Philippians 1:25 - Passing on the Obsession

'And having become persuaded of this, I am having known that I will remain and I will remain beside you all unto your progress and joy of the faith.' 

-progress and joy of the faith.  this is the outcome for which paul was willing to delay his return to Jesus.  progress is prokopé, which means to cut before or forward, hence to forge ahead or advance or make headway.  it’s not always a good thing (2timothy 3.13).  Jesus did it as He was growing up (luke 2.52).  it goes hand in hand with the advance of the Gospel which paul just talked about (philippians 1.12) - we can talk about the forward progress of the Good News among the nations and unreached peoples and we can talk as paul does here about it’s forward progress in the hearts and lives of individuals as they grow in their devotion to Christ, as people become increasingly obsessed with knowing Christ and making Him known, as they progress in loving the Lord with all their heart and in their willingness to do anything and go anywhere and say anything for the sake of Jesus.  so paul is fully committed to helping these believers in philippi become more obsessed with Jesus and more absorbed in His cause.

-joy is chara.  it simply means joy or gladness.  this word along with its verb form (chairo, to rejoice) appears more often in this letter than in any other letter of the NT (18 times in just 4 chapters).  fully half these occurrences are paul talking about his own joy, so clearly this state does not depend on our circumstances, since paul as we know was in chains under house arrest.  and as we have seen, this is because joy for paul did not depend on where he was or what he had - it depended on Who he had.  it totally depended on Jesus.  it was grounded in how paul was doing at following and enjoying the Ultimate Source of true joy and in this forward progress of the Good News in the world.

-joy can be contagious.  it can be (and is meant to be) shared (1corinthians 12.26, philippians 2.18).  as a fruit of the Spirit (galatians 5.22) it shows God at work in our life and is naturally produced as we follow Christ and depend on Him.  it is therefore a sign of spiritual maturity as frustrated plans and the brokenness of life increasingly lose their ability to rob me of my joy.

-watch out for joy stealers, things that get our focus off of Jesus, off of God’s breathtaking goodness and greatness and faithfulness.  joy in one sense then becomes a choice - paul chose to rejoice in spite of his circumstances (philippians 1.18), and he repeatedly exhorts all those who follow Christ to do the same (philippians 4.4, romans 12.15, 2corinthians 13.11, 1thessalonians 5.16).  Christ is both the object and the source of joy.  He is the heavenly pearl with Whom we become obsessed, but real joy does come from God (romans 15.32, acts 13.52, john 15.11).  He gives His people the ability to receive it or reject it (cf 1peter 4.13, james 1.2).  in fact, Jesus said quite plainly that no one (and no thing?) would be able to take our joy away.  the only one who can ultimately take away my joy is me.

-it comes down to the question of, is God really good and is He really in control?  does He really know what He is doing, does He have my back, is He really working all things together for good, am i going to be a victim of the first mistake He ever made?  the answer is yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and no.  so in any and every situation, i can choose to focus on the negative and choose the path of worry and discouragement and let them steal away the joy that Jesus offers, or i can choose to focus on the Lord Who is in and above and behind all circumstances and Who is always fully present in power and goodness and faithfulness to work out His wonderful plan for my life and for the ones i love, which then sets me up to be filled with real and enduring joy.  it is so easy to lose sight of this.

-but here is the kicker: for paul it was not just about his own joy - it was about the joy of others.  paul not only knew the secret to joyful living, but he was totally committed to helping others experience that as well.  as he says here, one of his main reasons for living was simply so that others could have joy.  i have a long, long way to go.