“…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing…” – Philippians 2:12-14
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” -Philippians 3:8
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:4-7
People like stories that have an element of joy in them. There needs to be some hope for people to want to listen. Many are under the impression that the Bible’s story…the One story is a “bad” story of the condemnation of the human race. A story that highlights our faults and leaves us at the mercy of a tyrannical God. We have already seen through our journey that there is nothing further from the truth. The story of the Bible is a joyful story! It has twists and turns…ups and downs…struggles and victories…but it is a JOYFUL story.
Therefore, your story should be one filled with Joy. The small letter to the Philippian church is known as one of Paul’s most uplifting in the New Testament. He expresses his appreciation for their part in his story and encourages them to rejoice with him.
Each of these smaller letters in the New Testament remind us of different aspects of our own story. Many of them were written by the Apostle Paul addressing issues that the communities were facing at the time. We find ourselves wrestling with the same problems in our individual stories. For example, Paul reminded the church in Corinth that their stories were all connected and woven together in God’s greater story (1 Corinthians). In a second letter he encouraged their stories to be generous ones (2 Corinthians). And yesterday we saw Paul reminding the Galatians that their story was being set free!
Today, he tells the church at Philippi that their story is a joyous one and that joy should give them a unique perspective on their life and, therefore, enable them to bring that perspective into the world around them. God’s people should be a positive people!
But, how can we do that in a world that seems to be more and more negative every day? The levels of hate and distrust are at an all time high in our country and anger abounds at every corner. The people in the city of Philippi lived in a world that was also filled with violence and corruption. They were constantly tempted to focus on their bad circumstances and commiserate with folks around them about the hopeless condition of the world. Like today, people love to complain about what’s wrong with things but they are a little thin on offering hope.
Paul uses this letter to encourage the church…the people of God…to be a people who bring hope into a desperate situation. We can do this because we know the bigger story. This story…our story…addresses the basic issue that we all are dealing with…the destructive power of sin in our lives. We cannot deny the results of our rebellion against God and following our own ways. We see that every day.
To be clear, Paul is not calling Christians to be people who stick their head in the sand or simply deny the existence of problems. To the contrary, he calls us to bring the message of hope into the situations around us. And, he challenges us to live lives of joy that back up the faith that we proclaim. We are not to fall into the river of negativity around us and get swept away in the current of “grumbling and complaining”. Instead, we are to be a people of joy who confidently stand in stormy times and point to a loving Father who calls us to return to Him where we can find peace…hope…and joy!
Your story should be a joyful story!