God's glory.

There's an old chorus I remember singing:
In my life Lord be glorified, be glorified.
In my life Lord, be glorified today.

I'm a lot more tremulous when I sing that today.  When I used to sing it, my mind was seeing success and influence and prosperity and health.  That's what I thought was glorifying to God and it can be - but not in every life.

I made this statement at a Bible study last night.  "The love of God is meaningless without the wrath of God."

We are all too willing to accept nice things as God's will but not so nice or un-nice things?  We always ascribe them to Satan or men.  But God is sovereign - right?  See Job the first two chapters.

Contentment for Paul was defined by his heart, not his circumstances:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith--   (Philippians 3:7-9 ESV)

The "whatever" in verse 7 certainly refers to the accomplishments Paul lists before it but it is not limited to it.  He says, "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish."

"Count" = in the above passage carries more than a simple "consideration."  There is an element of command in this counting.  Paul pronounced all these things rubbish.  It was a pronouncement of commitment.  He decided that in his life everything was rubbish in comparison to the grace of God in Christ.

When he says he did this for, Christ's "sake," he is saying that because of Christ he does so.  It also carried the idea that Paul does this "through" Christ.

Paul determined that apart from Christ there was no contentment and that in Christ there was no reason for discontent.

Ahh - here's the rub!  Do we really say with Paul, "I no longer live!"

Think on the following:

I have been crucified with Christ. (Not "in" but "with")

 It is no longer I who live, (Not "me")

but Christ who lives in me. (Just Him)

And the life I now live in the flesh  (Here and now - hated and persecuted, hungry and naked, beaten and stoned etc...)

 I live by faith (This is a biggie!!  Faith = trust, submission, surrender, dependence, etc.......)

in the Son of God,
who loved me and
gave himself for me.
(Galatians 2:20 ESV)


Think about that - more later --

This is not some legalistic imposition I'm striving for here - I am trying to help us see that contentment is utterly redefined in Christ.  Simply put, we must be content with our redemption and not seek it anywhere else - because, if we are indeed "in Him," it can't be found anywhere else.  ms