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Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:17-19)

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It's interesting: Paul flips in this section into the language of accounts receivable and payable. \xa0It's a different format than he has been using.\xa0 Commentators have therefore struggled with this text: \u201cwhy does Paul use such cold language?\u201d they wonder.\xa0 \xa0

Well maybe there is a reason for it. \xa0I am reminded of CS Lewis in his essay \u201cThe Weight of Glory.\u201d \xa0In it, he talks about the proper rewards for the life of Christian faith and our desires for those rewards. \xa0We are often a bit ashamed to admit it, but there are promises in the New Testament that we will receive things like \u201ctreasures in heaven,\u201d or \u201ca crown of glory,\u201d things that are above and beyond just our salvation in Christ.\xa0

I have to think of those texts and CS Lewis\u2019s words when I think of this text in Philippians 4. \xa0Paul's desire was not for gifts from the Philippians, even though he is blessed by them and receives them gratefully. But his desire is not stuff for stuff 's own sake. \xa0His desire, is to look through the stuff to what it means. And, what it means is a gift of love from the Philippians as a response of faith to God.\xa0 These gifts mean that God's word is bearing good fruit through the Philippians. \xa0

If that\u2019s what these gifts mean to Paul, what do they mean for the Philippians? \xa0Well, Paul says it means that there\u2019s more credited to their account. \xa0For Paul's part, he's received full payment. \xa0He has more than enough. \xa0There's abundance in the Kingdom of God even when he goes without, because he is strengthened not by the stuff of this world but by Christ.\xa0

There is a recognition of a gift economy at work here.\xa0 The things that the Philippians give are \u201ca fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice\u201d given in response to all that God has given. \xa0You think back to those words of Romans 12 about being \u201cliving sacrifices,\u201d giving all in the service of God\u2014all that you have and all that you are.\xa0 When we do that, we store up treasures for ourselves in heaven, a crown of reward. \xa0

We do it, of course, not to get that reward per say, but as a response of faith\u2014in order to be pleasing to God, recognizing as Paul had said already, that our contentment\u2014our rest\u2014is in Christ.\xa0 So we can say with Paul that \u201cour God will meet all our needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.\u201d \xa0Whether he does so in this world or the next, it does not change the calculus: God has given much.\xa0 We are amply supplied in Christ and therefore we give as a response of faith.\xa0 It\u2019s a joyful storing up not in this life and according to the rules of this world, but rather according to the Kingdom principles of the world to come.

These are the accounts payable and receivable that Paul is speaking of, I think. \xa0So as this week stretches on, may you respond in faith to all the riches that you have received in Christ Jesus, trusting that God will meet all your needs according to those riches.

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