Encouragement in Christ
The past couple weeks, I have been deeply studying the wonderful book of Philippians. The phrase that has been sticking out to be the most is found in Philippians 2:1, “If there is any encouragement in Christ.” The content of Philippians is one of the most joy filled and encouraging books of the Bible; however, the context it is written in is anything but what we would call joyful. Paul was in prison for his faith while he is writing this letter and he time and time again talks about the joy we have in Christ and uses this phrase, “encouragement in Christ.”
What do we think about when we see these three words? Of course, we know that there is encouragement in Christ, but how can we tell that? I think, first, we need to look no further than Scripture. In fact, no further than Paul himself, as Paul has nothing to be encouraged about on his own doing or in his own life. His only encouragement is coming from the things God is doing. He rejoices because his imprisonment is allowing others to hear and speak the gospel. The biggest form of encouragement in Christ we see is that He provides salvation for us - that we can go from death to life, from lost to found, only because of Him. We can see countless other times of the church being encouraged throughout Acts, especially from one man named Barnabas, which means Son of Encouragement (Acts 4:36). Throughout Scripture, we see that there are people who encourage in Christ and there are circumstances that cause us to be encouraged because of what Christ is doing.
This does not stop at Scripture; I am currently reading a book called To the Golden Shore, a biography about a famous missionary named Adoniram Judson and seeing how God worked in his life even from a young age to prepare him for the work that God was going to do through Him is truly remarkable and a great point of engouement. We can look around even right now at First Baptist Church of Bogalusa and see the wonderful things that God is doing. These things should leave us with nothing but “encouragement in Christ.” Now this of course does not mean that everything is going to be sunshine and rainbows and that we will forever be on “cloud-9” so to speak. There will be low moments in our faith. There will be times where it seems that Satan is working and that we are losing bad, but the good news is that we get to look around and see that in Scripture, and in the life of our church, God is working - and that should bring us encouragement. Encouragement to continue pursuing Christ, to continue to see the encouraging things He has in store for us, and to live a life being encouraged and encouraging others in Christ. May we all be like Barnabas to the disciples and be a force of encouragement for Christ. I leave you with this, to quote one of our very own, Frank Martin, “Are you encouraged?” I hope and pray our answer to this can be yes, because of what Jesus has done and what He is continuing to do.
What do we think about when we see these three words? Of course, we know that there is encouragement in Christ, but how can we tell that? I think, first, we need to look no further than Scripture. In fact, no further than Paul himself, as Paul has nothing to be encouraged about on his own doing or in his own life. His only encouragement is coming from the things God is doing. He rejoices because his imprisonment is allowing others to hear and speak the gospel. The biggest form of encouragement in Christ we see is that He provides salvation for us - that we can go from death to life, from lost to found, only because of Him. We can see countless other times of the church being encouraged throughout Acts, especially from one man named Barnabas, which means Son of Encouragement (Acts 4:36). Throughout Scripture, we see that there are people who encourage in Christ and there are circumstances that cause us to be encouraged because of what Christ is doing.
This does not stop at Scripture; I am currently reading a book called To the Golden Shore, a biography about a famous missionary named Adoniram Judson and seeing how God worked in his life even from a young age to prepare him for the work that God was going to do through Him is truly remarkable and a great point of engouement. We can look around even right now at First Baptist Church of Bogalusa and see the wonderful things that God is doing. These things should leave us with nothing but “encouragement in Christ.” Now this of course does not mean that everything is going to be sunshine and rainbows and that we will forever be on “cloud-9” so to speak. There will be low moments in our faith. There will be times where it seems that Satan is working and that we are losing bad, but the good news is that we get to look around and see that in Scripture, and in the life of our church, God is working - and that should bring us encouragement. Encouragement to continue pursuing Christ, to continue to see the encouraging things He has in store for us, and to live a life being encouraged and encouraging others in Christ. May we all be like Barnabas to the disciples and be a force of encouragement for Christ. I leave you with this, to quote one of our very own, Frank Martin, “Are you encouraged?” I hope and pray our answer to this can be yes, because of what Jesus has done and what He is continuing to do.
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