Today we will explore the theme of true Christian joy as revealed in Philippians. Paul demonstrates that authentic joy isn’t dependent on circumstances but flows from our relationship with Christ. Paul wrote to the Philippians with joy despite having experienced persecution and imprisonment in their city. Paul’s joy comes from understanding God’s grace and our position in Christ, not from our performance or circumstances. Joylessness in Christians has often damaged the perception of Christianity; we are called to display Christ’s joy as we partner together in the Gospel.
The book of Philippians is unique in that Paul’s words continually move back to being centered in joy. There is a constant in all of our seasons of life: Jesus reigns over created order and in this life, we will experience hardship. The way to walk in joy through all of our seasons of life is to have it centered in the constancy of knowing Jesus (Phil 2:6-8) who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. We know that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord (Phil 2:11).
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
