Autarky

Monday January 9, 2023

Autarky

Be content with what you have. Hebrews 13.5

In the text of Philippians 4, Paul calls himself autarkes, that is to say, satisfied with the circumstances in which he finds himself, whatever they may be. This is also the exhortation of today's verse.

But we live in a media bath that keeps pushing us to want what we don't have at all costs. One of the prices to pay is the ecological problem of goods coming from the ends of the planet. We understand this, but we don't seem to be able to do anything to educate people to be content with what is available to us locally.

The teaching of Christ and the apostles is frequently condensed into a reminder of sobriety.

Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying, “Most people are as happy as they set out to be.” It looks like a key to me. If I have decided that I need little to be happy, I will be happy with the little that will have served as my measure.

Conversely, even abundance will leave me perpetually dissatisfied and abandoned to the love of money that is supposed to give everything, but eager to claim everything for itself from those it enslaves.

It is not for nothing that the Bible calls this love "idolatry" and that Jesus declared: You cannot serve God and money (Matthew 6:24).

If, like Paul, we had learned to be content with what we have, it is easy to understand that many ecological problems would be solved !

Richard Douliere

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Proposed reading : Letter to the Philippians, chapter 4, verses 10 to 14.

4.10 I felt great joy in the Lord that you were finally able to renew the expression of your feelings for me ; you were thinking about it, but you missed the opportunity.

4.11 It is not for my needs that I say this, for I have learned to be content with the state in which I find myself.

4.12 I know how to live in humiliation, and know how to live in abundance. In everything and everywhere I learned to be satisfied and to be hungry, to be in abundance and to be in scarcity.

4.13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

4.14 However, you have done well to share in my distress.

Source (Live Today)