Rejoice Always

#30. July 27, 2015

2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.

 Philippians 4:4

 ⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Chapter 4 is the final chapter of Philippians. and begins with “Therefore” pointing back to ch. 3. Paul is dealing with disunity among his sisters in Christ. He addresses them by name, and urges them to look to his and other followers of Christ’s example. This passage addresses disunity among us as well. Paul instructs us to “have no confidence in the flesh” nor in our own accomplishment (Php. 3: 1-11) but “take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (of us). Christ by the power of the Spirit takes hold of us in order to bring us back to God, to belong to Jesus and, to be like Him (Php. 3:17-21).

 Apart from Christ our “mind is set on earthly things”.  Paul tells us: “but our citizenship is in heaven”. To be like Christ and to exemplify Him we are called to be “of the same mind in Christ.” This sends us back to Chapter 2: 1-8. How are followers of Jesus like Christ and what is the example we are called to present? It means to display Jesus’ humility, His acceptance, His grace, His love, His non-condemnation, and His forgiveness into every area of our lives.

 Christ’s love for us is the reason Paul urges us to rejoice not only in good times but he emphasizes his command: “I will say it again: Rejoice!” I see that emphasis as: to rejoice always, in every situation and in every season of life. Praise be to God.

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