Philippians 4:4–9

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

A 2009 Christianity Today editorial quotes the famed theologian Karl Barth as saying:

It is astonishing how many references there are in the Old and New Testaments to delight, joy, bliss, exultation, merry-making, and rejoicing, and how emphatically these are demanded from the Book of Psalms to the Epistle to the Philippians.

The editorial continues:

Indeed, from “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth!” (Ps. 100:1) to “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4)—and dozens of places before and after and in between—we are urged to lead joy-filled lives.

When believers do a little self-reflection, not many of us point to joylessness as the thing that needs attention. Mostly we flagellate ourselves for our undisciplined discipleship. We issue calls to repent of our consumerism, sign ecumenical concords to heal our divisions, and issue manifestos to care for the poor and the planet. No one has yet issued a joint ecumenical statement on the need for Christians to be more joyful.

Yet it’s right there in the Bible, over and over: “I say it again: Rejoice!”[1]

I think that is a fascinating thought! Think about it: If joy is a command throughout scripture, when is the last time you prayed and repented of your lack of joy? If it is a command, which it is, should we not grieve over the violation of it as much as over the violation of any other command?

Indeed, it is a command, as we find in Philippians 4. In fact, in verses 4–9, Paul lays out a number of elements that should constitute the believer’s disposition.

Joy.

We begin with the joy imperative. This is a command. We are commanded to have joy, to rejoice! Listen:

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

Again, this is a command. There are a few qualities to this joy that are important.

• It is genuine and expressed (i.e., “Rejoice…”).
• It is consistent (i.e., “Rejoice in the Lord always…”).
• It is God-focused, God-centered, and God-compelled (i.e., “Rejoice in the Lord…”).
• It is such an important command that it bears repeating (i.e., “…again I will say, rejoice.”).

This is not an affectation, a fake projection of joy.

This is not silly flippancy, a shallow goofiness.

This is joy: deep, profound, gospel-grounded, Spirit-driven, God-honoring, and sincere.

Gordon Fee writes movingly that:

“Joy,” unmitigated, untrammeled joy, is—or at least should be—the distinctive mark of the believer in Christ Jesus. The wearing of…the long face, which so often came to typify some later expressions of Christian piety, are totally foreign to the Pauline version; Paul the theologian of grace is equally the theologian of joy. Christian joy is not the temporal kind, which comes and goes with one’s circumstances; rather, it is predicated altogether on one’s relationship with the Lord, and is thus an abiding, deeply spiritual quality of life. It finds expression in “rejoicing,” which is not a Christian option, but an imperative. With its concentration “in the Lord,” rejoicing is “always” to mark their individual and corporate life in Philippi.[2]

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Joy is the natural posture of the redeemed. Joy is the disposition of one who has met Jesus as a sinner and found in Him forgiveness and grace and life! Joy is what happens when hopelessness gives way to hope, when death gives way to life. Joy is the mark of the Christian.

Peace.

And with joy, peace: deep, grounded, unshakeable peace.

⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Christian peace—the absence of anxiety—is grounded in a number of theological truths according to our text. It is grounded in:

• The coming of the Lord (i.e., “The Lord is at hand…”).
• The power of prayer (i.e., “…by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving…”).
• God’s relational and caring presence (i.e., “…let your requests be made known to God.”).

The peace God gives us cannot be contrived. It “surpasses all understanding.” The peace God gives “guards” our hearts and minds. Against what? Among other things, against anxiety and despair.

Anxiety is the opposite of peace. Anxiety is debilitating, crippling. Kevin DeYoung defines anxiety as “simply living out the future before it gets here.”[3] Anxiety walks hand-in-hand with worry. And the peace of God casts it out!

In Matthew 6, Jesus says:

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁸ And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

The loving presence of our good God and His care for us establishes our peace. God cares for the birds. God cares for us. God cares for the lilies of the field. God cares for us. God cares for the grass. God cares for us!

Joy. Peace. The disposition of the believer.

God is with us and He is with us definitively in Jesus! Jesus, in John 14, says:

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

The peace of Jesus drives out fear!

Goodness.

Peace and joy are compelled toward goodness, for our good God is the foundation of peace and joy.

⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

The redeemed heart that is at peace, the redeemed heart that is characterized by joy, loves the good, loves the lovely, loves the commendable. How could it be otherwise? A heart at peace with God would not love what is wicked, what is base, what is despicable. That is the behavior of the conflicted soul, the soul detached from the clarity of the gospel, the soul adrift in a sea of ego and lostness. But the redeemed soul, the soul resting in the hands of Jesus, loves the beautiful and the good, for it loves what God loves

Joy. Peace. Goodness. These are the pillars of a Christian disposition. And it is indeed possible to find these pillars in the lives of Jesus’ people.

For instance, think about Ron Hamilton. When Ron was 26-years-old, the doctors found cancer in his left eye and had to remove it. He spent a week in a hospital in Atlanta recovering. As he was being wheeled out of the hospital, a little boy was walking in. The little boy saw the patch that had been placed over Ron’s left eye and exclaimed, “Look, mommy, a pirate!” The mother, Ron said, was mortified and yanked her son into the hospital.

The next Sunday they went to church and a little child ran up to Ron, pointed at the patch and said, “What is that?!” He said, “It is a pirate patch.” The child said, “Are you a pirate?” Ron said he thought about it and answered, “Well, yes, I guess I am. You can call me ‘Patch the Pirate.’” The child disappeared and then 20 more came running up to see Patch the Pirate!

Ron leaned into his suffering and there, to his amazement, he found joy. He would go on to write 41 children’s albums with songs like “Patch the Pirate” and “Sissy the Seagull” (his wife’s name).

The Hamiltons put out the first Patch the Pirate album in 1981, a second in 1982, and released them annually after that. More than two million copies have been sold, and the songs are broadcast on more than 450 radio stations, making Patch the Pirate one of the largest children’s outreach programs on the radio.

He wrote hymns as well, including the one that Christianity Today called Hamilton’s “most beloved hymn.” It was entitled “Rejoice in the Lord.”[4] Listen:

God never moves without purpose or plan
When trying His servant and molding a man
Give thanks to the Lord though your testing seems long
In darkness He giveth a song

O Rejoice in the Lord
He makes no mistake
He knoweth the end of each path that I take
For when I am tried
And purified
I shall come forth as gold

I could not see through the shadows ahead
So I looked at the cross of my Savior instead
I bowed to the will of the Master that day
Then peace came and tears fled away

Now I can see testing comes from above
God strengthens His children and purges in love
My Father knows best, and I trust in His care
Through purging more fruit I will bear

O Rejoice in the Lord
He makes no mistake
He knoweth the end of each path that I take
For when I am tried
And purified
I shall come forth
I shall come forth
I shall come forth as gold

Joy. Peace. Goodness. The disposition of the believer.

Let the church say, “Amen!”

 

[1] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/december/8.53.html

[2] Fee, Gordon D. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT)) (pp. 404-405). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

[3] DeYoung, Kevin. Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will or How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Impressions, Open Doors, Random … Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc. (Highlight Loc. 475 [Kindle])

[4] https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/april/died-ron-hamilton-patch-pirate-majesty-music.html