Ep 703 – Philippians 3:12-21

Are you satisfied with Christ? Be careful. It's a trick question. On the one hand, we should be satisfied with Christ. He is all we need. He is more than enough. And Paul stressed the need for godly contentment. But he also warned of the danger of growing complacent or content with our current spiritual status. For Paul, there was such a thing as divine discontentment. And he refers to it in Philippians 3:12-21. It's an attitude that is marked by a constant striving to know Christ better and to grow in our likeness to Him. When we come to know Christ, we receive the righteousness of Christ. But we don't automatically receive the nature of Christ. We still retain our old sin nature and the propensity to live our old life styles. That is why Paul insists that we "put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you." As long as we live on this planet, we will be faced with the constant need to grow more like Christ, and that will require a divine form of discontentment.