What has been stealing your joy? Joy, is a precious commodity that sometimes seems like a rare treasure.

I’m sure that many of you can relate to days where you wake up in the morning with an overwhelming sense of deep sadness. There are many nights where we lay our heads down on our pillows and we wonder if we will awake in the morning with any shred of joy in our hearts.

The issues of our day are plentiful. There are more than enough reasons to entertain thoughts and feelings of sadness, anger, bitterness, despair and fear to the detriment of our joy. To be sure, the difficulties and stress of this life can often be so overwhelming that it feels like our souls are under attack from an unlimited amount of joy-killers.

And God in his kindness and his patience knew that we would need to be reminded to rejoice and to keep an eye out for the joy-killers around us and to remember who and whose we are. If you are, in fact, a believer, a child of God, a Christian, then God wants to care for you through the preaching of his Word today.

God knows that there are ample reasons for you and for me to live a joyless life. He knows that our enemies will stop at nothing to steal our joy. And if you belong to him then he will give you joy; he will help you to live in a manner that is worthy of the gospel as a citizen of heaven (Phil. 1:27). This is why Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, begins with an instruction to rejoice. Look at what he says…

PHILIPPIANS 3:1 – 3…

1 Finally my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. 2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh…

1: REJOICE IN THE LORD (VS. 1)

In verse one, Paul says “Finally my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.” In other words, Paul is saying that he has no problem reminding us to rejoice, because it keeps us safe. Joy is the safety net we fall into when life gets hard or when our enemies attempt to lure us away from the safety of the presence of God.

When Paul instructs us to rejoice, he superglues his instruction, to rejoice, to the sure and steady anchor of the Lord himself, because the Lord is both “the occasion and the source of our joy”, there cannot be lasting or sustaining joy in our circumstances (Hughes 2013: 124). Circumstances will always leave you bankrupt and in need of real joy. Circumstances are like robbers who steal the joy from our souls and replace it with poison.

Paul has already exhorted the Philippians to be joyful or to rejoice in 2:28 – 29 and he will do so again in 4:4. The reason for the repetition here is because Paul loves his brothers and sisters in Christ; he loves to protect them with God’s Word. And the way he uses his words is a throwback to Nehemiah 8:10 and Psalm 81:1 and 1 Chronicles 16:27 where true joy is expressly attached to salvation instead of momentary circumstances. The joy of the Lord, rooted in Christ’s salvation, is like “divine armor for daily battle” (Hughes 2013: ). So, rejoice in the Lord my friends.

2: KEEP WATCH (VS. 2)

In verse two, Paul says “Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.” In other words, we are to keep watch, stay alert, keep a sharp eye out for anything or anyone who tries to tempt us to find our joy in anything or anyone other than God himself. And the enemies that Paul has in mind here are the so-called Christians who attach rules and conditions to salvation.

Namely, Paul has a specific group of people in mind that were known as the circumcision party; a party that Paul had fought against for years, who argued that you could not be a Christian unless you are circumcised (Acts 15; Gal. 1:8 – 9; 3:1 – 14). While most of the book of Galatians acts as a really awesome “verbal flame thrower” that absolutely scorches anyone who lives in legalism, Philippians 3:2 also acts as a major tongue lashing for legalistic joy-killers (Hughes 2013: ).

When Paul instructs the Philippians to keep watch for joy-killers, he literally impales these legalists with their own language; he effectively takes the loaded gun out of their hands and turns it back around on them (Hughes 2013: ). The joy-killing, legalistic party of the circumcision actually believed that to be a Christian you must be circumcised and that if you were circumcised then you were clean and pure, you were keeping the law of Moses and therefore you were now part of the family.

But Paul turns the gun around on them and literally calls them dogs who are unclean, evildoers who break the law and self-mutilators who are not part of the family. While his enemies’ language seems to have merit because they have some Bible verses to support their claims, they are actually unclean, law breakers who have no relationship with Jesus. Keep watch for these kinds of people because the gospel they preach is antichristian, self-centered and bankrupt.

3: REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE (VS. 3)

In verse three, the apostle Paul says, “For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.” In other words, don’t forget who and whose you are. If you have trusted in Jesus and your relationship with him is one that is marked with continual repentance, then you are a child of God.

As a child of God, your heart has been circumcised (Jer. 9:25), you are justified and made right through your faith in Jesus’ work at the cross (Rom. 2:28 – 29). A spiritually circumcised child of God, worships God in spirit and in truth; boasts in the work of Christ at the cross and the empty tomb; and finds confidence and overwhelming joy in the inward work of the Spirit of the living God. This is who and whose you are, and Paul says, “don’t forget it”.

APPLICATION…

Rejoice, watch and remember. Rejoice in the Lord. Watch out for joy-killing legalism. Remember who you belong to. These are Paul’s instructions to the Philippian church. But why do they matter to us today? What’s the big deal? How do we apply these principles to our lives now?

It’s probably easy to admit that we struggle with joy and it’s probably fairly easy to admit that we all need to remember who we are and who we belong to. And we all know that there isn’t a literal circumcision party anymore. So, when we think of joy-killing legalism we often think of people who get under our skin and rub us the wrong way with their different spiritual, social or political views. Paul doesn’t necessarily have these people in mind.

The reality here is that Paul has real legalists in mind; he has in his mind, people who make salvation a matter of works. If our relationship with Jesus is based on anything other than grace, then it is based upon legalism (what I can do to earn God’s affection). Most of us probably have a basic concept of this and we know it’s bad; we know that we are saved and sustained in our relationship with God by grace alone, through faith alone (Eph. 2:8 – 10).

But the Philippians were twelve years into their faith and honestly, they probably knew their Bibles better than most of us do (because of the rigorous religious culture). So why would he need to remind them of this? I’m sure we understand that the reminder is protective. But how can we be on guard against joy-killing legalism? How do we ensure that we aren’t dogs, evildoing lawbreakers and destructive mutilators? How do we ensure that our relationship with God isn’t infected with legalism?

I think the key is found in verse three where Paul reminds us of who and whose we are. We belong to God because of our trust in Christ’s work at the cross; therefore, we are called to worship God, called to boast in the cross of Christ and called to rest assured in the finished work of Christ. This is where legalism dies and joy overflows!

CONCLUSION…

In conclusion I want you to think of joy as a gauge on the dashboard of your soul. When the joy-meter is running on empty it means that you’re filling your tank with something other than the gospel. The typical thing we fill our tanks with are performance-based things. We start checking the checkboxes: don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t gamble, don’t cuss, don’t watch R-rated films, don’t dance, don’t chew and certainly don’t date girls who do.

The flip side is also true; we use positive performance to bolster our joy. We pat ourselves on the back for going to church, doing church related activities every week, reading the Bible daily, putting money in the offering box, helping the poor, etc., etc., the list goes on and on. The point here is that our performance, either good or bad, doesn’t affect God’s love for us and it doesn’t change our standing before God in salvation.

Don’t hear me wrong, it’s not that performance isn’t connected to salvation, it’s that we cannot get the cart in front of the horse. Salvation is not a product of performance. Performance is a product of salvation. Read the book of James and you’ll find this to be true. Pay attention to the joy meter in your soul and you’ll see whether you have the cart before the horse or not.

If you focus on your identity in Christ, being a worshipper of Christ, boasting in Christ, finding confidence in Christ, then performance will follow. And I’m not talking about the hollow performance of graceless legalism where you disconnect from the world because it is so filthy out there.

I’m talking about a grace-filled relationship with Jesus whereby you worship more and more each day, boast in him more and more each day, and remain more and more confident in his finished at the cross every day. Rejoice in Lord, keep watch for legalism and remember who you are. Once again, as always, I will conclude here: at the foot of the bloody cross, in the doorway of the empty tomb, holding onto the promise of heaven. This is where your true identity is found. This is where legalism dies and joy overflows.