ALL THINGS

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). Really? That’s what the Good Book says, and we quote it often with gusto and enthusiasm.  Still I ask, “Really.”  All things!  What does that even mean?  Also, what is the most important word in this verse?  I? Christ?  All?  Things?  Strength?  Is this the ultimate self-help verse?  Leaning on Jesus I?  I.  I.  I.  It’s Jesus and me world, so watch out.

Look! Up in the sky.  It’s a bird; it’s a plane.  No, it’s super Christian.  Faster than a speeding bullet; more powerful than a locomotive; able to leap tall buildings in a single bound; Yes, it’s super Christian who lives among us with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.  Super Christian, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend the kingdom of darkness with his bare hands, and who, disguised as a normal, regular, everyday citizen fights a never ending battle for truth, justice, and the kingdom of God. (With apologies to the Superman Television show of my childhood).

When I was a kid I pretended I was Superman.  I had a cape but I couldn’t fly.  I just pretended I could fly. I wasn’t faster than a speeding bullet; I just pretended I was.  I wasn’t more powerful than a locomotive; I just pretended I was.  And, I couldn’t leap tall buildings with a single bound; I just imagined myself doing it.

Are we supposed to be Super Christians?  Is that what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about?  I wonder if sometimes we take verses like Philippians 4:13 and pretend rather than really live them.  Is Paul talking about super saints?  I don’t think so.  He didn’t even consider himself a super saint.   Other people assigned that title to him. 

When Superman showed up he didn’t come “in weakness and with great fear and trembling” but Paul did (I Cor. 2:3).  Superman came in great power and strength and authority.  Paul said that “God chose the foolish things of the world…the weak things…the lowly things…the despised things… (2 Cor. 1:27-28). 

We glory in the power and strength we have in Christ.  Paul said, “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me”. Paul believed Jesus when He said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

Paul’s counsel to the church isn’t claim Philippians 4:13 and kryptonite will no longer be effective in your life.  His counsel was “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5-8).

Live like that and Jesus will live in you; and, with Jesus in you, you can face the days of your life in the confidence that Jesus is Lord in you.  You won’t be a super Christian, but you will be a real Christian.  You will be the kind of Christian in whom God can work.  You will be the kind of Christian in whom is realized “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.”  His peace “will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7), if you live that Christ-formed life.

We love power in the western world, but Jesus chose the weakness of the cross to reveal His glory.  Why don’t we do that?  Maybe we just ought to stop talking about how strong we can be in Christ and just start living for Him, facing what comes our way, not because we believe Philippians 4:13 but because we have become so consumed by Jesus that who He is embraces who we are, and defines how we live and move and have our being.  Don’t celebrate that you can do “all things.”  Join with Paul and proclaim with your life, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). 

Paul testified, before he got to Philippians 4:13, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).  Everything else paled in comparison to Jesus.  If he lived it was okay.  If he died it was okay.  Why?  Because for Paul Jesus was everything to Him.  Even life and death bowed to Jesus.  He wrote, “whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ…I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him…I want to know Christ—yes to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (See Philippians 4:7-11).

Jesus defined life for Paul.  In Him, Paul believed he could face whatever came his way, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  He may or may not live to reach another day but one thing was certain, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14). 

It wasn’t being a super Christian for Paul.  Instead, it was being a sinner-saved by grace, living captivated by Jesus, and allowing God to be God in His life.  What is it the old songwriter said?

All to Jesus I surrender;

all to him I freely give;

I will ever love and trust him,

in his presence daily live.

I surrender all, I surrender all,

all to thee, my blessed Savior,

I surrender all.