Galatians 5:22b
"...love, joy, peace,..."
These three things that just simply come from within when we're a true believer. We talked about the agape love, and the definition of it which is "seeking that other person's highest good."
Can we imagine living in a family, (we know that would be impossible
for a whole community,) but wouldn't it be great to live in a family
where all the members of that family all the way down to the
grandchildren, and maybe even great-grandchildren would do everything
with the idea that they wanted to bring about their highest good for
their fellow family members? Wouldn't that be something? We wouldn't
find teenagers in the drug culture, because that doesn't bring about the
family's highest good. We wouldn't find teenagers dropping out of
school, we wouldn't find members of the family getting into trouble, or
our young girls getter pregnant in their youth, because of real love.
And when we seek the other persons highest good it does nothing but
enhance the things that are good.
So
love is that Agape Love that comes as a result of the indwelling and
outworking of the Holy Spirit, and it's going to have an effect on our
life style. We're going to be fulfilling of the whole of God's Law by
virtue of our operating in His Love. Now the next one is joy.
We use that word too often times flippantly. But do we know the
difference between joy and happiness? Lot's of people think it's the
same thing, and it's not. Joy is that which comes from within as a
result of the Holy Spirit indwelling us, as a result of what God has
done on our behalf and is doing through us. We have joy unspeakable
because regardless of what may happen to us in this life, we have Life
Eternal and more abundantly. We have the promises of all the things that
God has prepared for us. Now that is what precipitates real joy.
Happiness on the other hand is the result of our circumstances. In
other words if everything is going well, and we're healthy, the bills
are all paid, and we've got a little money in the bank, and we're
driving a decent car, and we have a nice home, all these things
contribute to happiness. But we see they are just circumstantial, they
have nothing to do with that which is in the inner life. So always
remember that. Joy is that which is within whether we
have money in the bank, have trials and tribulations, we can still have
joy. But we won't be happy, we mean that stands to reason. When things
are going wrong it's pretty hard to be happy, but we can still have joy.
Now one of Paul's letters is just packed with this concept of joy and rejoice.
Who knows what it is? Philippians. All right let's go and look at it
for a moment. Turn ahead a few pages to Philippians, and we'll just skim
through the letter right now. Now right off the bat in chapter 1 verse
18 we find one.
Philippians 1:18
"What
then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth,
Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."
Now
remember the things Paul is talking about just ahead of this verse is
that his adversaries were constantly giving him a bad time. This was not
a place of happiness for Paul, but he had joy. So he could rejoice even
though he had all that opposition. Now come on down to verse 25.
Philippians 1:25
"And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;"
Now
listen, were these Philippians believers living in a happy environment?
No, but rather they were under constant pressure, and persecution, and
yet Paul could say that they had joy because of their faith. It was an
inner thing with them. Now moving on into chapter 2.
Philippians 2:2
"Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, (see how all these things fit together?) being of one accord, of one mind." Now skip across the page to verse 16 and we find another one.
Philippians 2:16-18
"Holding
forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I
have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. Yea, and if I be
offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice
with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me."
Isn't
that something, and the man himself was under constant pressure. We
looked at that in 1st and 2nd Corinthians, how he suffered for the sake
of this Gospel. He was under trials and tribulations constantly, and yet
the man was full of joy and was able to rejoice. Now we can see we're
spoiled, and we have to tell the Lord that every once in awhile. We're
so spoiled, and we think we are. We've all got it so good. What if all
of a sudden the tables would turn and there would be a knock on our door
at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, and someone says, "You're under
arrest." "For what?" "For being a Christian." Hey what would happen? We
think we'd all almost panic that our world is coming apart, but listen
this was routine for these people. They and Paul were under constant
persecution, and yet the man could be full of joy. Now we need to remind
ourselves of that. If all of a sudden our little world should start
falling apart could we still be joyful? Now we don't expect anyone to be
happy, but we are to be joyful. Now looking at verse 18 again.
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