Unreasonable Joy

The book that we will focus on for this series is the Book of Philippines. Paul wrote the book of Philippines, but remember the Holy Spirit is the real author. The Holy Spirit essentially wrote the letter to that generation in Philippi. Paul often travelled around preaching the good news and wherever Paul travelled, there were outbreaks and chaos caused when preaching the word of God. This finally ended in the planting of a church. This is a pattern in Paul’s travels. Once Paul is back home, he then plans for another round of travels to the same cities to ensure that the Christians there are of strong faith and to ensure that they have not strayed from the Godly path.

And when he is not able to travel, he writes letters. The book of Philippines is one such letter. These letters needed to be carried by a person unlike today, when you can contact one person with a click of a button.
 
Finally Paul arrived at Rome, a place he dreamt of preaching at. He rented a house there with a guard accompanying him as he was a prisoner. One day a man came before him by the name of Epaphroditus. He came with news from Philippi and gave Paul a good sum of money. This money was collected from the people of Philippi to be used for Paul’s needs. This is the context to Philippi. It is said that it was only the people of Philippi who helped Paul in this way and supported his physical well being by being true partners in Christ. 

Throughout the letter of Philippians, the word ‘joy’ and ‘rejoice’ is mentioned. Another common theme that you see in Paul’s letters are - strongly worded language, correcting and directing the people. However, we see that in Philippi, this is not the case. It was in fact a letter of joy. Paul wrote a joyful letter while being a captive.

We could all be in fact in our own prisons with ailments and tough situations weighing us down. But there’s hope and joy for those who trust in the Lord. No matter what your situation is, God is able to bring joy to your life.

Galatians 5:23-24 says, ‘23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.’

Romans 14:17 says, ‘For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’

This is the joy that Paul feels, a joy that can only be brought by the Spirit and not material things of the world. If things are falling apart, know that there is joy in the Lord, which will be your greatest strength. Choose to feel the joy even in your rough patches. 

The city of Philippi was constructed by Alexander the Great, and was named after his father, King Philip II. Back then it was a roman colony and its people spoke Latin,  unlike its neighbouring countries where Greek was the prominent language. It is said that a lot of retired military personnel lived in Philippi. Even now, 93% of people living in this area are Christians. This is the result of Paul and his preaching, which he did risking his life and living the life of a captive. 

Your happiness should not depend on your circumstances. The book of Philippines is truly a book of joy. And the beauty of this joy is that, it is not dependent on the situation. Paul is a true example of this, he write this letter to Philippi in a situation where he is surrounded by guards, he has nowhere to go and is always treated as a captive. In fact, we can assume that, he might not even have the freedom to cry out loud and pray. But even in this situation Paul chose joy, a joy that comes from the Lord. Believe that you will experience joy, an unreasonable joy that can only be found in Christ. God will heal you, he will heal your wounds. Believe in that and claim that today!