‘Always’ Means ‘Always’

E-Letters: 3.7.26

Photo by Jill Wellington via Pexels

This Saturday devotion focuses on a New Testament epistle – a passage, a verse or phrase, perhaps a single word. We pray that it is a blessing to you.

Romans 5:1-8
v2b-3a … We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings …

Dear readers,

Giving New Testament-style advice is simple: What should you do after high school? Rejoice. If you have money to invest? Rejoice. Tennis elbow? Take two aspirin, and rejoice.

I’m kidding, but the epistles are full of calls – to the Corinthians, Philippians, Thessalonians, and from Peter – to rejoice. That recommendation isn’t contingent upon any specific circumstances. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4)

In those verses from Romans 5 that I quoted above, the Apostle Paul is even more explicit about the parameters. For everything from thinking about the glory of God, to suffering, rejoice!

This recommendation falls awkwardly with me. I have smiled, cheered, clapped, celebrated a bit, but rejoiced? For one thing, the word is not in common usage anymore so I’m not sure I’d recognize rejoicing when I saw it. For another, in our irony-steeped and self-conscious society, full-throated rejoicing would be just so passe, so gauche. Then you factor in my Midwestern reticence …

Can’t I just be a peace-that-surpasses-understanding guy and sit here quietly? Must I rejoice?

I must, yes, but I don’t think it has to be in a persistent Up with People way. It’s more a matter of having proper perspective, smiling even in the face of adversity. OK, it’s March, time for basketball metaphors: If you get fouled but don’t get the call near the end of a 25-point win, you don’t have to feel happy about the play, but don’t lose your temper and get a technical. You’re winning by 25! Smile!

Paul and Peter didn’t come up with this advice themselves. They picked it up from Jesus, who included it when discussing persecution in the Sermon on the Mount: “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

You don’t have to enjoy those intentional fouls from Satan, that sore loser, but know that they come because, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we’re winning by 25: “... for your reward is great in heaven.”

That’s always true. And for that, rejoice.

Happily,
Paul

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.