The Character of Christian Contentment

We return again this morning to the fourth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. And as we turn to our text in Philippians chapter 4, we discover that the Apostle Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has a word for us this morning about contentment.

In the late fourth century BC, the Great Conqueror, Alexander the Great, was systematically subduing the most powerful global force, the Persian Empire. In the span of just a few years, the King of Macedon had spread his reign from the relatively tiny peninsula in Greece as far south as Egypt, through the Turkish peninsula in Asia Minor, all across Israel and Mesopotamia, through even present-day Iran and Afghanistan—all the way to the Indus River Valley in modern-day India. Alexander had literally conquered the known world. And you’d think, as he stopped to survey and reflect upon the great vastness of his empire, that he would have experienced a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment—that he’d be content with what he had managed to accomplish. But it’s said, in a quote that is often attributed to John Milton but whose true author is not known for certain, “When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer.”...

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