Throughout his letters Apostle Paul wrote about many foundational truths and doctrines of the Christian faith such as justification by faith and grace alone, the two natures of Christ, the human condition before and after regeneration, about the present and future things, and the list can go on.
A theme is always present in every letter that he wrote, namely joy/rejoicing.
In his letter to Philippians the words joy or rejoice appear 16 times.
One of the shortest verses in the Bible is penned by Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians “Rejoice always” (1Thess. 5:16).
At first glance it seems that Paul was living a life of abundance, of plenty, of health and wealth.
But the reality of his Christian life is quite the opposite.
Let us remember that the letter to the Philippians was written from prison in Rome. Not a comfortable place to be at that time or any time for that matter. None of us can even begin to understand what he had to endure and suffer.
He wrote in more detail about all he went through in his letter to the Corinthian church (2Corinthians 11:23-27).
In 2Cor 4:17, he astonishes us by calling them “light and momentary”.
This begs the question, “What is the source of such a joy?”
The answer to that question is simply God…His Sovereignty…His abounding love…His faithfulness to all of His promises.
Paul took God at His word to the point of abandoning himself completely to God and His authority, and as a result he wrote, “…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
In a world in which the father of lies is working “overtime” we have the assurance that, “It is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18).
God is at work to finish that what He started in us. Rejoice!
John Stoici