“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”
Phil. 4:4 (NASB)
There’s not much to say, just rejoice. Rejoicing is the spontaneous result of three things: being pure, caring only for
Christ, and laboring together in harmony.
The first item is purity. Our relationships should be so pure. No one should exercise control over the churches or believers whom they serve. If we are pure, we will see one another as beloved brothers (v. 1) in an organic testimony.
The second source of rejoicing is being of the same mind by caring for nothing but Christ. Focusing on anything else divides the body, regardless how good it is. Even the most heavenly revelation, if it becomes an issue, will divide the church… Who can be richer than Paul? Yet all his epistles lead us to Christ… We each have to say, “I die.” We cannot just care for our Christian work. Christ must have the preeminence in all we do.
The third source of rejoicing is that in the church life there is togetherness. This togetherness crosses out the self. Our self life is the cause of most of the trouble in the church life. Everything we do should be in the principle of the body with togetherness.
Excerpted from Philippians: That I May Gain Christ by Titus Chu, pp. 260 – 261
