Lesson 1: Joy is always shared
Philippians 1:1-30 – www.bible.com/bible/59/php.1
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,
5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
Have you ever felt great happiness or joy over something you have accomplished or received or created, and then had no one with whom you could share your delight? If you have ever experienced this, you will know your joy or happiness was less than it could have been had you been able to share it.
In this study of Philippians, we will talk a lot about joy as God wants us to experience it in our life here on earth. Let us begin by defining the difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is determined by circumstances around us. For example, it is not easy for any of us to be happy when we are physically ill, or when someone we love has gone, or we have lost a job, and so on. Those are circumstances in our life which make us feel sad or lonely or angry or even despondent.
Joy, however, is dependent on a reality greater than our circumstances – it is based on hope and faith in something future and certain. For example, if we go to the hospital to have surgery for a broken bone, we know the surgery will hurt and cause us to be sad or maybe even upset. But the hope that the surgery will produce a cure for the broken bone which will lead to no more pain and include the ability to use this limb again can give us joy through the pain and make us willing to undergo such pain.
Such joy must be shared to be experienced to its fullest extent because the other person can keep reminding us of the end result while our pain is at its greatest. This is exactly what we read here – Paul and Timothy wrote their joy to the people of this church in Philippi because they wanted their friends there to understand the ultimate reason for their joy – because they shared a partnership in God’s work with each other.
As we study this book, we will find many results and benefits to us for seeking this kind of joy for our own life.
*Think of a recent example of happiness and then an example of joy in your own life. Were you able to share you joy with someone else, and how did sharing it multiply your joy?