I know how to live humbly, and I know how to abound. I am accustomed to any and every situation—to being filled and being hungry, to having plenty and having need.
Parallel translations
- WEB I know how to be humbled, and I know also how to abound. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.
- KJV I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
- NKJV I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
- NASB I know how to get along with little, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
- NLT I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul has learned the secret of contentment in both plenty and need, in every circumstance. His peace is independent of his outward conditions.
Overview
Paul knows the full range of human experience, from abundance to hunger, and has discovered the 'secret' of being content in all of it. This is no Stoic self-sufficiency but a contentment rooted in Christ, as the next verse makes clear. His example assures believers that stability of soul is possible whatever their circumstances.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Matt 11:29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
- 2 Cor 12:7–10or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
- 2 Cor 11:27in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.
- 2 Cor 11:9And when I was with you and in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. I have refrained from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so.
- 2 Cor 6:4–10Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and calamities;
- Deut 32:10He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.
- Isa 8:11For this is what the LORD has spoken to me with a strong hand, instructing me not to walk in the way of this people:
- 1 Cor 4:9–13For it seems to me that God has displayed us apostles at the end of the procession, like prisoners appointed for death. We have become a spectacle to the whole world, to angels as well as to men.
- 2 Cor 10:1Now by the mildness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold when away.
- Neh 9:20You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst.
- Jer 31:19After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
- Eph 4:20–21But this is not the way you came to know Christ.
- 2 Cor 10:10For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but his physical presence is unimpressive, and his speaking is of no account.”
- Matt 13:52Then He told them, “For this reason, every scribe who has been discipled in the kingdom of heaven is like a homeowner who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
- 2 Cor 11:7Was it a sin for me to humble myself in order to exalt you, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The one who, being in the form of God, emptied himself to the point of death on a cross and was exalted to the name above every name — the joy and prize of the believer.
How Philippians 4:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.