Joy, Gentleness, Thanksgiving
JOY, GENTLENESS, THANKSGIVING
PHILIPPIANS 4:4-7
Worry pulls us about in different directions. Prayer sets us thinking in one direction.
Paul was growing old. The sufferings he had endured had certainly taken their toll (see 2 Corinthians 4:8ff.; 6:4f.; 11:23ff.). Yet, for all that, he had not lost his sense of the vibrancy of life. As he dictates this letter the words “joy” and “rejoice” come to his lips repeatedly (see 1:4,18; 2:17f.; 3:1; 4:4,10). They express a bold, defiant “nevertheless” to all of the disappointments and hardships of the Christian life. The command, “Rejoice in the Lord always” (4:4) sounds a keynote to the entire letter. Christians can rejoice at all times and under all circumstances precisely because the source of their joy is “the Lord.”
“Gentleness” or “reasonableness” (4:5) was a quality well regarded by many in the imperial period, as shown by the inscriptions. It speaks of a gentleness which arises out of strength rather than weakness, a fairmindedness which refuses to harbor resentment but extends love and understanding toward another. In the Greek Psalter used at Philippi the term was used to express God’s readiness to forgive (Psalm 86:5). We can have this kind of gentleness, Paul states, because “the Lord is at hand.” The words constituted a greeting which Christians exchanged with one another. Here they are a sober reminder that this was no time to quarrel because someone had failed to recognize one’s worth. Euodia and Syntyche needed to understand this!
The final two verses resume the theme of 1:12-26 and 2:17-31. The anxiety to which Paul refers (4:6) is specifically the concern for Paul in the face of trouble and uncertainty which the Philippians had expressed through Epaphroditus. The appropriate response to anxiety is a quiet reliance on God expressed through prayer with thanksgiving. The ground of thanksgiving is the certain knowledge that God is aware of our needs even before we express them (see also 4:19). He knows that the song of praise will push anxiety from the heart. The anxious heart is the unguarded heart, but the divine response to thanksgiving is the peace which God possesses, which anchors the heart securely in Jesus Christ.
Thought Gentleness is strength held back.