Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Philippians · About this commentary
I Can Do All Things
Philippians 4:12-13
12 I know how to be humbled, and I also know how to abound. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need. · WEB
The most quoted sentence in the letter is about coping with plenty as much as with hunger.
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.
The balance is exact and deliberately two-directional. Four pairs, and in each the prosperous half is named alongside the deprived. Paul treats abundance as a condition requiring learning, not merely as relief from want — which is the less obvious half and, for most readers, the harder.
The verb translated learned the secret comes from the initiation vocabulary of the mystery religions. Paul says he has been initiated — into knowing how to be hungry.
Then verse 13: I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
The sentence is quoted constantly on its own, and its context is the only thing that keeps it honest. All things means the four pairs just listed — abundance and need, fullness and hunger. It is not a promise of unlimited capability but of adequacy in either direction of circumstance, and the strength named is borrowed rather than possessed.
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