Bible Strands
Philippians 4:11
I am not saying this out of need, for I have learned to be content regardless of my circumstances.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul writes to the church at Philippi from prison, responding to their renewed concern for his material needs (4:10). He is not rejecting their help but reframing the conversation.
The words — ἔμαθον (emathon, "have learned") is aorist of manthano, implying acquisition through experience rather than innate disposition. ὑστέρησιν (husterēsin, "destitution") names the concrete condition that grounds the claim.
The thread — 1 Timothy 6:6 pairs godliness with contentment as "great gain"; Hebrews 13:5 commands freedom from the love of money and contentment with what one has; Matthew 6:31 forbids anxiety over material provision.
Why it lands — Contentment is presented as a learned skill, not a temperament, which means it can be acquired and can be lost. The reader is asked to stop treating contentment as a character flaw when absent and start treating it as a discipline to be practiced.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
Cross-references
- 1 Timothy 6:6 Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain.
- Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
- Matthew 6:31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
- 2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
- Philippians 3:8 More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
- 2 Corinthians 6:10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
- 2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
- 1 Corinthians 4:11 To this very hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.
- Hebrews 10:34 You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that you yourselves had a better and permanent possession.
- 2 Corinthians 11:27 in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.