Spiritual Blessings Bestowed on Others Give Occasion of Joy to the Saints
Philemon 1:7
For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by you, brother.


It is our duty greatly to rejoice, when we see spiritual blessings in heavenly things given to the children of God (see Luke 15:5, 6, 9, 10, 32). David rejoiced with great joy when he saw that the people offered willingly unto the Lord with a perfect heart, and he blessed the Lord God of Israel. When the Jews heard of the conversion of the Gentiles, and that the Holy Ghost fell upon them, as upon themselves at the beginning, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." When the apostle perceived the notable zeal of the Thessalonians, in receiving and entertaining the gospel, not as the word of man but as it is indeed the Word of God, he witnesseth that they were his hope and his joy, his crown and his glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming. Likewise the apostle John rejoiced greatly when the brethren testified of the truth that was in Gaius, and how he walked therein. He had no greater joy than this, to hear that his sons walked in the verity. Reasons:

1. The glory, and praise of God is much increased, which should comfort the hearts and rejoice the spirits of the saints. The more we abound with spiritual blessings the more God is honoured and His name glorified.

2. The general good of the Church must lead us to this duty and cause us to rejoice, which next unto God should be dearest to us. Who can have such hearts of flint or of iron as not to be moved with joy, beholding the enlarging of the kingdom of Christ?

3. The ordinances and laws of God are observed, and so His blessings procured and obtained. Now, when God is obeyed, men should rejoice and be glad; and when His laws are broken, they should be much grieved and troubled.Uses:

1. First of all, seeing God's graces upon others must work joy in ourselves, we learn the truth of that article of our faith, which all profess to believe, but many do not understand, to wit, the communion of saints. There is a double communion, one which we have with Christ; the other, which the Church hath among themselves, and the former is the cause of the latter. Our communion among ourselves consisteth in three things —

(1)  In the affection of the heart.

(2)  In the gifts of the Spirit.

(3)  In the use of temporal riches.

2. We learn to desire the best gifts, that we may rejoice and comfort the godly. For when we profit in good things, we cheer the hearts and minds of the faithful. Every living thing hath his prospering and proceeding, and is known to have life in it by increasing from one degree of perfection to another. The grass springeth, the plant shouteth, the corn flourisheth, the tree groweth. If we have any life in us of God's Spirit, and be not as grass that is withered, as plants that are dead, as corn that is blasted, and as trees that are plucked up by the roots, we must go forward from one measure of grace to another, from a lesser to a greater.

3. It is our duty to seek the good and prosperity of the Church by all good means, and to draw them and move them, to embrace the ways of salvation. This duty hath many branches growing from it. For, seeing God's graces bestowed give occasion of great joy, it ought to teach us to exhort one another, to comfort them that are comfortless, to reprove them that go astray, to pray for our brethren, to seek to gain and win them to the faith; and when they are gained and won, to rejoice unfeignedly at their conversion, and if we see any hope of their repentance and turning to God, to converse with them, and not to be ashamed of their company.

(W. Attersoll.)



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.




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