Philippians 4:6-7

What Philippians 4:6-7 means

Be careful for nothing sounds odd today, but in the King James English careful meant full of care, that is, anxious or worried. Paul is not telling people to be careless. He is telling them not to carry their worries alone.

Instead of worry, he gives a practice. In every thing, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Prayer is the broad word for talking with God; supplication is earnest asking for a specific need. Thanksgiving is woven into both, so the asking happens while remembering what God has already done.

The result is not a promise that every request will be granted in the way it was asked. It is a promise of peace: the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, a peace that goes beyond what a person can explain from their circumstances. That peace will keep, or stand guard over, the heart and the mind. Philippi was a Roman colony, and readers have often noted that the word pictures a garrison on watch.

Paul wrote this from prison, to a church he loved, in a chapter where two of its women were at odds with each other (Philippians 4:2). He was not writing from an easy place, and he was not writing to a church without problems.

Background and context

Before: Philippians 4:1-5. Paul urges the church to stand fast in the Lord. He begs Euodias and Syntyche to be of the same mind, and asks a true yokefellow to help these women who laboured with him in the gospel. Then: Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

After: Philippians 4:8-9. Paul tells them what to think on: whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. They are to do what they learned and saw in him, and the God of peace shall be with them. Then he thanks them for their gift and says he has learned to be content in every state (Philippians 4:10-13).

The letter opens with Paul and Timotheus writing to the saints at Philippi, and mentions Paul's bonds being known in all the palace (Philippians 1:13).

Key verses

Cross references

• Matthew 6:25 Jesus: take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or drink.Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
• Matthew 6:34 Take no thought for the morrow.Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
• 1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
• Isaiah 26:3 God keeps in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on him.Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
• John 14:27 Jesus gives his peace, not as the world gives.Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
• Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, and be thankful.And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
• Psalm 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee.Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.