The Greek term chara appears throughout the New Testament. It is translated by the word joy and refers to a feeling of inner happiness. Holy Scripture refers here to an emotion, a sense of delight and gladness. The remarkable thing about the biblical teaching is that joy is commanded by God. Our duty is clearly stated: “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). God wants us to face life with a certain emotional response. We may have joy deep within our hearts.
This is precisely how Paul lived. He refers in Philippians 1:12 to “the things which happened to me.” He is talking about his imprisonment when he refers to his “chains” (Phil. 1:13). His apprehension and incarceration were not something that he looked forward to with eager excitement. He did not seek these things. They came upon him from without, from the enemies of the gospel. Imprisonment meant real suffering. He was no longer a free man able to do what he wanted to do without asking permission from others. His movements were restricted by his chains. But all of this did not mean that joy was driven out of his life. He could say, “Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice” (Phil. 1:18).
In one sense, Paul was a free man, for he was able to declare that he was rejoicing even as he experienced suffering. This is not to say, however, that Paul did not experience sorrow. And it is not to affirm that sadness in our lives is a moral blemish. The apostle can bear testimony to his perpetual sorrow as he contemplated the Jews in their unbelief: “I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart” (Rom. 9:2). The point to note is that it is possible to have joy in our hearts even while there is an undercurrent of sorrow. This was even true of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was “a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). At the same time, he could refer to his inward joy when speaking to the apostles: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full” (Jn. 15:11). Jesus knew what it was to have both joy and sorrow in his heart at the same time. You and I can expect the same kind of thing, a mix of antithetical emotions.
How can we experience joy while living in the midst of a fallen world, what Paul refers to as “this present evil age” (Gal. 1:4)? On the one hand, joy in our hearts is a supernatural thing. It is generated by God himself. “The fruit of the Spirit is . . . joy” (Gal. 5:22). Joy is a beautiful manifestation of the moral renewal which the indwelling Holy Spirit produces within the person who is united to Christ by faith. On the other hand, joy flows from the realization that we are loved by God and by our friends, our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Paul shows us that joy is fundamentally based upon the fact that we as believers are united to Christ and loved by him. “Rejoice in the Lord,” he says (Phil. 3:1; 4:4). We need to remember our fundamental position. “We are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones,” and the Lord “nourishes and cherishes” us as his body (Eph. 5:29–30). This is a reality that will never change. The Lord loves us forever. We belong to him for time and eternity. Nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38–39). In seasons of darkness and sadness, let us meditate upon our glorious status. We are “God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved” (Col. 3:12). Jesus’ everlasting love for his own brings his promise: “I am with you always” (Matt. 28:20). He indeed is “a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). This is the teaching that we need in hard times, the truth that gladdens our hearts.
We are loved by the Lord, our elder brother (Heb. 2:11). But we are also loved by our friends, our Christian brethren, the true saints of the Lord, the fellow members of the body of Christ. Paul chained in Rome was able to remember the sweet friendships that he had formed in days gone by in Philippi. His memories brought happiness to his soul: “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil. 1:3–5). The apostle could look upon the past with delight. God had brought many wonderful people into his life, true friends who stood with him through thick and thin.
Sweet friendships are a blessed gift from God which enrich and enhance our experience of life in this fallen and bitter world filled with hate, malice, and slander. We have all known the blessing of godly fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, in the fellowship of the saints. Like Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement, they have been our help in difficult days (Acts 4:36). The Victorian preacher Charles Spurgeon properly noted, “Friendship is one of the sweetest joys of life. Many might have failed beneath the bitterness of their trial had they not found a friend.”
Wilhelmus à Brakel, the renowned pastor and theologian of the Dutch Further Reformation, reflected upon the virtue enjoined by the Sixth Commandment: “There must be friendliness.” Brakel may have been picking up on the perspective that Martin Luther had set forth in his Small Catechism on the meaning of the divine command, “You shall not murder.” Luther maintained that God wanted us to “befriend” our neighbor “in every necessity of life.” Brakel recognized that there are people who are not friendly: “The opposite of this is to be gruff, impolite, arrogant, and to speak in a biting and grumbling manner.” He then cited biblical characters who did not show friendliness: “This is how Cain behaved himself toward Abel, Joseph’s brothers toward Joseph, and Laban toward Jacob.” Brakel noted that the disposition of kindness flows from the inward condition of the heart. “Friendliness,” he said, “is the manifestation of a loving heart, revealing itself in one’s countenance and words.”
Let us remember with gratitude all our beloved Christian friends who have encouraged us in our heavenward pilgrimage. Their love and the boundless love of the Lord have brought to our hearts a fullness of joy as we await “the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). And may we not forget the counsel of Proverbs: “A man who has friends must himself be friendly” (18:24).
Dr. Mark J. Larson
Warrenville, SC