Christ is the One who empowers us. In Philippians 4:13 Paul says, “I can do all things in Him who empowers me.” If we would experience Christ as the empowering One, we need to let Him live in us, be formed in us, make His home in us, and be magnified in us. If we fail to do these things, He will not have the way to empower us. But when Christ lives in us, is formed in us, makes His home in us, and is magnified in us, the way is prepared for Him not only to strengthen us but to empower us.
To be empowered by Christ is to be made dynamic inwardly. Christ dwells in us (Col. 1:27). He empowers us, makes us dynamic, from within, not from without. By such inward empowering Paul could do all things in Christ.
Paul was a person in Christ (2 Cor. 12:2), and he desired to be found in Christ by others (Phil. 3:9). In Philippians 4:13 he declared that he could do all things in Christ, the One who empowered him. This is an all-inclusive and concluding word of Paul’s experience of Christ. It is the converse of the Lord’s word concerning our organic relationship with Him in John 15:5, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” As long as we have Christ and are in Him, we can do all things in Him.
The “all things” in Philippians 4:13 refer to the things mentioned in verse 12 and the virtues listed in verse 8. This means that the application of verse 13 is limited by the context of verses 8 through 13. By the empowering of Christ we can live a contented life (vv. 11-12) and be true, honorable, righteous, pure, lovely, and well-spoken of. This means that we are persons in Christ who empowers us to live out every kind of virtue. This is to live Christ, to magnify Christ in His virtues.
The six virtues mentioned in Philippians 4:8 are actually the image of God. God created man in His image, that is, in His attributes. God is love and light, and He is holy and righteous. These four things are God’s attributes which constitute the image of God. That man was made in the image of God means that he was made in the form of love, light, holiness, and righteousness. The six items, whatever is true, honorable, righteous, pure, lovely, and well-spoken of, are in these four divine attributes of love, light, holiness, and righteousness. This is the real virtue, virtue that is the expression of Christ. Christ empowers the believers to live Him and magnify Him in all these virtues. Therefore, Paul’s word about Christ as the empowering One specifically applies to Christ’s empowering us to live Him as our human virtues and thereby to magnify Him in His unlimited greatness.
Home | First | Prev | Next