I once missed a great blessing. I was part of a student organization in college, and we were having a clothing drive. Our leader encouraged us to donate an article or two of clothing, but, when he did, he said, “Don’t give away something you won’t miss. Give something you really treasure.”
I went back to my dorm room and looked in my closet. I didn’t have many clothes at the time, but I did have this one shirt, and it was my favorite. It was a red- and white-striped button-down Oxford, and – for the life of me, I don’t know why – but somehow I had the idea that I looked pretty good in it. I realize now that I was probably fooling myself.
Nevertheless, I really liked this shirt. I passed over it a few times, thinking I would give away one of my other shirts, but our leader’s words stuck with me. “Don’t give something you won’t miss.” So finally, I pulled it out of the closet and laid it aside. I was going to suck it up. That’s the shirt I was going to donate.
So I did. And, after I did, I really started missing it. No one else appreciated the sacrifice I had made, and I got no joy out of it. I was miserable. I seemed to have this unhealthy attachment to that shirt. It was terrible. My donation may possibly have helped someone else – I hope it did! – but what could have been an occasion of blessing for me – it definitely wasn’t! The shirt was gone, but I couldn’t let it go.
I needed a good dose of “Philippians 4 Thinking.” You know what I mean? Paul says here in Philippians 4, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have” (v. 11). I needed to learn the secret of being content – whether I had my red- and white-striped button-down shirt or not. I had other shirts. I could get another shirt. I wasn’t in any kind of extremity. But, the way I was moping around about that shirt, you would have thought I was.
You would never have seen Paul overtaken by this kind of silliness. Here in Philippians, chapter 4, he talks about giving and receiving – actually, in the reverse order. The first thing he talks about is what he has learned about receiving, and then he talks about what he looks for in giving. Since this is Stewardship Commitment Sunday, it may be a good time for us to listen in. He certainly has something to say to those of us who struggle with this business of giving.
So, let’s start with what Paul says he has learned about receiving. To do this, we need to look at verses 10 through 14. In verse 10 Paul acknowledges his readers’ concern for him. They had heard that he was in jail in Rome, and, in response, they sent one of their own number – a man named Epaphroditus – and along with him they sent an undisclosed amount of money. This would help; there’s no doubt about that. And Paul appreciated it. But he tells us that he didn’t consider himself to be in need. “I have learned,” he said, “to be content with whatever I have.” In other words, he was happy about his life, no matter what the circumstances were. “I know what it is to have little,” he said, “and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.”
When you consider the kinds of things that Paul had endured, it makes you wonder just what his secret was. In another one of his letters, he talks about his “imprisonments,” his “labors,” the “countless floggings” he had suffered, and how he was “often near death.” This wasn’t because he was unlucky in life. This is because he was out sharing the gospel and planting churches. He was undergoing all these things because of his service for God. He says, “Five times I have received…the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, …bandits, …in danger in the city, …in the wilderness, …at sea, …; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked…” (2 Cor. 11:23ff.). And now here he was in jail. But in spite of all that, he says, “I have learned the secret of…having plenty and of being in need.”
Now, think about this. When we serve God, we want the conditions to be right. We insist on having everything we need. We expect to be appreciated. And we don’t want it to cost us anything. Apparently, we haven’t learned what Paul says he has learned. We haven’t “learned to be content in any and every situation” (Phil. 4:12, NIV). We haven’t learned Paul’s secret.
So, what is his secret? He tells us in verse 13: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” His secret is Christ. And it’s no secret. It’s just that most people don’t believe it. They don’t believe that Christ is enough.
Someone once asked the great billionaire, John D. Rockefeller, “How much money is enough?” And you know what he said? He said, “Just a little bit more.” Just a little bit more. But the truth is, when it comes to money or comfort or convenience or possessions or anything else in this material world, “just a little bit more” will never be enough – not if that’s what it takes to make us happy. If you and I are not content with Jesus, nothing else will satisfy us. Nothing. Paul knew a secret, and his secret was this: He knew that, in Jesus, he had everything necessary – everything he needed for life here and for life hereafter.
That’s what he said he had learned about receiving. And then, in verse 14, he began to speak about what he looked for in giving. The fact is, this little church in Philippi was a giving church. They had always shared their resources with Paul. They cared about him. They believed in his ministry. They saw the importance of what he was doing. And they wanted to have a share in it. Paul tells them how much that means to him. He says: “In the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia” – that’s the region that Philippi was in; when I left there, Paul says – “no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone. For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs more than once” (Phil. 4:15f.).
But he says the main thing for him wasn’t what he got out of it. “Not that I seek the gift,” he says. No. The main thing for him was what they got out of it. “I seek the profit that accumulates to your account” (v. 17). “I have…more than enough,” he says; “I am fully satisfied now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent.” Paul calls these gifts “a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God” (v. 18).
You see, in the big picture, the money Paul’s friends sent him wasn’t for Paul. They didn’t give it to Paul. They gave it to God. It was a gift for God.
That’s how we need to look at giving in the church. I know this doesn’t sound very practical, but we need to stop thinking about budgets and shortfalls and overages. Our motive in giving can’t be to keep the church afloat or to pay for programs or to do our fair share or any of that. Oh, it can be. But if it is, we’ll always be giving out of duty rather than love, or, if we don’t give, we’ll feel guilty about it.
That’s why Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion…” (9:7). “For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has – not according to what one does not have” (8:12). The important thing, you see, is that the “eagerness” needs to be there. We need to give to God’s work because want to give, not because we feel like we have to.
That’s what prompted the Philippians’ gifts to Paul. And because they wanted to show their love for God by giving to God’s work, Paul called their gift “a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God” (Phil. 4:18). You see, that’s the motive: not to please others, not to please ourselves, but to please God. If your desire is to please God, then God accepts your gift. If that’s not your desire, then, yes, you can give your money, your time, your talent, or whatever, but you’ll never experience the joy of giving it.
That was my problem back in the college clothing drive. I gave – and I gave sacrificially. I’m here to tell you. I still miss that shirt! But I didn’t give to please God. I gave to please my leader. I gave because I thought I had to or because I thought I should or something like that. There was no love in it, and therefore there was no joy either.
But if you and I give out of love for God, then Paul says your gift “accumulates to your account” (v. 17). There’s profit in it for you – which means there’s a blessing. That’s what Paul was looking for in his friends’ giving. That’s what we ought to look for in our giving. In verse 19 Paul says that, when you give from the heart, then “God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
So, if you give for the joy of giving – if you give out of love for God – what will you get out of it? You will get exactly what you desire more than anything else in all the world. You will get the most valuable treasure of all. You will God’s “riches…in Christ.” You will get more and more of Jesus. “To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
