“The Sufficiency of Christ”
Paper Due Date
The Beginning
One day a man was warned that there were severe storms coming. As the man sat in his living room reading, he heard a ruckus on the street and went to the window. When he looked out, he saw a jeep with rescue workers who called to him to climb in and they would save him from the impending floods. The man declined help, saying, “No thanks. I’m waiting for God.” The flood began by filling the streets and covering the bottom floor of the man’s house, so he climbed the stairs to the second floor. When he looked out the bedroom window, he saw more rescue workers, this time in rowboats. “Come on, sir, we can save you,” they called out. “No thanks,” the man again responded, “I’m waiting for God.” The rain continued to comedown in torrents and the waters continued to rise—so much so that the man had to climb onto the roof of his home. Within minutes he hear the whipping of helicopter blades and a man calling down that they were there to rescue him, and with that they dropped a rope ladder. Again the man declined help, saying, “No thanks. I’m waiting for God.” At that moment, God called out to the man: “I sent you a jeep, a rowboat, and a helicopter. What more do you want?” (“God Will Save Me,” n.d.).
So, what was this man’s problem? Was he faced with and distrustful of the people in the jeep, the rowboat, and the helicopter in the same way that the Philippians were faced with self-proclaimed Jewish Christians “seeking to woo the Philippians away from trusting solely in the work of Christ for the righteousness” (Riccardi, 2014, n.p.)? Was the man the type of personality who, as a malcontent, is not satisfied with any solution, no matter if offered by professionals with obvious skill and years of experience (Cole, 2013)? If it was the latter, the man needed to understand the meaning of contentment, he needed to grasp what it is to want/need and equally what it is to experience fullness—and to know the difference. If it was the form he was instead demonstrating that the Lord “was not sufficient for his every need[even when and despite that]he had been in a very difficult situation” (Cole, 2013, para. 6; Phil. 4:14); the man in our anecdote was not believing in, acting in, living in Christ. Indeed, it could be that the man was conflicted and experiencing both of these issues, but what we might focus on today is how we in our own lives—unintentionally or unconsciously—come to deny the sufficiency of Christ, first, by misconstruing contentment; second, by failing to recognize those working in Christ and subsequently failing to recognize the sufficiency of Christ our Lord.
The End
So, we, like the man in the flood zone, can heed the teachings of the apostle: first, the man living in Christ acknowledges the kindness of the Philippians (the jeep, rowboat, and helicopter rescue team members). The man living in Christ openly expresses his joy on account of this kindness, and does so with a mindfulness that it is not for want of care in them, but of opportunity of showing it (Phil. 4:10). The man living in Christ does not take notice of this kindness with so much exultation on account of his own needfulness, for he has learned the great lesson of contentment in every state of being (Phil. 4:11). And the man living in Christ, the man believing, feeling, and demonstrating through his actions in the sufficiency of Christ might elaborate upon by acknowledging he has been taught to know how to and subsequently does know how to think, feel, and act in the face of fullness and in the face of want, in prosperity and adversity—all the while believing, explaining, and demonstrating that this is not to his credit but to the power, strength, and sufficiencyof Christ our Lord. Pastor Stephen J. Cole (2013) relates another anecdote in his sermon on the sufficiency of Christ, a legend he adapts from Leonard Griffith’s This is Living (1966): A wealthy merchant, fascinated with the apostle Paul, was intent on meeting Paul at the time when he was in prison. The merchant approached Timothy to schedule a meeting time, and the merchant visited Paul, only to find an old and weakened-looking man in a small and dingy prison cell. But to the visitor’s surprise, in contrast, Paul appeared to be psychologically fit: he appeared to possess both an attractive vitality of soul and peace of mind, as he was a “man who relied on Christ as his all in all” (Cole,2013, para. 30). After the prisoner and his visitor talked at great length, the merchant was escorted out of the prison. Back in the company of Timothy, the merchant asked Paul’s fellow what was behind Paul’s remarkable vitality of soul and peace of mind, something, the merchant related, he had never witnessed before:
“Did you not guess?” replied Timothy. “Paul is in love.” The merchant looked puzzled. “In love?” he asked. “Yes,” said Timothy, “Paul is in love with Jesus Christ.” The merchant looked even more bewildered. “Is that all?” he asked. Timothy smiled and replied, “That is everything.” ( para. 30)
References
Cole, S.J. (2013). Lesson 27: The Secret for Contentment (Philippians 4:10-13). Bible.org, 30 July. Retrieved from https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-27-secret-contentment- philippians-410-13
“God Will Save Me.” (n.d.). The Epistle. Retrieved from http://epistle.us/inspiration/ godwillsaveme.html
Riccardi, M. (2014) Standing Firm in One Spirit (Philippians 4:2–3). The Grace Life Pulpit, 19 January. Retrieved from http://www.thegracelifepulpit.com/Sermons.aspx?code=2014- 01-19-MR
