This morning I
continued my consideration of what Paul meant by calling a church, “my joy.”[1] Joy,
in itself, is very appealing to me. Feeling joy because of other people, and
seeing that our own lives give people joy, is a very mutually satisfying
experience.
However, to
speak of people as “my joy,” almost
seems so out of reach that it is difficult to know whether to let one’s heart
admit its hunger and thirst for such relationships as this,[2] or
to convince one’s self that Paul had this only because he was an apostle, and
it is not attainable by normal folk like us, especially in today’s divided and
self-protective church culture.
When I looked
up joy, rejoice, and rejoicing, in Paul’s letters to the churches, there were
forty-nine references to this experience. Paul wanted to be a source of joy for
the churches, and he let them know when they were a gift of joy to him. Along
with his encouraging word to the Philippian Christians, he wrote to the church
in Thessolonica, “For what is our hope or
joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For
you are our glory and joy.”[3]
Okay, I admit
it, reading about Paul’s affection for the churches awakens longings within me.
I have felt these things in wonderful experiences of fellowship with God’s
children, and I have had these feelings dashed and trampled underfoot when people
changed their minds about me and my place in their lives. I know how easily
that sarky self-protection rises up to warn us about the hurts we experienced “last
time," and how it is safest to keep our feelings from yearning for the
kind of relationships Paul spoke about.[4]
What God used
most to encourage me this morning was this declaration from earlier in Paul’s
letter to the Philippians. He wrote, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer
of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in
the gospel from the first day until now.”[5]
There is no
doubt that Paul thought of these Christians with both thankfulness and joy.
This was a prelude to him later calling them, “my joy.” So, what was the issue? What brought them together like
this?
The answer is,
“because of your partnership in the
gospel from the first day until now.” The reason for Paul’s joy and
thankfulness, leading to him declaring his affection for them as, “my joy,” was that they had a
partnership in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul could remember the day
that they began their partnership in the gospel, and was thankful that this
partnership continued to the time of his writing of this letter.[6]
The gospel is
the good news that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.[7] It
is the good news that “God so loved the
world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not
perish but have eternal life.”[8] It
is the good news that, “if you confess
with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is
justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”[9]
Partnership in
the gospel is what people share when they have come to the true God through
faith in Jesus Christ. This is what caused Paul to speak of these people as, “my brothers, whom I love and long for, my
joy and crown… my beloved.”[10] They
were beloved brothers in Jesus Christ. When Paul was away from them, he longed
for them. He could tell them sincerely, “For
God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”[11]
The reason for
such a relationship as this was, “your
partnership in the gospel.” Everyone who has this partnership in the gospel
is part of the one brotherhood of believers.[12] Paul
saw these people as his family, his brothers in Jesus Christ. They had this relationship
only through the gospel. They were partners in receiving, living, and sharing
this gospel. Everything they had was because of what Jesus Christ did for them
through his death and resurrection,[13]
and the gift of grace through faith that brought them into this so great
salvation.[14]
Over my years
of pastoral ministry, there is one thing that stands out as the greatest
destroyer of this “my joy” experience
of “partnership in the gospel.” It
is, friendship. Let me explain.
The thing that
made the Philippian Christians “my joy”
to Paul was that they shared an ongoing, living relationship that could only be
described as a “partnership in the
gospel.”[15]
They were brothers because of this gospel. They were “one new man” because of this gospel.[16]
They were the one body of Christ through this gospel.[17]
They were the household of God, a holy temple being built together in which God
lives by his Holy Spirit.[18]
No matter how we
describe relationship in the church, it is based on this collection of people
who are united by the Holy Spirit in a partnership that is in and through the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Remove the gospel as the reason for partnership, and
all the other reasons for relationships in the church will begin the painful
road to division.[19]
The reason I
say that friendship destroys churches is because friendship is personal rather
than universal. People are drawn into friendships for personal reasons based on
self-interest. People unite over their shared activities. Cliques form in the
church based on status, ethnicity, length of membership, prominence, gifting. People
become consumed with seeking to be friends of just the right people, and soon
other relationships fall to pieces because other people have become more
important. There is always someone who is left out when the highest
relationships in the church revolve around friendship.
The only way
we can have the “my joy”
relationships Paul speaks of is when we exult in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
and fellowship around what this gospel has done and is doing in our lives. When
our whole reason for coming together is our celebration of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
and exalting Jesus Christ as the only “name
under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,”[20] we
have the foundation for getting to know one another as “my joy.” When churches become all about BFF,[21]
we lose the gracious gift of joy that we could have in one another through
Christ.
As a pastor,
do I want a friendly church? Yes, but not first and foremost. Spirit-filled friendliness
is a without-favoritism-or-partiality[22]
byproduct of the partnership in the gospel. Friendship will be of much smaller
concern when the whole church is relating to one another in the brotherly love
that is the predominant characteristic of partnership in the gospel.
The question
is never, how friendly is your church. The question is always, how loving is
your church in their partnership in the gospel. We are not known as Jesus’
disciples through our friendships, or even our friendliness. We are known as
his disciples when we love one another in the same way as we have experienced
him loving us through the gospel.[23] When
our partnership is in the gospel, we are brothers, we are beloved, we are the
joy and crown of those who brought us to Christ.
The apostle
Paul was not the only one who looked at the churches with joy based on their
partnership in the gospel. Apostle John wrote to one of the churches, “For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers
came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I
have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”[24]
What gave John
his greatest joy? To hear that his children were walking in the truth. They
were walking in the truth that brought them together in Jesus Christ. They were
not just friends agreeing with the truth. They were not in clique-filled
churches that honored friendship above brotherly love. They were living, and
walking, and partnering in the gospel truth.
And that is
what gives an apostle joy. We would do well to follow their example.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Philippians 4:1
[2]
Matthew 5:6
[3]
1 Thessalonians 2:19-20
[4]
I emphasize that this is the sarky (fleshly) mind about such things. As an
expression of the sark/flesh, these ideas always make complete sense to the
sark, but will always be wrong for the church.
[5]
Philippians 1:3-5
[6]
Acts 16:6-40 gives us the account of Paul’s visit to Philippi, and the first
people from that city to become partners with him in the gospel, sharing in the
new life that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
[7]
I Timothy 1:12-17
[8]
John 3:16
[9]
Romans 10:9-10
[10]
Philippians 4:1
[11]
Philippians 1:8
[12]
I Peter 2:17; 5:9
[13]
Paul spoke of Jesus’ glorious work in this letter in Philippians 2:5-11.
[14]
Ephesians 2:1-10 gives a very compact and condensed description of what Jesus Christ
did to bring us into our salvation. Hebrews 2:3 calls this “such a great salvation.”
[15]
I don’t mean by this that there are no synonymous expressions that are used
elsewhere in the New Testament, like “brotherly love”, “brotherhood,” etc. I
only mean that there is no other relationship that unites the church except for
this one that is a partnership in the gospel.
[16]
Ephesians 2:13-16
[17]
Romans 12:5
[18]
Ephesians 2:17-22
[19]
In I Corinthians 1:10-17 Paul deals with divisions in the church based on
favoritism over teachers. It was destroying the unity based on partnership in
the gospel.
[20]
Acts 4:12
[21]
BFF = best friends forever. There are no BFF’s in the partnership in the
gospel. I don’t mean by this that there are no BFF in the church, only that
even these BFF’s keep their friendships in constant submission to the greater
relationships of the brotherhood of believers. Even marriages only rise to
their highest potential when they are lived as part of the greater experience
of partnership in the gospel with the rest of the church.
[23]
John 13:35
[24]
III John 1:3-4
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