Delight in Love Manifested by Others
A. H. Drysdale, M. A. Philemon 1:7 For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by you, brother. He will never want for supplies of joy and consolation who finds a great delight in love manifested by others or enjoyed by them; who, free from envy, takes an exalted pleasure in the gifts and graces of others, and who, ever on the outlook for occasions to be thankful, is willing to regard as mercies to himself what are blessings to others. The vulgar joy of earth would snatch at everything for itself; but the divinely beautiful disposition of being happy in the diffusion of happiness, grows radiant with a sunshine akin to the Divine blessedness itself. If any one go after his own personal joy and comfort with an all-consuming and self-seeking eagerness, he may as well think to get the rainbow by chasing it. To be absorbed in our own private comfort, and pursue it for itself, is to fare like the man who in his foolish over anxiety to catch a delicate creature alive, suddenly puts his foot on it, and finds it just dying when he gets it in his hands. "I had much joy in thy love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by thee, brother," as the apostle very touchingly adds, in token of his kindly and fraternal feeling to Philemon, in recalling his acts of benevolence. (A. H. Drysdale, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. WEB: For we have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.