NOTES for Php 4:12
Speaking about himself, Paul says that the outward circumstances of life are indifferent to him: he has learned to feel equally well living both in poverty and amid abundance. Such a statement may seem strange against the background of the idea of wealth that, according to the Savior's words, hinders entry into the Kingdom, so that for a rich person this is possible, if at all, only with great difficulty.
Meanwhile, there is nothing strange in the apostle's words about himself and his attitude toward wealth. He simply understands poverty as a state more spiritual than material. Wealth and social status are not especially important to him. For him wealth is rather connected with the habit of relying on it, and therefore on oneself, instead of on God. In this same sense, hoping in wealth differs little from hoping in poverty. If from the Savior's words about the rich one draws the conclusion that salvation is guaranteed to every poor person only because he is poor, it is easy to fall into the opposite extreme, into which some Christian groups and communities sometimes fell.
In essence, there is no difference, when it comes to salvation, whether one relies on wealth or on poverty: in both cases the person relies not on Christ and not even on himself, but on what he has or does not have. Counting on poverty in itself being salvific is just as absurd as counting on wealth in itself being salvific. Only God saves through Jesus Christ, and only relationships with God and with Christ can be salvific. The primacy of these relationships in life became Paul's goal, just as in a normal case it becomes the goal of every Christian.
Everything else, including material condition and social status, is only the outward conditions for building such relationships. Of course, a person needs a certain material minimum for life, but here the Gospel principle operates: seek the Kingdom, and "all this," which in context means what the pagans seek, what is needed for life materially, will be added, and in accordance with what and how much a person needs at the given moment. This is exactly how Paul lived: he followed his spiritual path after Christ, accepting what was "added" to him. And he did not regret this, advising the same path to others.