-Indeed, what tremendous joy this, the prospect of soon seeing face-to-face the Heavenly Pearl Who in order to gain I have sold everything. Because I am always in Christ, because He is always with me and He is always better, because the Lord is always breathtakingly good and preeminently in control, always working all things together for good, because I am part of that triumphant heavenly procession led by the King of kings and Lord of Lords, there is never a time or a season when I have any reason not to be rejoicing.
-But one must understand the full force of what Paul is saying in this verse, and HOW he is saying it. He could have just given his readers a simple present imperative, be constantly rejoicing in the Lord. The meaning would have been exactly the same as what he says here. What he does, however, is repeat the command a second time, AND add the adverb 'always'. One might say this is double redundancy, but what it really is, is triple emphasis. Constantly. Continuously. Always. Moment by moment. There is not one second of one single minute that we are given a whiff of excuse to not be rejoicing in the Lord. 25 hours a day, 8 days a week, 13 months out the year. When you're chained up in prison. When you throw your back out. When a relationship is hard, when work is hard, when circumstances are hard (which can be much of the time), when tragedy strikes, when life throws you a curve ball you never saw coming - there is never any justification to even momentarily not be rejoicing in the Lord, and if it ever feels like you might have found some fine print that gives you an exception, read again. No matter what happened to you yesterday, no matter what happens today, Jesus is still alive. God Almighty is still breathtakingly good and sitting on His throne. He is unmoved, and yet totally on the move on your behalf.
-This is possible because joy does not depend on my immediate temporal circumstances, whether they resolve or persist, no matter how hard the hardship. We’re not talking about happiness. Happiness is a good feeling that rises and falls in response to events and occurrences. as such, happiness is a relatively short-term emotional state based on personal gratification—how these events make me feel. Some events drive away happiness, making it a unreliable emotion, however pleasant or desireable. Whatever makes me feel good brings happiness. What makes me feel bad produces sadness. But Paul does not command us to be happy in the Lord always. I cannot make myself be happy, it is not a choice. But joy is. I can choose joy, regardless and in spite of my circumstances. Which is why it is commanded, exactly because it is a choice. In fact, joy is commanded dozens of times throughout the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms, as well as in the New Testament. Joy is stronger, more enduring and more stable than happiness. It can coexist with happiness but does not arise out of nor depend on it. Joy is based on truth (cf John 15.11, 1Corinthians 13.6), and particularly on the unchanging unrelenting truth that God is good (cf ex 18.9). Truth and God’s goodness persist even when my circumstances are not otherwise pleasant. Indeed, truth never changes - it is constant. Which is why joy can be constant. Which is also why we're not talking about some rose-colored, pie-in-the-sky, stick-your-head-in-the-sand and paste-a-fake-smile-on-my-face kind of denial about the hardships of life. The fact of God’s goodness is something that at times actually requires a deliberate volitional choice, choosing to focus on the truth that God is always good and is always working things together for good, even when my circumstances and my world manifest the brokenness which has resulted from sin. Because joy is based on unchanging truth and does not depend on our circumstances, it also allows us to direct our focus outward, towards others. I choose joy by remembering what is true, what is true about God, about my relationship with Him (assuming I even have one), and about His good work in the world. When I am focused on truth, living and walking according to the truth, I experience joy (joy is also a trait, a fruit that is produced by God’s Spirit in the lives of those He indwells - Acts 13.52, Romans 15.13, Galatians 5.22). Also, to the extent that I am able experience reliable truth and faithfulness in human relationships, those can also be a source of joy. Children who know that their parents (and/or another adult) care about them, adults who know that their spouse or a best friend loves them and is committed to them - these are ones who have the kind of truth that can give rise to joy. This is why we see that the truly joyful child is the one who knows their boundaries, since embracing truth is what allows for the establishing of boundaries, and the parent who gives them healthy boundaries shows them that they are cared for. Conversely, we see that the adult who rejects truth and maintains that truth is relative is less able to find true joy. But it is the unchanging truth of God, that He is good and loving and faithful and in control, that He is FOR the one who is in Christ, that He is just - these are the truths that make true joy possible. And when events or circumstances might otherwise conspire to steal away my happiness, that is when I can choose to remember what is true and choose to find joy in the midst of whatever hardship comes my way. Always. Constantly. Moment-by-moment.
-These are (or certainly are meant to be) the top two telltale attributes of those who follow Christ (Galatians 5.22, cf John 13.34-35, John 15.10-12, John 16.22, John 17.13) - abiding joy and love for one another, regardless and in spite of circumstances.
-Note that the command here is not just rejoice because of the Lord, but actually rejoice IN Him. The key word is ‘IN’. It’s also not simply rejoice because you are in the Lord, which would certainly be sufficient to put you on shouting ground. And we are not just talking about some vague sense of upbeat pleasantness in approaching life because we have been ‘saved’. Think about it this way - if we were told to rejoice IN the Dallas Cowboys always, then them 'Boys are not just a cause for general joy (which of course is where the illustration breaks down, not only because everything this side of heaven will let you down eventually but in recent years the Dallas Cowboys have been rather disappointing but I digress) but in fact THEY are the ultimate object of our enjoyment. We would be finding constant joy and real pleasure in those Cowboys. Think about it: WHAT IF THE COMMAND WAS TO REJOICE IN THE COWBOYS ALWAYS? Well, of course to do so would leave one woefully unsatisfied. And consider this - doing this with anything OTHER THAN the Lord is the essence of idolatry. Because what we are talking about... is worship. It is the great command, to love the Lord with all our HEART and SOUL and not just with our mind. To want Him, to enjoy Him - to find our joy in Him more than anything or anyone. He is the greatest and ultimate source of unchanging goodness and truth. He is (or must become) my constant source of greatest joy.
-So, HOW AM I DOING AT REJOICING IN THE LORD?
No comments:
Post a Comment