Blog »  Do You Delight in Others?

Tuesday, June 11, 2013 Jeff Lampl

NOTE: Read Philippians chapter one over and over this week. Mark up your Bible with notes, highlights and asterisks. Then bring it to worship on Sunday. I promise you that you will grow in your relationship with Jesus. If you don’t I’ll give you your money back.

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness,  how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God”            Philippians 1:3-11 (ESV)

 Okay,  so I googled “delight” so that I could find a picture for today’s blog that might reflect Paul’s obvious delight in the believers in Philippi. I was surprised to find that the first entries were all about delighting in others’ failures. Here’s the first one that came up.

Schadenfreude i/ˈʃɑːdənfrɔɪdə/ (German: [ˈʃaːdənˌfʁɔʏdə]) is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. This word is a loanword from German, the direct English translation is 'Damage-Joy' or 'Fail-Joy', it is the feeling of joy when one sees another fail.

What do you think of that? Do most people delight in others or in others’ failures? How about you?  

Think of how Paul delights in the Philippians;

     “I thank God because of you”
     “I yearn for you with the affection of Jesus”
     “I’m sure what God began in you, He will finish”
     “I remember you in prayer with joy”
     “I pray you stay focused on what is excellent, pure and blameless”
     “I pray you get to enjoy the fruit of your godly living”

Perhaps one of our greatest tasks as Christians is to give others a taste of Christ delighting in them. He is for people, not against them. Paul gives the Philippians this tastes by his (Paul) delighting in them.  

In what ways do you or do you not give others a taste of Christ delighting in them?