Philippians 4:12

I know how to live humbly, and I know how to abound. In any and every situation I have learned the secret of being filled and being hungry, of having plenty and having need.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Paul writes from prison to the Philippians, responding to their concern about his material needs. He has just stated he is not in need (v. 11) and now demonstrates the full range of conditions he has personally endured.

The words — ταπεινοῦσθαι (tapeinousthai) is a passive: "to be brought low," not the active choice to "live humbly" that the BSB implies. οἶδα (oida) is the experiential "I know" — knowledge acquired through doing — repeated twice to frame the whole verse as tested, not theoretical.

The thread — Matthew 11:29 pairs "learn from me" with humility of heart; 2 Corinthians 11:27 itemizes the specific deprivations (hunger, cold, exposure) that Paul's "being hungry, having need" compresses into a single phrase.

Why it lands — It removes the assumption that stable circumstances are a precondition for stable faith. The reader is asked to stop treating their environment as the variable that determines their capacity to function.

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

I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

Cross-references

Matthew 11:29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
2 Corinthians 12:7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
2 Corinthians 11:27 in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.
2 Corinthians 11:9 And when I was with you and in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. I have refrained from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so.
2 Corinthians 6:4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and calamities;
Deuteronomy 32:10 He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.
Isaiah 8:11 For this is what the LORD has spoken to me with a strong hand, instructing me not to walk in the way of this people:
1 Corinthians 4:9 For it seems to me that God has displayed us apostles at the end of the procession, like prisoners appointed for death. We have become a spectacle to the whole world, to angels as well as to men.
Nehemiah 9:20 You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst.
Jeremiah 31:19 After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’