"Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:15). The next principle we'll be exploring is to rejoice and sympathise with others. It's much easier to celebrate and have a good time with someone who's already having a good time than it is to sympathise with someone and have a heartfelt moment with them, especially to the point of tears.
Proverbs 24:17, Don't gloat when your enemy falls, and don't let your heart rejoice when he stumbles. The first thing I did when I first learnt of Osama bin Laden's death on May 2, 2011 was rejoice. I remember that day very vividly — where I was and what I was doing. I was stationed at the 2nd Infantry Division Band at Camp Red Cloud in South Korea, and I was eating lunch in the food court on camp; I was eating Popeye's chicken and I just happened to hear it on the news. I experienced an immense feeling of joy and relief with a huge smile on my face, and I made it known to the world. In spite of what he has done, rejoicing is the wrong reaction. I regretted my response to his death a little later on when I became wiser. The proverb continues in the following verse, "or the LORD will see, be displeased, and turn His wrath away from him." We definitely do not want the iniquity of Al Qaeda and the Taliban to continue, but when they're killed it's wrong to rejoice in their deaths. Psalm 33:1, Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous ones; praise from the upright is beautiful. The only thing we're supposed to rejoice in and praise is the living God, not death, and this psalm goes on to say that we are RIGHTEOUS ONES. As righteous ones, does it make sense to rejoice in the deaths of our enemies? As Christians and therefore followers of Christ, do you think this is how Christ would want us to react? Absolutely not! Righteousness is not rejoicing in the death of our enemies. God intended each person to be children of God, and the death of the lost is not to be celebrated, but rather mourned since they never had a chance to know Jesus Christ. That, to me, is the saddest thing I can think of: never knowing Christ. For those of you who do know Christ, could you imagine yourself dying before you ever knew Him? It's sad, isn't it? I think it's quite depressing. We are to rejoice in Christ at all times (Philippians 4:4 and I Thessalonians 5:16).
Let's quickly examine David. We all know this event pretty well. After David slew Goliath in I Samuel 17 and rose in military authority at the hand of King Saul, Saul began to grow paranoid that David would try to usurp the throne (starting with his jealousy of David when the people began saying, "Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands" [I Samuel 18:7]). As Saul's paranoia increased exponentially, he eventually drove David to flee (and men who knew David to be the next anointed king remained faithful to him and came with him). Since David had fled, Saul began to search for him with a portion of his army. However, a time came when the Philistines became a threat again and Saul had to repel their attack, but he died in battle along with his son, Jonathan. When the news reached David, instead of rejoicing he wept, mourned, and fasted (II Samuel 1:12) because the Lord's anointed had died. An enemy of David who had sworn to kill David was wept and mourned over when he was justly killed. The natural inclination is to rejoice and celebrate, but David saw the sorrow of it and wept and mourned. That is true compassion.
Another form of wrongful rejoicing is to rejoice in yourself. James 4:16-17, But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So, for the person who knows to do good and doesn't do it, it is a sin. When we are blessed with successes in our lives we often grow prideful and boast about ourselves in our conceit and our own actions rather than giving the glory to God. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, James says that this is evil, and that it's a sin. Ecclesiastes 11:9, Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. And walk in the ways of your heart and in the sights of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgement. It is very important to start rejoicing in God in our youth and for our hearts to be glad in His name. It's very easy to notice that those who do not start rejoicing in Him at an early age usually end up not rejoicing in Him in a later age, and those who do rejoice in Him in their youth typically continue to rejoice in Him throughout their adulthood. That's not always the case, but it is the average. The author of Ecclesiastes advises the youth to walk in the way of his or her heart but to be aware that for all the things they do in their life, they will be judged and held accountable for them. In other words, you have the choice to do whatever you want, but be conscious of the fact that when the proper time comes, God will judge you according to your actions. It is because of this that most of us are responsible enough to keep God's commands as opposed to doing whatever we want. This is exactly why it's important to start rejoicing in God in our youth so that His love and good will be in our hearts at an early age so we can continue to walk in His ways into adulthood.
Psalm 2:11, Serve the LORD with reverential awe, and rejoice with trembling. This is exactly how we are to serve and praise God. To serve Him with reverential awe is to revere Him, which is to fear Him out of respect, not fear and anxiety. In the same way we are to rejoice and worship Him in reverence. Ecclesiastes 3:12, I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life. There is nothing better for us than to rejoice in our God in this reverential way and live the good, blessed life He gives us in return.
Jesus advises in Luke 10:20, "However, don't rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." This is a perfect reason to rejoice in God — because our names are written in the Book of Life if you have His Son and Holy Spirit. We are not to rejoice because the Holy Spirit can submit to us, but that because of the Holy Spirit we are promised the eternal life in Heaven, for our names are inscribed therein. We will see Jesus once again, and for all eternity, which is another reason to rejoice together: "So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will rob you of your joy" (John 16:22). Jesus promises us that we will see Him again, and our hearts will be filled with utter joy and we will rejoice as we sing a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals; because You were slaughtered, and You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9). NO ONE can take this joy away from us.
Another reason to rejoice with others is when they come to Christ: Now I am rejoicing, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn't experience any loss from us (II Corinthians 7:9). We don't rejoice in the grief of the lost, but we rejoice in that their grief leads them to Christ by their repentance, for God had permitted their necessary grieving so that they wouldn't "experience any loss from us." I Peter 1:6-7, You rejoice in this, though now for a short time you have had to be distressed by various trials so that the genuineness of your faith — more valuable than gold, which perishes though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory, and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We are to rejoice in passing our trials (and being tried in the first place) so that through this faith, we may praise and give honour and glory to Jesus Christ when He returns. This faith is extremely powerful because: You love Him, though you have not seen Him. And though not seeing Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy… (I Peter 1:8). We love the only, loving Deity whom we have not seen and in spite of that we rejoice in His name with inexplicable joy because of our faith and the salvation we receive for our souls through Him. And we are also to rejoice because we share the same sufferings of Christ in order to rejoice at His revelation (I Peter 4:13).
Psalm 119:50, This is my comfort in my affliction: Your promise has given me life. When we are afflicted, God's Word and the life He has given us should be enough to comfort us in troublesome times. Scripture was written to encourage and instruct us so that we may endure with the Word: For whatever was written before was written for our instruction, so that through our endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we may have hope (Romans 15:4). When I'm stressed out, I often remember certain passages in Scripture and what God has done in my life. When I recall those passages and moments that God has gotten me through, the Holy Spirit comforts me. God has given me an enriched life in the Spirit and a comparatively wealthy life — that is, compared to the least fortunate people on certain areas of the globe. I am materialistically better off than a large number of people in Africa and Guatemala, as an example, and for that I am grateful and comforted when I am afflicted. Don't get me wrong, the fact that there are people living in terrible conditions and poverty breaks my heart and I want to do so much for them, but I'm grateful that I'm not in their situation because I can use my resources to preach to them and lead them to Christ. This is why it is my desire to work in missions as often as I can. If you're having difficulty finding comfort in God's Word, then ask Him for it: May Your faithful love comfort me, as You promised Your servant (Psalm 119:76). God made a promise to comfort us whenever needed; all we need to do is ask. The Holy Spirit isn't readily available to us for no reason; He's there to give us comfort and guidance because God is the God of all comfort (II Corinthians 1:3).
Second Corinthians 1:4, He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. People like to test the believers' faith by asking us why bad things always happen to good people. They forget that bad things happen to bad people just as often; they just prefer to focus on the anomaly as a poor excuse to justify God's "falsity." We are tested and afflicted so we can learn of God's comfort and ultimately be comforted by Him, which gives us the willingness and the capacity to sympathise with and comfort others who've experienced the same thing, or lesser or even greater things. I've had to get out of my comfort zone with this rather recently. I'm not a very emotional person, and I don't show raw emotions very easily; that's just who I am. That being the case, I don't cry very easily either and it's not because of the silly pride that men have that they don't cry often and neither is it because I think or thought that crying is a sign of weakness; rather, it is just the opposite. I just simply don't cry very easily. However, recently on a men's retreat organisation called Edge Venture, I've sat down with men and cried with them. In many cases I cried like a baby because I sympathised with them. Sometimes we just have to sit down with a fellow believer whom we love and just cry with them and let them know we love them and understand their predicament. In a perfect world, good things will happen to everybody all the time, but this is not a perfect world; everyone will inevitably face bad and terrible tribulations no matter how "good" or "bad" you are. It doesn't matter what kind of person someone is; it is our duty as Christians to weep and sympathise with every person, even our enemies. …So now you should forgive and comfort him instead; otherwise, this one may be overwhelmed by excessive grief (II Corinthians 2:7). Not only are we supposed to forgive our enemies of their trespasses against us (Matthew 6:14-15), but we are also supposed to comfort them through their tribulations so their grief won't consume them. And this goes with fellow believers as well, and I argue that it should be more so with them. Being overwhelmed by excessive grief is dangerous, for it can cause a person to stray from Christ. This is not only grief of, say, losing a loved one. It can be the grief of sin, and I've experienced such immense grief from sin that I believed I was incapable of being loved by God for a long time. Knowledgeably, I knew that I was wrong, but I had consistent trouble believing it. And it wasn't until I experienced the extreme love and comfort from fellow believers that I realised the falsity of this cognitive bias and finally accepted that God loves me for who I am no matter what I've done and no matter what I do (this was actually at an Edge Venture retreat as a participant).
It's not just my personal opinion that we must sit down and comfort others no matter who they are; it's a duty that Christ sets upon us. If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, sharing the same feelings, focusing on one goal (Philippians 2:1-2). If we have been encouraged by Christ, received His comforting love, participated in fellowship with the Holy Spirit and other believers, then it is our absolute responsibility to think the same exact way as Christ did and feel the same love for people that He has for us towards people, believers and unbelievers alike. Not only that, but this Scripture also says that we must share those feelings with others, not keep it all to ourselves. First Thessalonians 5:11, Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing. By this we must "warn those who are lazy, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, [and] be patient with everyone" (I Thessalonians 5:14; brackets added).
Second Corinthians 13:11, Finally, brothers, rejoice. Be restored, be encouraged, be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Through comforting others we will then be able to rejoice with them as well. It's not one or the other; they both work together. They will be restored just as we were restored, encouraged through the faith, possess the same righteous mind as we do, and will finally be at peace, for the peace and love of God will finally be with them.
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