What does First B Jackson teach about philippians 4:13?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on Philippians 4:13 starts with a firm insistence that the verse cannot be read on its own. Every message that has worked through this passage has made the same opening move: pulling verse 13 back into the verses around it, where Paul is not talking about athletic achievement or supernatural ability but about something he calls learned contentment in any and every situation. Doug Walkup, one of the elders at First B, put it plainly when he opened by noting how often the verse gets pulled out of context, appearing on a kickboxer's waistband or a football player's eye black. His point was that the verse is not about physical ability at all. To understand what Paul meant, you have to understand what Paul went through, and Doug walked through the full weight of it: the murder plots, the stonings, the floggings, the shipwreck, the midnight singing in a Philippian prison.
Pastor Van Jones pressed on the same word that Doug did: learned. Paul says twice in the passage that he has learned to be content. Van pointed out that this is encouraging precisely because it means contentment was not handed to Paul at conversion. He put it this way: "It's not like on the road to Damascus, Paul was just boom, downloaded with the ability to be content in all circumstances." It was acquired through experience, which means it is something the rest of us can acquire too. Van drew on the Puritan writer Jeremiah Burroughs, quoting his definition of contentment as "that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit that freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition."
What the teaching at First B keeps returning to is that the strength Christ provides in verse 13 is the strength to do exactly what Paul describes in the surrounding verses: to hold steady in poverty without anxiety and greed, and to hold steady in plenty without drifting from dependence on God. Ray, covering this same passage in January 2026, made the same argument, that reading verse 13 in context changes everything. The "all things" Paul says he can do through Christ are not feats of physical strength but the posture of a person who has genuinely learned where contentment comes from.
Taught from Philippians 4:11-13 · Philippians 4:10-13 · Philippians 4:12 · Philippians 4:13 · Philippians 4:9
“The rare jewel of Christian contentment: that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit that freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”
From The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
The passage taught · 1 Thessalonians 5
1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you.
2 For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.
3 For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape.
4 But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- September 6, 2026 The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment A sermon on Philippians 4:10-13 exploring what Paul meant by contentment in plenty and in need, and why "I can do all things through Christ" is so often misread.
- January 25, 2026 Rejoice in the Lord Always Philippians 4 shows how joy, prayer, and gratitude work together to overcome anxiety, and why context changes everything about the verses you thought you already knew.
- June 1, 2014 The Secret of Being Content Doug Walkup traces Paul's shipwrecks, stonings, and riots to show what "I can do all things through Christ" actually cost, and where real contentment comes from.