Philippians 4:1-9
My dear, dear friends! I love you so much. I do want the very best for you. You make me feel such joy, fill me with such pride. Don’t waver. Stay on track, steady in God.
I urge Euodia and Syntyche to iron out their differences and make up. God doesn’t want his children holding grudges.
And, oh, yes, Syzygus, since you’re right there to help them work things out, do your best with them. These women worked for the Message hand in hand with Clement and me, and with the other veterans—worked as hard as any of us. Remember, their names are also in the Book of Life.
Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
My dear, dear friends! I love you so much. I want the very best for you. You make me feel such joy.“ These are the opening words to Chapter 4 of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, in Greece. The entire letter and particularly this chapter positively shouts with Paul’s joy in this church and with his own commitment to follow Christ. This joy is all the more extraordinary because Paul was in a Roman prison at the time he wrote this. He writes that he “is hopeful” that he will be free and able to visit them soon but, it appears, he is beginning to recognize that he may well not be freed and may, instead, be executed ... and still he is filled with joy.
What is it that gives us joy? Is there anything in your life right now that fills you with joy? It might be difficult right now—with a pandemic, often nasty political battles, and old, unresolved issues of racial disparity all hitting at us at once—to feel like joy is a “thing” for us. We’re isolated, bored, and lonely. We’re frightened of this relentless threat to our health. We’re grieving the loss of so many lives, so many jobs, so many opportunities ... and Paul wants us to be joyful?
Well, yes, that is exactly what Paul wants, but he wants us to know the real joy, not just a surface satisfaction thing we think of as happiness. He wants for each of us to know Jesus Christ as he knows him, as the source of all true joy. This is Paul’s passion in life. He wants us to know the love and joy of Jesus that is with us daily and always. Eugene Petersen, who was the translator and paraphraser who put together The Message version of the Bible [the version I used for today’s reading] puts it this way: "Christ is, among much else, the revelation that God cannot be contained or hoarded. It is this 'spilling out' quality of Christ's life that accounts for the happiness of Christians, for joy is life in excess, the overflow of what cannot be contained within any one person."
“Joy is life in excess”—not the life that can be bought with success in business or world-travel or a well-toned body, but the “excessive” life of the Creator God and of Jesus whose only wish was for us to know and live in this overflowing vitality and love and joy.
It may be difficult in today’s world of 24-hour news—almost always bad news—but Paul urges us to fill our minds with what is true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best of things, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Look for these things, we’re told, fill your mind and your thoughts with these things. And in the closing words to Paul’s letter: Receive and experience the amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, deep, deep within yourselves.
What is it that gives us joy? Is there anything in your life right now that fills you with joy? It might be difficult right now—with a pandemic, often nasty political battles, and old, unresolved issues of racial disparity all hitting at us at once—to feel like joy is a “thing” for us. We’re isolated, bored, and lonely. We’re frightened of this relentless threat to our health. We’re grieving the loss of so many lives, so many jobs, so many opportunities ... and Paul wants us to be joyful?
Well, yes, that is exactly what Paul wants, but he wants us to know the real joy, not just a surface satisfaction thing we think of as happiness. He wants for each of us to know Jesus Christ as he knows him, as the source of all true joy. This is Paul’s passion in life. He wants us to know the love and joy of Jesus that is with us daily and always. Eugene Petersen, who was the translator and paraphraser who put together The Message version of the Bible [the version I used for today’s reading] puts it this way: "Christ is, among much else, the revelation that God cannot be contained or hoarded. It is this 'spilling out' quality of Christ's life that accounts for the happiness of Christians, for joy is life in excess, the overflow of what cannot be contained within any one person."
“Joy is life in excess”—not the life that can be bought with success in business or world-travel or a well-toned body, but the “excessive” life of the Creator God and of Jesus whose only wish was for us to know and live in this overflowing vitality and love and joy.
It may be difficult in today’s world of 24-hour news—almost always bad news—but Paul urges us to fill our minds with what is true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best of things, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Look for these things, we’re told, fill your mind and your thoughts with these things. And in the closing words to Paul’s letter: Receive and experience the amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, deep, deep within yourselves.
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