Join in the Joy
Through the years, I have frequently preached about joy. It is more than an emotion (although it includes emotion); rather, it is a settled attitude, a stable and sturdy approach to life that focuses us on the things that matter now and forever. Joy is much greater and much more powerful than happiness, which is event or circumstance driven. There is nothing wrong with happiness. It is certainly better than unhappiness. Also, we have different personalities. For example, my wife is happy-go-lucky. Of course, she has every reason to be, being married to me. However, not everyone can be married to me. We need something more substantial than happiness; that something is joy. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Paul’s pastoral heart becomes increasingly evident as we read through the book of Philippians. In 3:1-3, Paul warns his fellow believers of the dangers of legalism, that is, adding rules to God’s free, full, and forever salvation. A group called the Judaizers wrongly taught that circumcision was crucial to eternal salvation, that it must be added to faith in God the Son, Jesus Christ. Paul correctly understood that man’s additions were worse than subtractions from the truths of God; rather, these legalistic regulations were more like multiplying by zero, for they nullified God’s grace. It is also hard to envision any joy emanating from human edicts. Thus, Paul reminds us to “rejoice in the Lord” (verse 1) and to “rejoice in Christ Jesus” (verse 3), for real joy – our joy – has a divine origin. Any attempt at substitution is an assault on the character of God and must fail.