Few verses travel farther from home.

It appears on gym walls and graduation cards as a promise of achievement. Matthew Henry read it exactly where it sits — at the end of a paragraph about money, hunger, and learning to live with both.

Philippians 4:13 · Berean Standard Bible I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

What Paul had learned

Philippians 4:11–12 · Berean Standard Bible I am not saying this out of need, for I have learned to be content regardless of my circumstances. I know how to live humbly, and I know how to abound. In any and every situation I have learned the secret of being filled and being hungry, of having plenty and having need.

What Paul had learned, Henry says, was contentment, and he calls the passage an account of Paul's learning, not that which he got at the feet of Gamaliel, but that which he got at the feet of Christ. To be content is to bring his mind to his condition, and make the best of it; it is a special act of grace that teaches us to accommodate ourselves to every condition of life, and carry an equal temper of mind through all the varieties of our state.

Prosperity is on the syllabus too

Henry is careful to include prosperity in the syllabus: the temptations of fulness and prosperity are not less than those of affliction and want — knowing how to abound is, he notes, as hard a lesson as the other. That cuts against the usual use of this verse, which assumes the hard condition is always scarcity.

Where the strength comes from

So when Paul says he can do all things, Henry hears a transfer of credit rather than a boast: It is only through Christ who strengthens me that I can do it, not in my own strength. He even notes that the Greek participle is present tense — Christ is strengthening me, and does continually strengthen me. The strength of this verse is not for lifting more; it is for holding steady.

Questions readers ask about this verse

  1. What does Philippians 4:13 really mean?

    It means Christ supplies the strength to live well inside any circumstance — poverty or plenty, prison or freedom. Paul has just told the Philippians he learned contentment in every condition; verse 13 names the power source for that learning. It is a claim about endurance and sufficiency, made by a man in custody, not a promise that believers can accomplish whatever they set out to do.

  2. Is Philippians 4:13 about sports or achievement?

    Not originally. The verse says nothing about performance, competition, or goals; its all things are the circumstances Paul had just listed — being brought low, abounding, facing hunger and need. Quoting it before a game asks the verse to promise victory, when its actual promise is steadiness in either outcome. An athlete can pray it honestly — as grace to handle winning and losing alike.

  3. What is the context of Philippians 4:13?

    Verses 10-12. The Philippians had sent Paul support, and he thanks them while clarifying that his welfare never depended on it: he has learned contentment in every state. Matthew Henry defines that learned skill as bringing one's mind to his condition, making the best of it. Verse 13 closes the thought by naming where such flexibility comes from — not temperament, but Christ's continual strengthening.

  4. Who wrote Philippians 4:13, and from where?

    The apostle Paul, writing to the church in Philippi — the first congregation he planted in Europe. Matthew Henry's edition dates the letter to A.D. 62 and notes Paul received the Philippians' gift now that he was a prisoner at Rome. The most quoted line about strength in the New Testament was composed by a man awaiting the outcome of his trial.

  5. Does 'all things' really mean all things?

    All things within God's calling — not all things imaginable. The scope is set by the surrounding sentences: every condition of life, honored or humiliated, full or hungry. Matthew Henry widens it carefully in the same direction: We need his strength to teach us to be content in every condition. The verse covers whatever God assigns; it does not underwrite whatever we desire.

  6. How should I use Philippians 4:13 in hard times?

    Use it the way Paul minted it: name your actual condition — the diagnosis, the layoff, the season of abundance that tempts you to forget God — and claim strength to be faithful inside it. Matthew Henry observed that Paul transfers all the praise to Christ at exactly the moment he might have boasted; the verse works best when it does the same in us, turning endurance into gratitude.

How verses 10–12 build to this claim →