Joy is Meant to be Contagious
What’s your favorite season? Mine’s summer!
Summer’s joy hardly requires explanation; it’s the exuberance of gladness that wells up unprompted—when the sun shines and all is as we think it should be. Except if you’re not a big fan of summer.
Unless your kids play baseball or other summer sports, it’s lighter and less chaotic! Typically, summer is more casual and easygoing—not as readily encumbered by deadlines and have-to’s.
Even still, summer gets hot with all its activity and movement. Its stickiness can rub us the wrong way.
How then, do we live with contagious joy?
For this, we come to the most famous of Paul’s letters—Philippians 4.
Paul’s “Joy” Letter
Paul writes his so-called “Joy” Letter to encourage and instruct Christians in Corinth on what joy looks like in the Christian life.
Joy for the Jesus Follower is meant to be contagious.
Some form of the word ‘joy’ or ‘rejoicing’ appears 16 times in just 4 chapters. That’s a lot of joy.
Paul wrote his letter from prison, behind bars under someone else’s authority. Paul wielded no control over his confinement or how others treated him. Further, he was at the mercy of other people’s provision. Jails didn’t feed you. People from the outside did—or didn’t.
Chapter 1 describes joy’s growth through suffering.
Chapter 2 details the attitude of Christ, and Christ followers, as those who serve.
Chapter 3 centers around what’s true about God and what’s true about us and those around us.
Chapter 4 instructs us in the joy of giving and living.
Joy is contagious—meant to spread like the ripples of a stone skipped into a summer lake. It results in forwarding movement and reaches outward, impacting beyond the person who first expresses it.
But before joy is freed to do its outreaching work, it must first land in our own lives.
The Substance of Summer’s Joy
Romans 5 describes joy as the result of being made right by God when we place our faith in Jesus as Lord.
The word Paul uses for being made right references a ledger or balance sheet like an accountant uses to track expenses.
When Jesus died for our sins, there were:
- no unaccounted pennies
- no outstanding checks
- no unrecognizable withdrawals
In Jesus, everything about us is made right.
When God looks at us (once we recognize our need for a Savior, confess our sins, and receive God’s forgiveness), God sees his son Jesus standing before us, with us, in us, and through us.
Everything about us is made right.
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harsh words and under-our-breath comments (eye rolls too!)
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judgment over someone else’s priorities
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careless spending or the incessant want for more
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selfish tendencies and busied margins
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bargaining with God
All of it, everything about us is made right before God.
This, according to Paul, is the source and substance of joy.
Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of underserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. Rom. 5: 2
Believing that Jesus has made everything right about us is what allows us to experience and live with contagious joy.
Period.
Three Ways to Live with Contagious Joy
1. Change of Mindset (changing what we think about)
Our lives go where our minds marinate.
Worry, doubt, fear, fighting, scorekeeping—they rob us of joy. They isolate us from each other and from the Christ of our salvation.
The Greek word for repentance is ‘metanoia.’ It means thinking about our thinking. Joy’s release requires we make a u-turn to a different mind space.
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Philippians 4: 6
Verse 8 provides a list of how-to and what-to focus our minds on:
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about these things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
If we want to live with contagious joy, we must change what we watch, read, and talk about.
2. Change of Priority (changing what we will or want)
In summer, life is less about accomplishing and more about connecting and experiencing the richness of life. Fields have long been planted, classrooms have been cleaned out, and mid-year deadlines have passed. There’s a different priority at work in summer.
At the start of Chapter 4, Paul exhorts Euodia and Syntyche over an argument that’s impacting not only their relationship but also their ministry. Presumably, their priority is to be right—to win whatever the argument is.
Living with contagious joy requires we put another’s needs above ours rather than insisting on our way (see Philippians 2).
If we are going to be determined about anything, Paul challenges us to let it be a determination to serve one another.
Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:9
As we nurture this pattern of laying aside our own will, God has room to fill us with His.
Contagious joy shines through us without having to try. Joy grows unencumbered when we align ourselves with God and God’s ways.
3. Change of Practice (changing what we do with our body)
We orient our thoughts differently so that we can live differently.
What we do is not as important as how we do it. How we do it is a direct reflection of why we’re doing it.
When our mindset and priority are pointed in God’s direction, our bodies naturally follow.
So too, does summer’s contagious joy.
Paul would have known and recited the Shema—a daily prayer of the Jewish people, recited from Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
Many of us are most familiar with verse 5 which reads: And you must love the Lord your God will all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
Jesus reiterates this in Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27 when asked what the most important law is.
Jesus expands his instruction to include loving their neighbor as themselves.
In other words, we love God with our whole self. Joy isn’t released while tucked away in our minds or developing some idea of gladness.
Living with contagious joy is a full-bodied commitment lived out with our mind, our will, and our body.
Summer Joy’s Invitation
Will you change your mindset and your priority for a change of practice?
Consider this:
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What has God been up to in your life?
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Where have you seen God at work in someone else’s life?
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List 10 thoughts/recollections that fall into Paul’s Philippians 4:8 description. Return to these throughout the week.
Prayer for Summer’s Joy
Messiah God,
You are the God of surprises. You travel to where I am—whether confined at the hands of someone else or my own choosing. Capture my heart, soul, mind, and body with what is excellent and praiseworthy. Strengthen me to turn from things that rob me of your joy.
Nurture in me the joy of my salvation which you planted moments ago. Multiply my joy and make it contagious and courageous.
You alone are the source of my joy. May my life bring you joy in return.
In Your Name, Jesus, I pray. Amen.