A very slight glance over the Epistle will show how continually the note
of gladness is struck in it. Whatever in Paul's circumstances was 'at
enmity with joy' could not darken his sunny outlook. This bird could
sing in a darkened cage. If we brought together the expressions of his
joy in this letter, they would yield us some precious lessons as to what
were the sources of his, and what may be the sources of ours. There runs
through all the instances in the Epistle the implication which comes out
most emphatically in his earnest exhortation, 'Rejoice in the Lord
always, and again I say rejoice.' The true source of true joy lies in
our union with Jesus. To be in Him is the condition of every good, and,
just as in the former verses 'trust _in the Lord_' is set forth, so the
joy which comes from trust is traced to the same source. The joy that is
worthy, real, permanent, and the ally of lofty endeavour and noble
thoughts has its root in union with Jesus, is realised in communion with
Him, has Him for its reason or motive, and Him for its safeguard or
measure. As the passages in question in this Epistle show, such joy does
not shut out but hallows other sources of satisfaction. In our weakness
creatural love and kindness but too often draw us away from our joy in
Him. But with Paul the sources which we too often find antagonistic were
harmoniously blended, and flowed side by side in the same channel, so
that he could express them both in the one utterance, 'I rejoiced in the
Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished
again.'
We do not sufficiently realise the Christian duty of Christian joy,
some of us even take mortified countenances and voices in a minor key as
marks of grace, and there is but little in any of us of 'the joy in the
Lord' which a saint of the Old Testament had learned was our 'strength.'
There is plenty of gladness amongst professing Christians, but a good
many of them would resent the question, is your gladness 'in the Lord'?
No doubt any deep experience in the Christian life makes us aware of
much in ourselves that saddens, and may depress, and our joy in Him must
always be shaded by penitent sorrow for ourselves. But that necessary
element of sadness in the Christian life is not the cause why so many
Christian lives have little of the buoyancy and hope and spontaneity
which should mark them. The reason rather lies in the lack of true union
with Christ, and habitual keeping of ourselves 'in the love of God.'