These are not just spiritual brothers and sisters, people you are connected to because of mutual connection with Christ; they are dear friends, people who share a mutual affection for and focus on Christ as our priority.
I am going out on a limb here to say that a basic thing about friends is that they are people you associate with, and your priorities and pursuits are similar, meaning you have areas of alignment.
But that’s not the end. He also called them his joy and crown. That takes it to another level. Not just brothers and sisters, not just friends, but joy and crown.
“Joy” is about the present, and “crown” is about the future, and both directly have to do with them being the fruit of his ministry.
That is another level of connection.
Many people across the world are your brothers and sisters. Fewer of those people are your friends, meaning you know them, you share the same pursuit of Christ, and you mutually reinforce one another.
But those who, according to Paul here, are your joy and crown are still a smaller group.
These are people you probably led to Christ, and years later, they are still standing.
These are people you spoke the word of truth to and impacted with the word.
There are people you help in the natural sense, maybe you taught them, and they passed their exam. But what hits different is the person you taught the truth and is now equipped to teach others the same truth. That generates a different delight.
Jesus said there is more joy in the presence of the angels for one person who repents than for many who do not need repentance (Luke 15:10).
That joy is the joy of the Lord (Nehemiah 8:10).
We read that Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit (Luke 10:21). And when you share the Lord’s burden, and you preach the gospel and someone else is impacted, they become your joy (you share the Lord's joy), and in the future at the second coming, they are your reward for your work done for the name of Christ (crown; 1 Corinthians 9:25, 2 Timothy 4:8).
And crown is a stand in for reward (whatever shape that takes) for accomplishment.
Let’s explore Paul’s use of the word joy in previous verses:
- He said he always prayed with joy for them because they helped him in his ministry (1:4)
- He rejoices when Christ is proclaimed, regardless of the motivation (1:18)
- He wants to continue to be on earth for their progress and joy in the faith (he connects faith in Christ to joy) (1:25)
- He wants them to complete his joy by being of the same mind (2:2)
- He rejoices and is glad if he is poured out (allusion to death) for the sake of the gospel (2:17)
- He also wants them to rejoice with him if he dies for Christ (2:18)
- He wants to send Epaphroditus, who was gravely ill and was now well, to them so that they can rejoice (2:28) (Rejoicing is about you physically expressing joy. Whatever shape that takes.)
- He wants them to welcome Epaphroditus with great joy (2:29)
- He wants them to rejoice in the Lord (again, a physical expression of joy) before he launches a tirade against unbelievers (3:1)
- Now he says these people are his joy (4:1)
We have about 10 places where he mentioned joy and rejoicing, and now tells them to stand in the Lord.
He is really connecting with or feels connected to these people emotionally. Not just logically. And he is saying emotions are not against Christianity, and Christianity is not against emotions.
But the array of things that give him joy makes sense only to the spiritual person, to the person who is born again, to the person with a new heart and spirit, with the priorities sourced from the very presence of God Himself.
Paul is happy when he is praying, he is happy when the word is proclaimed, he is happy to be useful to others to further their spiritual benefits, he is happy when he sees unity of purpose and pursuit and mutual service and submission among believers, he is happy that he may die for the gospel, and wants them to be happy also.
And basically, he wants them to rejoice in the Lord; he wants them to let the Lord, the reality of being in the Lord, the anticipation of his second coming, fill them with joy.
He wants them to stand eagerly awaiting the Lord (3:20).
Paul wrote about the need to eagerly await a savior from heaven about 2,000 years ago. Is it still relevant to us today?
Yes. Because there is a way it controls what you do now. Jesus said something about it.
“Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom the master finds at work when he comes. I tell you the truth, the master will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that evil slave should say to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he begins to beat his fellow slaves and to eat and drink with drunkards, then the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee, and will cut him in two, and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:45-51)
The sense of the imminent return motivates standing. And the opposite of standing is falling. Paul does not want them to fall from their firmness.
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