‘And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.’ (Philippians 4:19-20).

Whenever I read the book of Philippians I’m always left with the sense that this was a Church that Paul deeply loved. That doesn’t mean it was a perfect Church, but that there was much to commend it and Paul seems to have confidence that the difficulties that were being addressed in the letter could be resolved.

A quick overview of the letter makes it apparent that Paul wants the Church to share the joy he has. This is not a joy based on how Paul feels. That would be somewhat difficult as he is languishing in prison at the time he writes the letter. Rather it is a joy rooted in the confidence that the Christian can have in the Gospel.  Paul may be in prison, but the Lord in his providence has used even this so the Gospel might be proclaimed to a greater extent. Hesitant Christians have become bold in their witness (1:14). Some enemies of Paul have even preached the Gospel to try and stir up trouble for him (1:15). But Paul couldn’t careless, the main thing is the Gospel is being preached and Paul rejoices recognising the Lord’s hand at work!

There were two major problems in the Philippian Church.  There were a couple of women who seemed to have fallen out with each other and Paul pleads with them to reconcile in what they have in common, which is Christ (4:2-4).  The other issue seems to have been to do with the pride of certain individuals that was damaging the fellowship of the Church. Here Paul memorably urges them to look at the example of Christ who gave up everything to take the role of a servant (the actual word in Greek means ‘bond slave’) and therefore was subject to his Father’s will so he might take our sin and deal with it once for all on the cross (2:1-12).  Finally, Paul urges them to keep going in the Christian race, warns them about false teachers and urges them once again to rejoice in the Lord (4:4) reminding them that he can supply everything they need.  So how does he finish this letter to a Church, that although not perfect, had so much going for it.

Paul’s concern is to match the blessing to the Church and the subject matter of the letter. The phrase: ‘My God’ (v19) reflects the personal nature that the Christian can have with the Lord. Just think of the difference Paul experienced coming from a religion, where a priest acted as an intercessor by offering sacrifices, to the personal knowledge of God he now has. before this, he considered his knowledge to be what define him in terms of his religious and spiritual make up. But now he puts no value on that whatsoever, because he has this wonderful relationship with the Lord (3:4-11) No wonder there’s such an emphasis on joy in this letter. The nature of Paul relationship with the Lord was now so different, he could now experience real joy!

Secondly, God is sufficient in every respect. One of the worries that Paul faced When he was in prison was what was going to happen where the work of the Gospel was concerned. But the Gospel continued to be preached as others had stepped forward to take Paul’s place in the work of evangelism.  What could have been a major negative where Gospel work was concerned, the Lord had turned into a major positive!  How was that possible?  quite simply because of: ‘his (God’s) riches in glory in Christ Jesus.’  I suspect that others, more learned in theology, could go into great detail about this part of the verse. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it seems to me that there’s a simple explanation for what Paul is saying here. If the work of Christ takes sinners, who are totally unacceptable to a holy God, and can make them acceptable so they can be both reconciled and accepted into God’s family, what’s the big deal when it comes to supplying his Church with what they need? Paul had certainly experienced this in his highs and lows of his ministry, and he wants the Philippian Church to experience it as well.  As Alec Motyer points out: ‘For Paul, the person who possesses Christ possesses all.’[1]

But we should do well to notice that Paul’s emphasis is on: ‘need’ where he and the Church are concerned. This is not a remit for the ‘Wealth, Health and Prosperity Gospel pedlars to claim that we have a blank cheque for anything we want which will aid our wellbeing. Rather this is God supplying his Church in his work, for the reason we see in the next verse.

Verse 20 simply states what should be obvious if we’ve read the letter. A God like this is thoroughly deserving of our praise and worship.  Once again there’s an emphasis on personal relationship here as Paul uses the phrase: ‘God the Father’ (v20).  This personal relationship doesn’t lead to an overfamiliarity, but rather in the light of all God has done, it leads Paul to emphasise that this is a God who should be continually praised for who he is and what he does. Quite simply Paul has presented a letter that paints the big picture of God’s love and care for his Church. Paul inserts an: ‘Amen’ because he: ‘has no doubts that God deserves all that is his due and that he will receive it’[2] but also to encourage the Church at Philippi to assess everything he has written in the letter and come to this understanding of the God they serve!

[1] Alec Motyer, The Message of Philippians, Jesus our Joy (Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press, 1984) 221.
[2] Hywel R. Jones, For the Sake of the Gospel, Philippines simply Explained (Darlington, Evangelical Press, 2010) 161.