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Am I Ready for the Dangerous Joy?


So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:1-4

CS Lewis’ autobiography is called “Surprised by Joy”. Before he was a Christian he was always trying to find joy in other things and before he became a Christian he binged on things that gave him joy. The first time he read an Icelandic saga he loved it. He reads every Icelandic saga, and learns old Norse so he can read it in the original. As he works through it he realizes it isn’t paying out as he’d hoped. Then he gets a friend and binge on the friend but then the friend backs off. At one point he starts to realize that there’s a God behind the joy.

Last few days we were meditating on the verses from 27 following where we saw that it opens with a message in which the Apostle Paul urges us to live life in a manner worthy of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And throughout the center section of this letter, Paul exhorts us to do just that, giving us a series of direction, a series of imperatives, a series of exhortations in which he urges us to live the Christian life.

Paul exhorts us to live lives in light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, because experiencing the joy which God intends for us is inseparably connected to our carrying out these commands and exhortations and imperatives that the Apostle Paul gives us.

We have seen that for Paul, joy and obedience are not competitors. They’re not contradictory. They don't fight against one another. Obedience in the Christian life does not squelch joy; it brings joy to full flowering.

Looking at Philippians 2:1-4 we see that these four verses are all one sentence. There's only one main clause in those first four verses, and the main clause is “complete my joy.” Now that tells us two things: one, it reminds us again that Paul is serious about joy. The Apostle Paul, his message to us is that He's not satisfied with us just surviving. He's not going to be satisfied until you are marching in joy, and he's serious about joy.

The second thing he tells us is this congregation had already given him joy. He doesn't say, ‘Make me joyful.’ He says, “Complete my joy.” The Philippians are an incredible congregation. They are Gentiles who have never heard the Old Testament. They've never heard the stories of God's grace to the children of Israel in the days of Moses and David, and yet they've come to faith in Jesus Christ. They've embraced Jesus as Lord and Messiah, they love and they trust Him. They are dirt poor, and yet they’re giving generously to missions. They are Christ-loving, Bible-believing, gospel-proclaiming Christians, and Paul loves them.

They have given him much joy. Bu, there are some problems. Some of them are prideful. Some of them are self-centered. Some of them are haughty and arrogant in the way that they’re dealing with one another. And the Apostle Paul knows that those things will rob them of joy, will keep them from experiencing the fullness of what God intends for them and will rob him of joy, because their joy is his joy. When they are happy in Christ Jesus, he is most happy in Christ Jesus. When they are experiencing the fullness of God's blessing, he is most joyful in Christ.

This is a dangerous joy that the Apostle Paul is talking about here. It's the kind of dangerous joy when a priest comes to a congregation and he says, “I want you to understand that I'm here on a dangerous mission. My mission is to make you happy. And you understand that, that is going to kill some of you, because I want you to be so happy, so happy in Christ, so happy in the faith that you are ready to lose everything for Christ, that you are ready to lose your life for Christ, and that you will say with the Apostle Paul that ‘I count everything but rubbish for the privilege of knowing Christ, for the surpassing joy of communing with Christ.” That's the kind of dangerous joy that the Apostle Paul is talking about here. It's the kind of dangerous joy that he's ready to fight for. It's the kind of dangerous joy that he's pressing home in this passage.

Dear Friends, the joy that Paul is talking about: gospel joy/dangerous joy, is no common gift. We experience it and reflect it as we should far too infrequently in the Christian life. If we are going to be able to experience it, manifest it, give it to one another, it will require the powerful operations of Holy Spirit.

God Bless you.
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Location: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

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