Joy when it’s least expected
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble to write to you the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Phil 3:1
Joy. The word has a quick, poignant ring to it. Yet it, like other words, has been drained of meaning over the years, even tapped as a name for a dishwashing detergent. Nowadays joy is used most commonly for a sensation like thrill.
We think of joy as something you save up for months to experience and then splurge on in a moment of exhilaration: a trip to Disney World, a free-fall dive, a heart-stopping ride on the world’s meanest roller coaster, a hot-air balloon trip. Paul had a different understanding of the word, as this letter reveals.
When You Feel Like Despairing
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness to evident to all. The Lord is near. Philippians 4:4-5
Philippians uses the word joy or rejoice every few paragraphs, but the joy it describes doesn’t vanish after your heart starts beating normally again. Rejoice, says Paul, when someone selfishly tries to steal the limelight from you. And when you meet persecution for your faith. And when you are facing death.
In fact, the most joyous book in the Bible comes from the pen of an author chained to a Roman guard. Many scholars believe Paul wrote Philippians in Rome just about the time Nero began tossing Christians to ravenous lions and burning them as torches to illuminate his banquets. How could a rational man devote a letter to the topic of joy while his survival was in serious jeopardy? In such an environment, how could joy possibly thrive?
Turning Evil into Good
Paul hints at an answer in a burst of eloquence in:.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus
Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Philippians 2:5-7
This paragraph may have been a hymn familiar to the early church. In it, Paul discusses Christ’s perspective in coming to earth.
During the Christmas season we celebrate the grand night God visited earth as a baby. But to the rest of the universe the event looked like an astounding humiliation. God, the Creator of all, took on the unimpressive body of a human being to endure a confining life and grisly death on planet Earth.
Paul points to this death to show that God can take even the darkest moment in history and turn it into good. The cross, and Jesus’ not staying dead, proves that nothing is powerful enough to stamp out a reason for joy–joy “in the Lord,” as Paul says.
Victory in Jail
Thus even the normally depressing state of imprisonment didn’t bother Paul. As he wrote Philippians, he must have recalled his first visit to Philippi. Then, a most unusual jailbreak occurred: the jail broke, but the prisoners didn’t (Acts 16:22-28).
Even when Paul stayed in jail for long periods, God used the experience to advance the gospel. As he wrote Philippians, conversions were occurring among the Roman palace soldiers, forced by guard duty to overhear Paul’s daily ministry.
Paul summarized his life philosophy in a famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy, concluding that “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). God is even stronger than death, and that makes a Christian’s joy indestructible.
How to Read Philippians
Philippians is simple and straightforward. It’s not a formal treatise, but a warm letter to friends. Read it like you would read any personal letter. From the clues Paul gives, try to imagine the relationship between him and the Philippians. What did he like about them? Why were they so important to him?
The Introduction refers to the common use of the words joy and rejoice. Check out each of these, noticing how Paul can find joy in any circumstances. Use Philippians like a devotional book, first reflecting on what it says, then applying it to your own life
Life is short, then we get to go to Heaven,
Love, your brother in Christ,
Chris Chloupek
Evangelist
