Content, autarkēs, is found only in this verse in the New Testament. As a moral term it plays an important part in the stoic outlook upon life. Socrates, for instance, is held up by Diogenes Laertius in the third century AD as an example of a ‘self-sufficient’ man who faced, with equanimity and resolution, all that life brought to him. Paul’s use of the term is, however, quite distinct from the stoic ideal as verse 13 shows (cf. 2 Cor. 9:8). A stoic term may be used; but it is Christ who is the secret of Paul’s serenity (1:21). The lesson he learnt came to him in a moment of time, as the aorist tense of the verb indicates. It did not come through patient discipline and concentrated endeavour; it broke upon him at his conversion, and his subsequent career and experience were but the outworking of the intimacy with the living Lord which began at that time. His ‘self-sufficiency’ derives from the experiential realities of 3:10.