I know in my
life personally, I have become very aware of that reality. In the midst of that, as I have been trying
to remain focused and cling to the promises of God’s Word, I started reading the book of
Philippians. When I got to chapter four,
I was ready to get the usual “encouragement in suffering” that is usually the
take away when you read Philippians four.
But, this time the Spirit prompted a different emphasis in this
passage. There is a thematic thread
within Paul’s writing about joy. Not so
much what it is, but what it takes to hold on to it.
As I was reading verses four through nine specifically, I felt a tension
in the text I had not noticed in my previous studies of this passage. Paul is calling the Church to war. To battle for the
joy that is their’s in Christ. And like
when preparing for military battle, he instructs them in disciplines that are
crucial to victory.
Right off the
bat in verse four, you can sense the urgency that Paul has. “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will
say, Rejoice.” This time when I was
reading it, I just imagined Paul saying these words over a walkie-talkie on the
battlefield like, “Rejoice, I repeat, rejoice!”. He’s trying to grab the attention of his
audience. Whenever you see repetition in
the same sentence anywhere in scripture, you can trust that there is an implied
emphasis on that point. Paul’s point is,
no matter who we are or what circumstance we are in, joy can and should be
constant in our lives because the one who we rejoice in (the Lord) is constant.
Paul then identifies
an opposing force we need to be aware of in verse six: anxiety. Have you ever met someone who was joyful and
anxious simultaneously? The answer is NO.
Joy is derived from a place of trust in God’s character and Word, as our
focus is fixed on Him, our soul is fulfilled. Anxiety is a
direct result of unbelief, discontentment and a self-centered focus, where our
problems or fears consume our focus.
Paul tells us how to overcome it: PRAY. I imagine Paul with a squad of Christians huddled
as he instructs them, “...in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. I instantly think of 1 Peter 5:7, when Peter
encourages his people to “cast their cares on the Lord”. When we are in those moments of fear and
anxiety, we need to go to God with them, recite the things we have to be thankful
for. It’s obvious to see that in our
anxiety, the last thing on our minds naturally is prayer, because we are so
caught up in the problem that we have no room in our attention span for the
real solution: God. But that’s why Paul
is pushing this, because that’s the only way we can fight through it, by
turning our gaze back on the Lord.
Then skipping
down to verse 8; I know this passage so often times has been used in sunday
school and youth group lessons to tell folks to stop watching “bad” shows,
listen to secular music or play violent video games, but we need to remember,
CONTEXT IS KEY! First thing to consider
is that Paul is talking to the Church of Philippi. At that time, the Church of Philippi was in
an era of persecution. So, they
definitely understood that there was a war mentality implied in Paul’s letter
to them. With that in mind, the second
context to consider is what Paul is talking about when he instructs the people
to be mindful of what they give
attention to. He’s talking specifically
about maintaining joy in the midst of suffering. So he’s not scolding them for poor life
decisions he’s encouraging them that in the midst of the darkness of this
battle, they need to focus on whatever
is true, honorable, just, pure etc. Just
like for us when we are in times of hardship.
If we allow ourselves to focus on all that is broken and awful around
us, we will fall into paralyzing depression because our eyes are fixed on the
negative. But if we fix our eyes on that
which is all of those adjectives listed in verse eight, we can extract hope and
joy. However, Paul is not telling us to have
a Sound of Music mentality, where we just think about a few of our favorite
things and then we don’t feel so bad.
He’s implying that the one thing we should be focusing on, that fits
the given description is CHRIST.
Jesus is our
source of joy, he is our motivation, he is our hope and our strength. The Lord
is both the end and the means in this war. We can
only fight by Him, and He alone is worth fighting for. So, brothers, sisters
and even those of you who may not know Christ as your Lord and Savior; the
battle for joy is real and vital. But it
is impossible to win it without Christ. Specifically
for Christians, this is a battle we need to win, because we have no excuse for
defeat. All we need is given to us. All we need to do is apply it and we will
have victory. Especially in our present
age where the world is joyless, and we as the Church all too often fail to show
the world the joy that Christ gives, that all man-kind is desperately searching
for. Joy is attractive, contagious and
one of the greatest ways we can evangelize to the world. Also, isn't it so much better to be filled
with joy instead of bitterness anyway.
It’s a win-win scenario for everyone touched by the overflowing joy of
Jesus. Let’s wage war together and spark
revival where the Lord has stationed us in this world, by shining as joy-filled lights among the joyless darkness that is so unfortunately so common in this world.
No comments:
Post a Comment