I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Background
A verse that is commonly taken out of its context

Important items of context:

• It is part of summary closing thoughts to a letter, so the context is the full letter
• “all things” in the context of this full letter are the enablers for spreading the gospel which correctly falls into the calling for all of us to the two greatest commandments
• “through Him” is full recognition that our success is completely dependent on reliance on Him just as Israel needed to be reliant on Him in order to achieve what God set before them

Reminder that the early Church was in a very different place than most of us today.  For the last 1,500 years, “God’s people” were clearly identified as “the nation” of Israel and differentiated by “The Law”.  Now, Jesus changed that to be open to “all people” and differentiated by “the Gospel” which is summarized in “seeking first” the two greatest commandments.  But the hard part was that this cross cultural “spiritual kingdom” was hard to communicate in world full of nations, kings and borders.

They needed to be able to communicate that now “relationships and heart attitudes” are at least as important, if not more important, than “rules and outward actions”.  All this in a context of being vilified by the Romans and the Jews.

They needed God to open hearts and doors if they were going to spread this this spiritual kingdom across all the nations.

What it meant to the original audience
They needed to trust in God in a completely new way.  Previously, God won “physical battles” for “the nation”.  Now they needed to win “heart battles” of “individuals”.  It was going to take the Holy Spirit’s guidance and power rather than the power of an army with arrows and swords.  In a sense, the power needed to come from the same source (God) as it had for the last 1,500 years, but now the goal was completely different.

For us today
Today, depending on where you live, “doing all things” and “through His strength” can mean very different things.  If you are in a country where Christianity is banned and persecuted, you will directly sense this need much more clearly. If you live in a country where Christianity and personal accomplishment freedoms are more broadly accepted, your battle is more likely to be one of humbling yourself from a tendency to take on the battle in your own strength and wisdom.

The best measure of our reliance on Him is our prayer life…