I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. In everything and in all things I am initiated both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer privation.
Paul writes from prison to thank a church that had just sent him help, and he adds that his thanks are not a hint that he needs more. The verse describes a capacity he did not always have: meeting plenty and poverty with the same settled heart.
A Lesson, Not a Temperament
Paul does not claim he was born calm, or that he rose above trouble by force of will. One commentator points out that the phrase rules out any natural gift:
This is not natural to human nature. Even Paul may not always have known it; he had learned it.
The same writer notes that the whole letter runs on this line: not truth simply announced, but truth learned by living. Another writer rules out two easy explanations:
Stoical indifference did not harden Paul against the ups and downs of life. Natural strength of character did not make him superior to the burdens that crush ordinary people. What he was practising he had first learned through a secret initiation into his Teacher's ways.
The Word Behind "Instructed"
Older translations render the second half of the verse as "I am instructed." The word behind it means to be let in on something.
"I have been initiated" is another word found nowhere else in Scripture. It comes from the same root as our word mystery. People used it for the secret religious rites of paganism, and for initiation into them. They guarded these rites closely from common knowledge... Paul's use of this word to supply language for Christian experience is very suggestive. The knowledge of the peace of God, of utter contentment, is indeed an open secret, open to "whoever will learn of Him." But it is a secret, a mystery, none the less.
Two Different Exams
Paul names four conditions, and one small word governs them all. He does not say he has been brought low; he says he knows how. The writers below quote an older translation, which says "abased" where the ESV says "brought low."
Let us note his emphasis on the word "how." For it is all too possible to be abased and to take it in a wrong spirit. Not so with the apostle: "how to be abased" implies a cheerful acceptance of God's will in it. On the other hand, "how to abound" is in some ways a harder test for many of us. It calls for a right and godly use, according to the will of God, of the things in which He has made us abound.
Plenty carries its own risk, and two kings show it:
It is easier for some to be abased than to abound. David, when hunted like a partridge on the mountains, trusted God; when living at ease in Zion, Satan lured him into the foulest sins. Jehoshaphat, when weak, counted on God, saying, "We do not know what to do"; when strong and rich, he allied himself with Ahab and helped the ungodly.
Why God Takes the Props Away
If contentment is taught, then the hungry seasons are the classroom, not an accident. One writer gives the first reason God allows it:
There are many reasons why the servant of God should walk this path. Perhaps the first is that we then learn, as perhaps in no other way, the faithfulness, the love, and the power of God. When the earthly props are removed, then we find out what a wonderful thing it is to lean on the Father's arm.
Independence Built on Dependence
The result sounds like self-sufficiency, but it is not. One commentator names the paradox:
At the same time he shows how much he valued their love. He is careful that his independence was founded on dependence. It was an independence of circumstances that finds its strength in simple and absolute dependence upon God.
That is why a chained prisoner can write such words. Kelly notes that in the judgment of others Paul could do nothing. Yet he was the very one who could say he had strength for everything in the One who strengthened him.
Summary
- School. Contentment is learned, not natural. God does the teaching, through the circumstances He allows.
- Secret. The word behind "instructed" means initiated into a mystery. Yet it is an open secret, open to anyone who will learn from Him.
- Two lessons. Knowing how to be low means accepting God's will cheerfully. Knowing how to abound means using the plenty rightly, and that exam is the harder one.
- Proof. David and Jehoshaphat trusted God while weak and failed while strong. God removes the earthly props to teach us to lean on the Father's arm.
- Strength. Freedom from circumstances rests on dependence on Christ. That is why a prisoner in chains could claim strength for everything.