Philippians 4:13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Many of us have seen some variation of these words in encouraging notes and cards, in art, on t-shirts, tattooed on people’s bodies, and even scrawled on the shoes of famous athletes or printed on their eye black. The verse is often shortened to, “I can do all things . . .” But is that what Paul, inspired by God, is really saying here? Is he telling us to believe in ourselves? Or to believe that Christ empowers us to do whatever we set our minds to? This is one of the most well-known New Testament verses, but it’s also notoriously misused. If we truly want to know what a Bible verse or passage means, we have to read it in context. We can’t strip away all the surrounding verses, remove it from its original intent, and still expect to understand it. This Sunday we will take a look at this very popular and encouraging verse but we will also take a look at the context in which it is used, to see what we can learn and how we can best apply it to our lives.
