The apostle Paul is in jail. In a few weeks he will be executed for preaching the Gospel about Jesus Christ. His ministry has been a long, hard, and often dangerous road. The letter to the Philippian church is one of two last letters he will write. The final one was to his protégé in the faith, Timothy, a young pastor now ministering in the growing Ephesian church.
Paul is being held in the Mamertine Prison in Rome which was nicknamed “House of Darkness” according to Roman historian, Sallust. It was a dim, dank and filthy place, and Paul was incarcerated there in the lowest dungeon where there was no daylight, and where there were hordes of rats. It was a most shocking, evil place and the stench was overpowering. Disease was rife. Prisons in that day were nothing like modern day prisons. In ancient times prisons were not places of punishment, either. They were death row waiting places for the condemned awaiting execution. This is also the case in the Old Testament. Nothing in the Law of Moses made any provision for imprisonment as punishment. This is important to note. Joseph was imprisoned in Egypt awaiting trial and execution for the alleged attempted rape of Potipher’s wife.
And so, Paul is in prison … and he knows his execution is near. In fact, he says to Timothy ..
2 Timothy 4:6 (J B Philips)
“As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God.
The time of my death is near.”
He had anticipated this with the Philippians, too, a week earlier …
Philippians 2:17 (NIV)
“… even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.”
Yet, in the midst of all this – the deprivation, filth, loneliness, and darkness – as Paul awaits death, he has this to say to the Philippian believers …
Philippians 4:18 (NLT)
“At the moment I have all I need—and more!”
That’s one translation. Others say, “But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.” There are two things going on here. One is that Paul has been generously provided for by the Philippians and this was brought to him by Epaphroditus. There was plenty of material provision because of their concerned generosity without which he would have starved. But there is another thing happening here, as well. Paul has received God’s provision already. He says, (despite the church’s generosity) that he already has, and that he is “abounding”. How can this be?
Paul is in chains, he is in total darkness, he is facing death – and rats are scurrying about his stinking cell, but he says to the church, “But (despite all this), I have all, and I abound.” That word translated “abound” is perisseuō in the ancient text, and it has special meaning. perisseuō means to overflow because of excess; to have a superfluous and excellent quantity far beyond any worldly measure.
What does this mean? And how does this apply to us today?
Paul gives us a clue in the very next verse …
Philippians 4:19 (NIV)
“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.”
“All your needs!” And these, for Paul, clearly, were much, much more than food for his body from his church whilst in jail. “I have all, AND abound!” I have all I need and then there is this amazing excess in my whole being. How can Paul say this? How is it possible? Many would ridicule the very idea of such a state of being given the physical circumstances. But Paul lives on another plane altogether. He had said years earlier on Mars Hill in Athens at the Areopagus (where philosophers went to debate) …
Acts 17:28 (NIV)
“'For in Him [God] we live and move and have our being.'
As some of your own poets have said, 'We are His offspring.'”
The plane of our being is Christ, Himself. On that plane of living all the provision and blessing of God comes to us. “In Him”, that is, “in Christ” means that Christ is the conduit. As one commentator put it,
“… and out of his own blessed experience of what Christ could do, Paul promised that one’s every need would be supplied. God’s measure is his riches in glory; and his channel is Jesus Christ.”
– F. B. Meyer
The Christian lives very differently, even though in the world – or in a stinking dungeon – because we are “in Christ”, the plane of our being. Paul alludes to this previously to the Ephesians …
Ephesians 2:6-7 (NIV)
“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
We, therefore, abound in all good things and no circumstance, no impossible situation can limit, inhibit or block this abundance – or the joy of it. Paul, I am sure, had his moments of loneliness and anxiety … but He also had Christ and, therefore, “had all, and abounded”.
What is your situation today, Christian? You’re probably not in a dungeon awaiting death. Perhaps, you are in the hard and difficult place; but remember this place is not the plane on which you live with Christ and have your being. Be encouraged. No matter how difficult, in Christ you have all, and you abound. And we pray our way back up onto that plane when, somehow, we forget and live according to the world and its reality. We live on a higher plane, seated with Christ. We need to keep looking at the world from that plane of living, which is Christ’s perspective, and then we have all … and abound.
Acts 17:24-25 (NIV)
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”
Think on these things.
Ps Milton
[Sources: Various commentaries; Encyclopaedia Britannica; https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/mamertine-prison.]