Spurgeon on Contentment

-->While preparing for a sermon on Philippians 4:10–23, I came across these words from Charles Spurgeon. In a sermon on Philippians 4:11, Spurgeon said: 

“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.”

I think his words capture part of what Paul is saying in Philippians 4:10–23 quite well. Contentment, as with any part of our sanctification (our becoming more holy and Christlike), is cooperative. Certainly it is God's grace that must first act and give us the desire to be holy, and yes it is God's Spirit that must aid us in our pursuit of holiness, but we are called to work at fighting any and all behavior that is not Christlike and to seek to cultivate those Christian virtues which are.