Credited to Your Account

Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:17-19)   It's interesting: Paul flips in this section into the language of accounts receivable and payable.  It's a different format than he has been using.  Commentators have therefore struggled with this text: "why does Paul use such cold language?" they wonder.    Well maybe there is a reason for it.  I am reminded of CS Lewis in his essay "The Weight of Glory."  In it, he talks about the proper rewards for the life of Christian faith and our desires for those rewards.  We are often a bit ashamed to admit it, but there are promises in the New Testament that we will receive things like "treasures in heaven," or "a crown of glory," things that are above and beyond just our salvation in Christ.  I have to think of those texts and CS Lewis's words when I think of this text in Philippians 4.  Paul's desire was not for gifts from the Philippians, even though he is blessed by them and receives them gratefully. But his desire is not stuff for stuff 's own sake.  His desire, is to look through the stuff to what it means. And, what it means is a gift of love from the Philippians as a response of faith to God.  These gifts mean that God's word is bearing good fruit through the Philippians.   If that's what these gifts mean to Paul, what do they mean for the Philippians?  Well, Paul says it means that there's more credited to their account.  For Paul's part, he's received full payment.  He has more than enough.  There's abundance in the Kingdom of God even when he goes without, because he is strengthened not by the stuff of this world but by Christ.  There is a recognition of a gift economy at work here.  The things that the Philippians give are "a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice" given in response to all that God has given.  You think back to those words of Romans 12 about being "living sacrifices," giving all in the service of God—all that you have and all that you are.  When we do that, we store up treasures for ourselves in heaven, a crown of reward.   We do it, of course, not to get that reward per say, but as a response of faith—in order to be pleasing to God, recognizing as Paul had said already, that our contentment—our rest—is in Christ.  So we can say with Paul that "our God will meet all our needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."  Whether he does so in this world or the next, it does not change the calculus: God has given much.  We are amply supplied in Christ and therefore we give as a response of faith.  It's a joyful storing up not in this life and according to the rules of this world, but rather according to the Kingdom principles of the world to come. These are the accounts payable and receivable that Paul is speaking of, I think.  So as this week stretches on, may you respond in faith to all the riches that you have received in Christ Jesus, trusting that God will meet all your needs according to those riches.