Day 15 — Rejoice With Those Who Rejoice

Opening Prayer

God of truth and grace, make me teachable as I read. Expose what is false in me, strengthen what is weak, and lead me in the way of love. By your Spirit, help me not only to understand your word but to put it into practice. Amen.

Headline

Loving-kindness refuses to make neighbours into rivals; it honours them, shares their burdens and rejoices in their good.

Romans 12:9-18

Comment

Yesterday, Jesus promised to satisfy our deepest hunger as the Bread of Life. When we rest in his welcome, another person’s good need no longer diminish us. Today Paul shows what that freedom looks like in ordinary relationships: sincere love that honours others, shares what we have, enters their joys and sorrows, and pursues peace. This is loving-kindness in action.

Paul is not handing us a checklist by which we earn God’s favour. Earlier in this chapter he appeals to us “in view of God’s mercy” (v.1). The gospel comes first. God has justified sinners through faith in Christ, joined us to one body and given us different gifts by grace. The commands that follow describe the life his mercy produces as the Spirit renews us. We love because we have first been loved.

The opening command governs everything else: “Love must be sincere” (v.9). Envy is skilled at insincerity. It can offer faint praise, withhold encouragement, make a cutting joke or quietly draw attention back to ourselves. Loving-kindness has no hidden wish that the other person’s good would disappear. It clings to what is truly good, even when that good has been given to someone else.

Paul then tells us to “Honor one another above yourselves” (v.10). Envy asks, “How do I compare?” Love asks, “How can I recognise and encourage the good God is doing in them?” To honour someone is not to flatter them or pretend that faults do not matter. It is to treat them as a person made in God’s image and, if they belong to Christ, as a brother or sister for whom he died. Their gifts can serve the whole body rather than threaten our place within it.

This love is practical. It shares with people in need and practises hospitality. It blesses even those who persecute us. Loving-kindness is more than feeling warmly towards another person; it deliberately seeks their good. Envy closes the hand and the door because it fears there will not be enough. Grace opens both. God’s goodness is not a scarce commodity, and what he has entrusted to us can become part of his care for someone else.

The most direct challenge to envy comes in verse 15: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn”. Many people know the word schadenfreude: pleasure at another’s misfortune. Its lesser-known opposite is sometimes called freudenfreude: pleasure in another’s good fortune. Paul puts it more simply: rejoice with them. Do not merely say the correct words while resentment continues underneath. Ask God to make their joy genuinely glad news to you.

That change often begins in private prayer. Bring the person you envy before God. Confess the comparison without excusing it. Thank him specifically for the good he has given them, and ask him to increase it and use it well. Prayer turns a rival back into a neighbour. Then let the prayer become action: congratulate them without qualification, speak well of them when they are absent, support their work or help them flourish. These practices do not purchase a loving heart, but they are ways the Spirit retrains one.

Rejoicing is not the whole of love. Paul also says to mourn with those who mourn. Loving-kindness enters another person’s story rather than making every story about us. It lays aside pride, associates with those the world overlooks and seeks peace as far as it depends on us. We cannot control another person’s response, and this command does not require us to call evil good. But we can refuse retaliation, bless rather than curse, and entrust justice to God.

This is where our week has been leading. Envy grieves at another’s good because it treats that person as a rival. Loving-kindness seeks and celebrates their good because, in Christ, they can be received as a neighbour. The change is deeper than improved manners. It grows as God’s mercy assures us of our own place in his love and his Spirit turns our attention outward.

Why does God want me to hear this today? Perhaps because I have settled for appearing loving while comparison still shapes my thoughts, words and silences. God invites me to be honest about the person whose success is hard to celebrate. Secure in Christ’s love, I can ask the Spirit for a sincere love that honours them, prays for their good and learns to rejoice when they rejoice.

Reflect

• Whose success or happiness is hardest for you to celebrate sincerely, and what does that reveal about your heart?
• How might you honour or encourage that person without flattery, qualification or drawing attention back to yourself?
• Which practice in verses 9–18 would most clearly turn loving-kindness into action for you today?

Action

Today, listen for someone who shares either good news or a sorrow. If they are rejoicing, resist comparing their experience with your own or turning the conversation back to yourself. Ask a question that allows them to tell you more, and celebrate their good wholeheartedly. If they are mourning, give them the same undivided attention without rushing to offer advice.

Closing Prayer

Merciful Father, thank you that in Christ you loved me when I was your enemy and welcomed me by grace. Forgive my envy, false praise and hidden resentment. Teach me to honour others above myself, to share generously, to bless rather than curse, and to enter faithfully into both joy and sorrow. By your Spirit, replace rivalry with loving-kindness and help me live at peace with everyone, as far as it depends on me. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.