As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
9For
to what are we able to recompense gratitude to God concerning you upon all the
joy with which we are rejoicing because of you before our God?
Hmmmm. Joy.
Joy is something I find a very interesting subject.
I would suggest that we, as the modern evangelical American
church, actually know very little about this thing the Bible calls joy. I
rather suspect we confuse it with happiness. I have lamented for years that I
found in my own heart very little of this thing the Bible calls joy – as I pondered
over the fruit of the Spirit in Gal 5:22-24, I felt I could say I had grown in
each of the fruits – except joy. I remember knowing a man years ago who was
described as “joyless and grim.” I feared in reality that was me. I could
certainly find joy in my heart as I thought about the Lord, about salvation,
grace, Heaven, my wife, my children, and so on, but as I turned to survey my
own life, it just seemed like the overwhelming sense was pain.
So at one point, I actually prayed that the Lord would teach
me something, change me somehow, and actually let me know something of this
thing He calls joy.
I’m very happy (no pun intended) to say that He has answered
that prayer. I actually have begun to have a sense of this thing He calls joy.
It is perhaps only a flicker, but it is there nonetheless, a window of His light
in the darkness of this world.
As I ponder the verse before me, I actually think I see the
commonality with what I’ve discovered in my own life. I’ll see if I can
articulate it. Paul is here “rejoicing in all the joy” he has because of the
Thessalonians. He wants to give thanks to God, and the joy he’s having is “in
the presence of God.” First of all, why are the Thessalonians giving him such
joy? It is because their lives, their faith, their love are to a large extent
exactly what they should be. The pattern is right. And I would suggest it isn’t
simply that they’re doing what Paul thinks they should, therefore they make him
“happy.” It is much larger than that.
God has a pattern. He created us. He created our world. In a
sense, righteousness is just us conforming our lives to that pattern. And
conformance to that pattern makes the world seem “right” to us. We like to
think we’re “free” and can make it all be what we want it to be. But there will
only be “joy” when it all fits God’s
pattern. That is because nothing else can
work. This is God’s world, not ours. Our world will only make sense, it will
only fit together in a soul-pleasing way when it follows God’s pattern.
And other people can be a source of great joy to us, when
their lives are fitting God’s pattern. It might make us “happy” if they “do
what we want,” but they will actually give us “joy” when it is all right, when they’re doing “right.” As
Paul hears Timothy’s report, he experiences great joy because he hears the
Thessalonians are doing right.
And it is of monumental significance that Paul sees the thanks
going to God and that his joy is “in the presence of God.” The whole business
of “right” only makes sense with God in the middle. Leave Him out and the whole world is a tossing
sea of conflicting opinions and meaningless events. Include Him and only then
can it all “make sense.” And this is where I see this verse connecting with
what I myself have been learning. I see now that I have always thought of all
of this as “my life,” that I was living “my life” and I needed God to step in
and help me with it all. “My life” was such a precarious thing. It seemed a
considerable struggle to try to make it all fit together, to make it all work
out, and by and large, it simply didn’t. As I said above, it has always seemed
to me to just be too much of a world of pain.
But what I’ve been learning is that it isn’t “my life.” It
is His life. It’s not a matter that I
need Him to step in and help me with my
world. It’s a matter of me being a part of what He’s doing in His world.
And the truly wonderful – even joyous – thing about His world is that, in it, everything fits together. In His world,
even the pain is for a grand, eternal purpose. Even the “wrong” of this world
is only allowed because He, in His unfathomable wisdom, sees some good purpose
in it.
For example, the crucifixion of Jesus was the greatest wrong
we humans ever committed. It was tragic that such a great and good man was
ruthlessly murdered, that the Jewish people killed their own long-awaited
Messiah. But that is how we see it in “our” world. In God’s world, He Himself
was providing the eternal salvation of the entire human race. From Peter or
John or Mary’s perspective, it was a horrible, dark day in “their” lives. But
in God’s world it was the greatest day in human history. They couldn’t have
been happy about what was happening, but, if only they could have seen it all
through God’s eyes they could have, like Jesus Himself, “for the joy that was
set before Him” endured the Cross, endured that day, and actually seen the joy
of how it all fit perfectly in God’s
world.
The Thessalonians brought great joy to Paul because their
lives were right. And it was a joy to Him specifically because Paul could see
it all as a part of the wonderful world God Himself has created and over which
He reigns.
Like the Thessalonians, you and I can be a “joy” to others
when we’re sincerely trying to let Jesus live through us, when we’re ordering
our lives according to the pattern He desires – His pattern of faith and love.
And we ourselves will find joy only as we deliberately choose to see all of
this as part of His world, as we try
to live minute by minute seeking to be part of what He is doing, not just
living “our” lives and hoping He helps us with it all.
In Him it all makes sense.
In Him we can actually know joy.
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