Rejoice in the Lord Alway

The Feast

Paul writes this instruction from prison, a detail worth holding directly against the word alway that follows it. This is not a call to rejoice only when circumstances happen to be pleasant and easy, but alway, in every circumstance, including, evidently, the genuinely difficult circumstances Paul himself was actually experiencing as he wrote this.

Notice the repetition: and again I say, Rejoice. Paul does not state this once and move on, trusting it will be sufficiently understood. He repeats it, deliberately, for emphasis, suggesting this instruction is difficult enough to actually practice that it requires this kind of doubled, insistent restatement.

This is worth examining against however much your own rejoicing has become conditional, dependent on circumstances remaining pleasant, rather than the alway this verse specifically describes, rejoicing that persists regardless of circumstance, grounded in the Lord himself rather than in whatever conditions happen to currently prevail.

Whatever your current circumstances actually are, easy or genuinely difficult, receive Paul’s doubled instruction today as your own. Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again, rejoice, not because circumstances demand it, but because the Lord himself, the actual object of this rejoicing, remains constant regardless of what circumstances currently hold.