“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Philippians 4:19–20, KJV)
Growing up in my household, I was truly blessed. My parents were not rich as we might think, but they were also not poor. Our family was in the middleclass, perhaps at the lower end of the scale. Yet they amply provided everything I truly needed in life as I grew up.
Paul was writing to the Philippians regarding how they had partnered with him in the gospel ministry. They had supported Paul with gifts as he planted churches and ministered to them.
Here in this verse, he makes a bold conclusion. Based on their generosity in partnering in the gospel ministry, Paul assured them that God would supply every need they had. The Lord our God who owns everything would supply what they needed.
The verb “supply,” pleroo, means to make full, to fill to the full, to cause to abound, to furnish or supply liberally (Strong, Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon G4137). In other words, God would abundantly supply their needs because they gave as He purposed in their hearts to support the work the Lord was doing through Paul’s ministry.
As we look at this verse, we often take it as a promise. Some will take it out of context to mean that God will make every believer rich with money. I have heard preachers use this thought as an earthly investment strategy to multiply wealth. However, this idea of giving to get is not biblical because the motivation is wrong.
The Philippians had the right motive. They gave abundantly purely to advance the ministry of the gospel. They did not have a give to get mentality. Yet Paul indicated that God would richly supply every need they had.
I can testify to the truth of this. When I took the call to a small church in New Hampshire, their finances were not looking good. In fact, they only guaranteed me a salary for six months. Yet the Lord began sending people and resources so that in six months’ time we were just holding our own. When I had time to examine our church’s finances, I discovered that we were giving perhaps only about five percent (I do not remember the exact percentage) of our budget to missions.
After I saw this, the Lord put it on my heart to have the church increase the missions’ budget by faith to ten percent. Honestly, there was some fear and trepidation regarding this bold move as we were barely scraping by. Yet by the end of that budget year, we actually had a financial surplus. Thus, we decided to give an additional ten percent of the surplus.
We never looked back. Year after year we were blessed with a financial surplus. We had money to do some essential upgrades to our facility. We sent support to a new church start-up in our convention. The Lord amply supplied everything the church needed.
The point is this. To give with advancing the gospel as the only motive will take faith. We must give as the Lord purposes in our heart. When we do, I am convinced that we will have every need met for the glory of God. You see the prime motivation for giving is to glorify God as Paul indicated in the next verse.
“Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Philippians 4:20, KJV)
Renewing the Heart 