The title alone obviously needs some explanation. People today are consumed with the passionate pursuit of happiness. Self-help books, motivational speakers, advice columnists, and many more offer the ‘keys’ to happiness. Yet in the pursuit of happiness no one ever finds the cure. Unable to control their circumstances, people find themselves controlled by those same circumstances. People, positions, health all have us by the neck. We become bitter at people, church, situations, money, our jobs, even our mate, all because we cannot capture the golden key to unlock our happiness.
Having fruitlessly pursued happiness through pleasures and self-gratifications, not to mention burning of bridges and ruining of relationships, people end up jaded and begin to think there is no hope. That there is a futility to this life, to the point that some even take their own life. Solomon said— “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 1.2). Everything is empty; better stated: it’s all pointless! Why even try on that relationship, or that job, or that goal…it’s pointless.
Happiness is related to happenings; to happenstances. If things just happened that are good, I would be happy. But when bad things happen, I am unhappy. Happiness then is circumstantial.We as believers, seem to be in the same boat, and if so, then as the lost. Good news though, unlike the world: God has not left us there.
The Christian life should be one of experienced joy. What is joy? Obviously it is different from happiness, yet we use the terms interchangeably. What is Biblical joy? Someone has defined joy as: “the settled conviction that God sovereignly controls the events of life for believers’ good and His glory.”Do you have that settled conviction? It is given to all who trust in Christ. It is available to all those who obey Him from a heart of love and trust in Him. This is how we settle once and for all who Jesus is and therefore He does indeed ‘have this too’. This is the theme of one of my favorite books of the New Testament— Philippians. It will also give help to you if you follow the principles in it.
The greek word for joy in both the noun form: ‘joy’, and the verb form: ‘rejoicing’, appears more than a dozen times in the four short chapters of Philippians. Take time, look them up: 1.4,18,25; 2.2,17,18,28,29; 3.1; 4.1,4,10. The key verse is found in 1.25— “And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith.”
The Apostle Paul wrote this approximately 10-12 years after being in Philippi physically, on his 2nd missionary journey on his way to Thessalonica. It is a letter formally didactic in order for instruction. He wrote this to the Philippians. “Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons” (1.1). It was to a local, visible, church with their own bishops and deacons. This is a letter inspired of the Holy Spirit. He is the author of not only the letter, but also the author of all Joy. This is not a book of self-help, but of help beyond ourselves. It is a book to real people with very real problems.
When he wrote this, Paul’s circumstances are not those that would be expected to produce joy. Where is Paul when he wrote this letter? Verses 1.7,13,14,16 all tell us he was a prisoner of Rome at the time. For that reason, this is classified as a prison epistle; along with Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. Would you be joyful if you were being held unjustly in prison? Yet from prison Paul writes about joy! Since his conversion on the Damascus road three decades earlier, little of his tumultuous life would have been expected to produce any joy. In fact it would make most modern believers quit in a jaded view of God and His people. Here is a small list of the events surrounding Paul’s life to the dating of writing Philippians:
- The Jewish population of Damascus sought to kill Him (Acts 9.20-25)
- He was forced to flee Iconium (Acts 14.5-6)
- He was pelted with stones and left for dead at Lystra (Acts 14.19-20)
- He was beaten and thrown into jail at Philippi (Acts 16.16-40)
- He was forced to flee from Thessalonica because his ministry started a riot (Acts 17.5-9)
- He was forced to flee from Berea (Acts 17.13-14)
- He was mocked and ridiculed by the Greek philosophers at Athens (Acts 17.16-34)
- He was hauled before the Roman proconsul at Corinth (Acts 18.12-17)
- He faced both Jewish and Gentile opposition at Ephesus (Acts 19.21-41)
- He was forced to change his travel plans because of a Jewish plot against his life (Acts 20.3)
- Upon arriving in Jerusalem, he was recognized by Jews from Asia Minor who savagely beat him. Only the arrival and arrest by Romans soldiers saved him from certain death (Acts 21.27-36)
- While in custody in Jerusalem, yet another plot against his life prompted the Romans commander to send him under heavy guard to Caesarea (Acts 23.12-35)
- His court case dragged on for two years and two Romans governors until he exercised his right as a Romans citizen and appealed to Caesar himself (Acts 25.10-11)
- He saved for Rome as a prisoner and was shipwrecked (Acts 27)
- He finally arrived in Rome where he was held under house arrest for two years awaiting trial (Acts 28.30)
It was during this time he wrote Philippians. Does that sound like the kind of circumstances that lead to joy? Yet joy is the theme of this letter. Paul’s life is a model of the theme of this letter. Stop here and ask yourself: How would I have responded? and… At what point would I have called it quits? I would rather hear from a person who has struggled and came out victorious, rather than someone who just simply sympathizes but delivers no real help.
Philippi was a Roman province of Macedonia just as Thessalonica was. It was the first place in Macedonia Paul visited after leaving Turkey (Acts 16.6-9, 12-15, 16). Lydia and her family were the first convert of this work and it also seems that the meeting place could have been in their home. A jailor and his family were also some of the first converts added to this assembly. Paul’s difficulties and problems in Philippi were necessary for him to endure; to solidify the assembly constituted there. The circumstances of the recipients (Philippians) are not those that would be expected to produce joy either. The Philippians church had it’s share of problems. They were desperately poor people (Paul was surprised by their support of his ministry) (2 Corinthians 8.1-2) speaks of the “deep poverty” of the “churches of Macedonia”. They were persecuted for the cause of Christ (1.27-30). They were assaulted by false teachers (3.2,18-19). A feud between two prominent women threatened to shatter the unity of the church (4.2-3). Yet despite the circumstances of both the writer and the recipients, joy permeates this book so much that it may be called the epistle of joy!
If Paul and the Philippians can be joyful, in the kinds of circumstances they were in, then you and I can and should be joyful. The circumstances mean nothing! What matters is our steadfast trust in Christ, His provisions, His truth, and yes… His joy!