“I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content.”
Philippians 4:11
These words show us that contentment is not a natural propensity of man. “Ill weeds grow apace.” Covetousness, discontent, and murmuring are as natural to man as thorns are to the soil. We need not sow thistles and brambles; they come up naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth: and so, we need not teach men to complain; they complain fast enough without any education. But the precious things of the earth must be cultivated. If we would have wheat, we must plough and sow; if we want flowers, there must be the garden, and all the gardener’s care. Now, contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and if we would have it, it must be cultivated; it will not grow in us by nature; it is the new nature alone that can produce it, and even then we must be specially careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God has sown in us. Paul says, “I have learned … to be content;” as much as to say, he did not know how at one time. It cost him some pains to attain to the mystery of that great truth. No doubt he sometimes thought he had learned, and then broke down. And when at last he had attained unto it, and could say, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content,” he was an old, grey-headed man, upon the borders of the grave–a poor prisoner shut up in Nero’s dungeon at Rome. We might well be willing to endure Paul’s infirmities, and share the cold dungeon with him, if we too might by any means attain unto his good degree. Do not indulge the notion that you can be contented without learning, or learn without discipline. It is not a power that may be exercised naturally, but a science to be acquired gradually. We know this from experience. Brother, hush that murmur, natural though it be, and continue a diligent pupil in the College of Content.
From Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening
Posted by Chris 
Wings of the Wind 
Quote #40…Richard Baxter 1615-1691 (7)
March 16, 2026Directions for profitable Reading the Holy Scriptures. Direct. 6
“Bring not a carnal mind, which savoreth only fleshly things and is enslaved to those sins which the Scripture doth condemn.
For the carnal mind is enmity against God, and neither is, nor can be subject to His Law (Rom 8:7-8). And the things of God are not discerned by the mere natural man, for they are foolishness to him, and they must be spiritually discerned (2Co 2:14); and enmity is an ill expositor. It will be quarrelling with all and making faults in the Word which findeth so many faults in you. It will hate that Word which cometh to deprive you of your most sweet and dearly beloved sin. Or, if you have such a carnal mind and enmity, believe it not, any more than a partial and wicked enemy should be believed against God Himself, Who better understandeth what He hath written, than any of His foolish enemies.“
(…to be continued)
(e) Rom. 8: 7, 8.
(f) 2 Cor. 2:14
From A Body of Practical Divinity, or A Christian Directory, Vol. 3
Richard Baxter (Click on this link for a short Biography)
Richard Baxter (Click on this link for a longer Biography)
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