In episode 2 of Read It Again, I take on Philippians 4:13, the verse on the sneaker, the eye black, the tattoo. It shows up everywhere strength is being claimed for a win, but Paul wrote it chained to a guard in a Roman prison, not knowing if he would live or die. I trace the verses right before it, where Paul says he learned contentment through hunger and plenty alike, and I dig into the word he uses for strength, a word that describes an ongoing supply, not a one time power up. What we find is not a smaller promise but a sturdier one. It is not a guarantee that Christ will help you win. It is a testimony that Christ will sustain you no matter how the outcome goes. If you are carrying a hard season right now, this episode is for you.

Interesting Links:

• Wright, N. T. (2004). Paul for everyone: The prison letters. Westminster John Knox Press.
• Religion News Service. (2014, January 16). Philippians 4:13: How many Christians misuse the iconic verse.
• Precept Austin. (n.d.). Philippians 4:13 commentary.
• Merritt, J. (n.d.). How Christians misuse Philippians 4:13.
• Gitnux. (2026). Christian mental health statistics: Market data report 2026.
• Fee, G. D. (1995). Paul's letter to the Philippians (New International Commentary on the New Testament). Eerdmans.
• Britannica. (n.d.). Letter of Paul to the Philippians.
• Bargerhuff, E. (2012). The most misused verses in the Bible. Bethany House Publishers.
• Athletes in Action. (n.d.). The greater promise of Philippians 4:13.
• Athletes in Action. (n.d.). Why Philippians 4:13 doesn't mean what you think.

References to Bible Verses:

Philippians 4:10–14; Philippians 1:12–14; Philippians 1:20–21; 2 Corinthians 12:9–10

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Thank you for listening and welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Jason McConnell. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever watched a big game and spotted a player in the tunnel before tip-off, head bowed, lips moving with a Bible verse written somewhere on their body? Or scrolled past a post of someone finishing a race with Philippians four thirteen in the caption?

Or have you seen it on the eye black of a quarterback on the cover of Sports Illustrated, or on the sole of an NBA star's sneaker, tattooed across the chest of a heavyweight fighter? "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It is one of the more heavily quoted verses in the, in the New Testament, and most of the people quoting it are using it in a way that Paul, sitting in a Roman prison cell when he wrote it, would not have recognized.

Now, I wanna say right away, the instinct behind this is good. People love this verse because it genuinely sounds like strength. It sounds like God is in your corner, backing your effort, ready to power you through whatever it is in front of you, and that instinct is not necessarily wrong. The problem is, when you find out what Paul is actually talking about when he wrote it, the verse turns out to be something far more durable than a pre-game mantra.

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This is episode two of Read It Again, a series where we take 10 of the most familiar verses in the modern church culture and read them whole. Last week, we were in Babylon with an entire nation in exile.

This week we get personal. One man, one prison cell, and we find out what all things actually meant to the man who wrote them.

The promise was real, the return was real, but the path to it ran through the exile rather than skirting around it. Now, the big takeaway from episode one was this: God's plan does not require your circumstances to cooperate. The exiles were told to build houses, plant gardens, raise children, and pray for the city that conquered them.

And in the middle of all of that, God said, "I have not lost the thread. My plans for you are for your shalom, for your wholeness, for your restoration." And that is the kind of promise that holds up when life genuinely gets hard. Now, here is what I want you to notice as we move into this episode. The last one answered a national question.

How does a whole people survive a long season they didn't choose? How does an entire community keep their faith intact when everything around them says that faith is not working? And the answer to that was by staying planted in the place they were, seeking God in the middle of it, and trusting that his plan does not depend on their circumstances.

But now we're gonna get more personal. The question this week is not how does a people survive a hard season, it is how does a single person survive it? How does one person remain stable and, and even joyful when life is pressing down hard? And Paul's answer is Philippians 4:13. But before he gets to verse 13, he says some things in verse 10 and 11 and 12 that almost no one ever talks about, and those verses change what verse 13 means.

And that's what we're gonna talk about today.

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Now, there are not many Bible verses that have a dedicated tattoo section on the internet. Philippians 4:13 might be one of those. Uh, according to Athletes in Action on Instagram alone, this verse has been quoted over 56,000 times, and the majority of those posts are tied to exercise goals, a- athletic competitions, or personal achievements of some sort of a challenge.

And it has some famous names behind it. Uh, Tim Tebow wrote Phil- Philippians 4:13 in eye black during the Florida Gators championship, uh, and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with it. Uh, Steph Curry has written the verse on every pair of sneakers he plays in across the entire NBA career that he's had.

MMA fighter Jon Jones has it tattooed across his chest. Olympian gold medalist, uh, Brittney Reese has it on her wrist. These are some of the most visible athletes in the world, and they have all made Philippians 4:13 their cornerstone verse. Bible Gateway confirms that Philippians 4:13 is the second most popular verse in the New Testament, trailing only behind John 3:16 most of the time.

That is a remarkable achievement for a verse tucked into a short letter. So what's the problem? Well, the problem, the operating assumption underneath most of these 56,000 Instagram posts is that Philippians 4:13 means something like this: With Christ on my side, I can accomplish any goal I set my mind to.

The verse becomes a promise of outcome. God is, is the booster, Christ is the power up, and all things is an open list of achievements waiting to be checked off Dr. Eric Bergerhuff, who wrote a book called, uh, The Most Used-- The Most Misused Verses in the Bible, says this verse is not about who has the strength to play to the best of their abilities in any sporting contest.

It's about having the strength to be content when physical resources are minimal. So here's the thing that makes this somewhat interesting. Paul wrote this verse from a Roman prison cell. He was under house arrest, chained to a guard, waiting for a trial that could end up in his execution. He was not writing from a podium, he-- or a locker room or a moment of personal triumph.

He was writing from chains, and what he wrote was about contentment, not conquest. Now, here's why this matters for you and me beyond the sports and fitness conversation. Recent data from Pew Research shows that thirty-eight percent of evangelical Christians reported high anxiety levels post-COVID, which is actually higher than the national average of twenty-nine percent.

A significant number of Christians are carrying real weight right now in real circumstances, and some of them may be holding a version of this verse that tells them Christ should be powering them through to victory. And when victory doesn't come and the hard season doesn't end, a misread verse becomes a source of confusion rather than comfort.

The version from the prison cell, well, it's different, and it's actually, believe it or not, more useful.

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Now, before we read verse thirteen, we need to focus in a bit more on who wrote it and what his situation was like when he did. Because the contrast between where Paul was sitting and what he was saying is really the, kind of the point of the whole passage. Now, Paul was a man who had been through almost everywhere.

He, he started his career as a Pharisee, an expert in Jewish law, a- and committed persecutor of the early church. His conversion on the road to Damascus, one of, was one of the most dramatic in the New Testament. And from that point forward, his life as a missionary was marked by a, a level of suffering that most of us will never experience.

He was beaten with a rod three times. He was stoned and left for dead. He was shipwrecked three times. He spent a night and a day adrift in the open sea. He was in danger from rivers, from bandits, from his own countrymen, from the Gentiles. He was often hungry, cold, and without shelter. And when he ended up in Rome under house arrest, chained to a rotating guard, awaiting a hearing before Caesar himself, scholars generally date the letter to the Philippians around, I don't know, AD 62.

And during this Roman imprisonment, Paul was not in a dungeon. He could receive visitors. He could write letters, but he was not free, and the outcome of his trial was generally uncertain. Now, he acknowledges in Philippians chapter 1 that he does not know whether he will be released or executed. And both are real possibilities here.

The church at Philippi had a special place in Paul's heart. He founded it during his second missionary journey around 50 to 52 AD. It was the first church he planted in Europe. And unlike some of his letters, which address serious theological disputes or moral failures, the letter to the Philippians radiates with his genuine warmth.

I mean, he loves these people, and he is writing to them from chains. Philippians 1:12-14 gives us a glimpse of his posture from inside the prison. "Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.

And because of my chains, most of the brothers, brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear." Now, he is not crushed by his circumstances. He is not pretending they're fine. Uh, he's in chains and he knows it, and he is still writing about joy and about the advance of the gospel.

And, and that is the man who writes Philippians 4:13. And now, now we need to read what he wrote i- in the verses right before it.

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Now if you've only encountered Philippians 4:13 as a standalone verse, you're about to read three verses that may change what verse 13 is doing for you. So read Philippians 4:10-12 with me.

"I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever circumstances. I know what it is to be in need. I know what it is to have plenty.

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether it well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." Does that sound familiar? Probably should. I'm sure you've heard that before.

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But there's a word in this verse, in verse 11 that deserves a bit of a pause, "learned." Now Paul does not say he was given contentment.

He doesn't say Christ zapped it into him at the moment of conversion. He says he learned it. Now the Greek word, uh, emathon, is the past tense of a verb that means to learn through experience. Paul was taught contentment the way you get taught most things, you and I get taught most things, by going through the circumstances that make it necessary to know.

Now he names those circumstances in verse 12, hunger, plenty, need, abundance. He has been at both ends. He knows what it feels like to have enough and to have nothing. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, he found something that neither end of this spectrum could take away from him.

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Now there, there is a theological word hiding underneath verse 11 that is also worth spending some time on.

The Greek word translated to content is autarkis. It, it's a word that comes from Stoics philosophy. A- and the Stoics would have recognized it immediately. I- in Stoic thought, autarkis describes a person who has achieved such complete inner independence, independence that nothing outside of them could disturb their peace.

Now, the Stoic ideal was to eliminate the desire so thoroughly that you need nothing from your anyone or anything. Become completely self-sufficient on the inside, and the outside world loses its power over you. So P- Paul borrows this word, but completely transforms its source. Gordon Fee, in his landmark commentary on Philippians, makes the distinction clear here.

The power to become self-sufficient came from within for the Stoics. For Paul, the power to become self-sufficient came from without. Now, the Stoics were trying to need nothing. Paul was trying to depend entirely on Christ. So it was the same word, completely opposite direction of it. Now, that is the setup for verse thirteen.

Paul is not about to claim that Christ makes him unstoppable. He's about to explain the source of the contentment he has just described. Now, he has learned to be stable, whether hungry or well-fed, whether free or in chains, and now he tells us how that is possible.

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So now let's finally read Philippians four, thirteen.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Now read that in context. The phrase all things is not an open-ended list. It's a reference back to what Paul just named. All things meaning all the circumstances he described in verse twelve, hungry or well-fed, plenty or want. The full range of experience.

I can endure all of those things through Christ, who is the one who continually strengthens me.

Now, the Greek word translated into strengthens is endudamonti. It's a present participle. That means it is ongoing. It's not a power-up that activates at the start of a hard season and then ends at some point. It's a continuous supply of strength coming from an ongoing relationship. Paul is describing a way of living, not a moment of empowerment.

I think that's important.

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And notice what Paul is not claiming. He was not claiming that Christ would help him win his trial. He genuinely did not know if he was gonna be acquitted or executed. He writes in Philippians one verse twenty through twenty-one, "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in, in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." So he is content whether the outcome is death or life, and that is what that verse is, is telling us. That's what it's claiming. Not that Christ will secure the outcome Paul wants, but that Christ will sustain Paul through whichever outcome comes. And here's where this becomes really important for the sports and achievement framing.

Athletes in Action has documented cases of believers who built their faith around this Philippians four thirteen verse as a promise of victory, and who had the faith shaken when they lost. The verse did not fail them, but the verse they were holding onto was not quite the right verse. Because the real Philippians four thirteen does not promise that you will win.

It promises that whether you win or lose, whether you are fed or hungry, whether your circumstances cooperate or they do not, Christ will sustain you through all of that. That is the bigger promise. It holds up when games go wrong. It holds up when season might go long. It holds up from inside a prison cell.

N.T. Wright in his commentary on Philippians frames the whole passage of four verse ten through twenty-three under the heading of Contentment in All Circumstances. Not achievement in favorvable, favorable ones, contentment in all of them. That is Paul's testimony. That is verse thirteen is as he ex-- is his explanation for how it's possible.

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So let's talk about what does this actually do? What does this mean for us? First, keep using it, but know what you're holding onto. When you write this verse on your sneaker or put it in your wall or, or quote it before a hard day, you're not claiming that Christ is gonna make the outcome go your way. You are claiming something more honest and more useful, that Christ will sustain you whether the outcome goes your way or not.

That is a claim that's worth making. That-- it's worth having on your wall. It's worth writing on your sneakers. Second, take the word learned seriously. Paul said contentment is something he had to learn through experience. That means two things. One, it is possible to grow in contentment. You're not stuck at whatever level you're at right now.

Two, it is normal to struggle with it. If you find yourself anxious, uh, restless, or unsatisfied with your circumstances, that's not a sign that you're failing spiritually. It may be the beginning of the same curriculum Paul went through. The question is not whether you, you feel content right now. The question is whether you are turning towards the right sources as you work through it.

And then the third thing to note here is that notice the structure of what Paul is actually offering. He is not offering a formula. He's offering a relationship. The strength in verse thirteen comes from Christ, who is continually strengthening him. It's not a technique or a mindset. It is a dependence on a, on, on a person, the person of God.

And, and the dependence, Paul says, makes him stable across the full range of life experiences. Now, doesn't that sound like it's worth it? Paul puts it another way in Second Corinthians twelve, verse nine, uh, th- through ten. Sorry, twelve, verse nine through ten, writing about a different kind of suffering.

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in results, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.

For when I am weak, then I am strong." And this is not Paul claiming that Christ removes weakness. It is Paul claiming that Christ's strength shows up most clearly and most precisely in the place where Paul's own strength gives out.

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I want you to think about your own life right now. Is there a circumstance you didn't choose?

A hard season that is going longer than you expected? A situation where the outcome you were hoping for is nowhere in sight? Philippians four thirteen does not promise that circumstance will be resolved in your favor, but it does promise that Christ will give you the stability to endure it, to remain content inside, and to come out the other side without having lost the thing that matters most.

The verse on the sneaker and the verse on the prison cell, they're not the same verse. One promises power up, the other offers a way through. In the long run, especially when the season is genuinely hard, the version from the prison cell is the one you want Let me bring this together, uh, about what we covered.

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Look, Philippians four thirteen is one of the most quoted verses in the Te- New Testament. It, it's on jersey, jerseys, tattoos, sneakers, Instagram posts all across the world, and the people using it are not wrong to love it. The instinct is-- it's right. It's there. The verse is generally about strength, but it's not about the strength to win.

It's about the strength to be stable whether you win or lose, whether you're well-fed or hungry, whether your circumstances cooperate or they don't. Paul wrote it from a prison cell at the end of a passage about learning contentment through the full range of life experience. The all things he could do through Christ was not a list of goals.

It was the entire spectrum of circumstances life had thrown at him. And his testimony was that Christ had sustained him through all of it, not by removing the hardships, but by being the continuous source of strength that made stability possible inside of it. So here's the takeaway. Philippians four thirteen, not a power up.

It's a testimony. Paul is not promising what Christ will-- that Christ will help you achieve things. He's telling you what Christ helped him endure, and he's inviting you into the same relationship that made that possible. Here is something concrete you can do this week. Read Philippians chapter four, verses ten through thirteen in one sitting.

Then keep reading through Philippians one through twenty and twenty-one, where Paul acknowledges that he does not know whether he's gonna live or die and says he is at peace with either outcome. Let those two passages sit next to each other. See what changes when you read verse thirteen, standing in the right place.

And I will leave you with Philippians four, verse eleven: "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." And that word learned is doing a lot of work, so give it some room.

Until next time, keep loving your neighbors, dive into God's Word daily, and may the Lord bless you and keep you and fill you with his peace.

Take care, God bless, and I'll see you in the next episode.