Really, Paul? With the world falling apart, with my finances taking a dive, with my family in disarray, with my physical health deteriorating, and now with raccoons making their home in the attic, you’re telling me to rejoice? And to rejoice always? And to rub it in further, you say it yet a second time?
Well, that’s exactly what the apostle Paul is saying in this verse. And remember, he knows that obedience to this exhortation is do-able. After all, Paul is writing this letter, remember, while in a Roman prison. And remember too that Paul’s past experiences with trials and sufferings is intense and of longstanding. He has endured ongoing persecution, beatings, stoning, shipwreck, poverty, homelessness, slander, hunger and thirst, betrayal, fatigue, worry, disappointment, and the ongoing agony from his “thorn in the flesh.”
The apostle is not guilty of naiveté here. He isn’t urging his Philippian brethren to just “put the best face on” the trials and temptations of life. Nor is he pointing to an ethereal ideal that cannot be practically applied. No, Paul is telling them that rejoicing is truly possible -- even in the toughest of circumstances -- when it occurs in the correct context; namely, “in the Lord.”
For rejoicing “in the Lord” does not mean you can begin rejoicing only when the world stops spinning in sin or when your health improves or when the raccoons relocate to your neighbor’s house. You see, Paul’s exhortation is always in force because that little phrase that is connected to it (“in the Lord”) involves several earth-shaking realities. Among the most important? The infinite and all-powerful God Who created the universe is also a personal and compassionate God who offers you an intimate relationship with Himself. Indeed, that all-wise and ever-present Sovereign “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.”
God has graciously adopted into His family any and every person who, by childlike faith, has believed that promise. For, in doing so, the sinner is not only forgiven, the very righteousness of Christ is imparted into him and he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the Christian can walk in the fellowship of the Triune God, experiencing God’s power to overcome even the fiercest of trials. We have a Helper. We have an Intercessor. We have a Defender. We have an Advocate. We have the practical help of God’s Word. We have the stimulation, encouragement, and assistance of the Church. And we have a citizenship in heaven, that forever paradise where we will live in a new and glorified body in the midst of a new and a redeemed creation. And our eternal fellowship will include God Himself, His angels, and the whole family of saints from throughout all of history. Wow.
All of these things (and more) create the context and foundation of that three-word condition, “in the Lord.” All of these things thus provide the motivation, the power, and the triumphant purpose of the command: “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice.”
Oh Lord Jesus, help me to see and fully embrace the divine truths behind the crucial command of Philippians 4:4. Give me faith to keep moving forward in my faith, even in the midst of my present sufferings, rejoicing in the many, glorious effects of my relationship with the almighty God. Help me to keep a divine perspective on my fleeting life as compared to the eternal life to come in which I will dwell with You in the New Jerusalem forevermore. And in so seeing these realities by faith, help me to rejoice always in the Lord. Amen.
