What does it mean to rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15)?

In this connection I am going to refer you to 1 Corinthians 12, and it is in connection with the body. Paul says, 'If one member suffers every member suffers, but if one member rejoices all the members rejoice' (v.26). That is a very testing thing indeed. I do not think there is another company of believers that talks so much about the body of Christ as 'brethren'. It is always in their mouths, "we gather on the ground of the one body" we say, we are always referring to the truth of the one body, indeed this was the great truth that those known as 'brethren' set out to demonstrate at the very beginning in the 1830's, not to create the truth of the one body, but in some measure to work it out in practice. Oh, how sadly we have failed! But nevertheless the truth is still there. That is a very challenging matter in chapter 12. It might be comparatively easy to suffer with each other, our compassions, our feelings, and our hearts go out to those who suffer in whatever way the suffering is known, but it is a different matter to rejoice with each other. When someone is advancing, when someone is being blessed, when it is very obvious that the Lord has laid His hand on someone and He is progressing spiritually oh how easy it is for the seeds of envy to be in the heart and in the mind. 'But,' says Paul, 'we are to rejoice with each other.' Can I do that? Yes, we can all do it in the Spirit's power. It is the fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit is always true to Himself in producing the features that are pleasurable to God and to Christ; sometimes we are not. This rejoicing with each other is a very great matter indeed.

You remember the story of Mordecai and Haman in the book of Esther. Oh, it was a sad, sad thing in Haman's life whenever he passed Mordecai. In all his exhortation, in all his prominence, in all his greatness, there was this niggling thing that frustrated him, this man would never bow (3:5). Now Mordecai could not bow to Haman for the simple reason that he knew the evil that was behind that man. The time came when the position was reversed and instead of Haman being exalted Mordecai was exalted and my, there was rejoicing in Israel then (8:15-17). There were no envious hearts of those in Israel because Mordecai had got this place of supremacy. So it was with Joseph when he was exalted, there was no envy in the hearts of his brethren when they saw him in the place of exaltation. I believe this is one of the body features that we can express in the power of the Spirit, to rejoice with each other when we see each other's prosperity, this joy produced by the Spirit that someone is being blessed, someone is moving forward in the pathway that is pleasing to our Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful thing it is. It is so easy when we see a Christian connected with another company and being blessed by the Lord to cast some doubts upon the blessing, to be a bit sceptical as to the truth of the reports that we hear. That is not the feature of the body. We were mentioning this morning about one of the early incidents amongst the dear brethren when in a prayer meeting the floor of the room was wet with tears because a Christian in another part of the town, not connected with brethren, had failed in his testimony. They did not say, 'Well, what can you expect of those people', they did not talk like that, they were concerned about the glory of the Lord. Here was a Christian who had failed in his testimony and so they wept. Here was true body feelings. It was not exactly suffering on the man's part, it was he that had failed, but they felt it so much as it stood related to the Lord that they were crying about it.

Romans 12:15. "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." We have been exhorted to the exercise of love, the discharge of the duties of benevolence, the forgiveness of enemies and now we are admonished to sympathise in the joys and sorrows of our fellow-men, but, especially of our fellow-Christians. These are the comely ways of the household of faith. Being rooted and grounded in love, these graces naturally flow forth as from their native fountain. What could possibly be more unlike the spirit of Christianity than a selfish indifference to all interests but our own! How much more like the blessed Master is the Christian who enters into the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his own! This is the true expression of the communion of saints — the unselfishness of those who are walking in the light of God's own presence — the only place where we lose our selfishness. "If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another." Outside of His presence we are selfish; in His presence we feel and act in the divine nature.

Do others have cause for rejoicing? Let us rejoice with them! This may not be easy if there are thorns or sorrows in our own path, but it is true, unselfish Christian character. Or do others weep? Let us weep with them. We may not be so ready to do so if our own circumstances are pleasant, but it is a pointed test of our selfishness or unselfishness. Philippians 2:4 is a needful reminder to us: “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” Yet in this we are to have no favorites; but to have the same mind one toward another: partiality is foreign to godliness. Nor ought “high things” to engage the mind, as though our intelligence were on a higher level than average. The following phrase here is nicely expressed in the New Translation — “going along with the lowly.” This is true greatness and genuine Christian grace. “Be not wise in your own eyes” is an important accompaniment of this; for seeking to impress others — perhaps specially the lowly — is a rather real danger.

Fellowship in sufferings. This would speak grace high in its exercise when a person is himself swimming in the abundance of all enjoyments, and can then lay aside his own joy to weep and mourn for and with any afflicted saints. It is not usual for any but those of great grace to feel the cords of the church's afflictions through a bed of down; it must be a David that can prefer Jerusalem above his chief joy. On the other hand, when in the depths of our own personal troubles, we can yet reserve a large space in our prayers for other saints, bespeaks a great measure of grace. When in our distresses we can entertain the tidings of any other saint's mercies with joy and thankfulness; this requires great grace. The prosperity of others too often breeds envy in them that want it; if, therefore, thou canst praise God for mercies granted to others while the tears stand in thy eyes for thine own miseries, it is what flesh and blood never learnt thee.

367 Hence we can rejoice with those that rejoice and weep with those that weep, without a human cause save in others for joy or weeping, but in divine and gracious sympathy. But we must be wholly with Christ to do it truly, yet man to feel it truly as He was. Only in us this supposes us dead to self, for in us self is selfishness. I am "free from all," says the apostle, "that I may be the servant of all."

(V. 15). In connection with the changing circumstances of life we should be ready to rejoice with those who rightly rejoice, and weep with those in sorrow.

No member of the human body suffers in isolation; the suffering of any one member affects the whole body, and every individual member of it. Thus it is where the truth of the one body in Christ is known and entered into; any trial or sorrow sustained by a saint of God is felt by every other member of the assembly. We suffer with them because they are bound up with us in a divine unity that binds us more closely in life and affection than any other bond of fellowship known in this world. The ties that bind men together in fellowship here are bonds that death snaps, and links that pertain to their natural pursuits and temporary welfare; but in the one body saints of God are bound together by the Holy Spirit in a unity of divine life that death cannot touch, where the interests of God hold us, and where we are occupied with each other regarding eternal things. Is it then any wonder, where these things are truly entered into, that we feel so intimately the sorrows and sufferings of our fellow-members? In the same way we enter into the joys of our brethren. The relationship is so close and so real that we can confide in saints in a way that we cannot with the most closely related in nature; and this because we know and feel the divine character of the ties that bind us together.

"And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with [it]: whether a [or one] † member is glorified, all the members rejoice with [it]." (Ver. 26.) It is not said merely that they ought, but that they do. Whether it be good or ill, all that is according to God in one Christian goes out for blessing to all the rest; and there is not an ill or scandal in a saint at the antipodes which does not affect with its shade and suffering every other in these lands. We consciously suffer or rejoice, one may add, in the measure of our spiritual power. But the effect is real throughout the church. It is a body — the body of Christ — and as a whole it feels in joy or sorrow: else it were not a real organic unity. Undoubtedly also its present condition, with denominational barriers, which in all the saints sever into independent associations, as well as with the allowance of the world in most, reduces spiritual sensibility to the lowest: still, far from desiring otherwise, one dares not deny that it subsists, surviving these deplorable hindrances by its own vitality, as flowing from the Holy Spirit of God who dwells in the church.

The other side of this responsibility — if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it — is more difficult. The case supposed is that of some member of the body on whom the Lord has put some special honour, giving him some special prominence, or using him in a striking way in service. When this is the case, it is assumed that all the members will rejoice in his exaltation — in his being honoured, "glorified." I say that this is assumed; and indeed, if the oneness of the body be practically maintained, there will be this perfect sympathy. It is often exemplified in a family. If one of its members receive some promotion, or some special mark of approbation from the sovereign, the whole family feels honoured, and rejoices with its distinguished member. So should it be in the Church of God. But is it too much to say that, as a matter of fact, sympathy in this direction is more rare than in that of suffering? We are such poor feeble creatures, that, instead of rejoicing with the brother whom the Lord may have singled out for honour, we find in his Lord's choice food for envy or jealousy. Such feelings ought not even to be named among saints, and yet, alas! are they uncommon? We all need to watch over ourselves, for we know what the flesh is — and it is still in us, that we may unsparingly judge ourselves when we fail in this particular. Nay, more; we are responsible to rejoice with the honoured member. The Lord so counts upon our oneness of feeling that He expects to see it exhibited. John the Baptist may be cited as an illustration, though he knew nothing of the body of Christ. "Rabbi," say his disciples, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizes, and all men come to Him. John answered, and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from God. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him. He that has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:26-30). What blessed, lowly grace — thinking all of Christ and nothing of self, and entering into, and rejoicing, because of, His joy! It is precisely this spirit which we should cherish; and it is in the expression of it, that we proclaim that we are Christ's, following thereby in the path of lowliness and self-abasement that ever characterised His ways while here below. Then we should have no difficulty when one member is honoured, in rejoicing with it.

If we seek to sympathize with the suffering it is needful that we should take their sorrows to our selves. Merely to speak a word of condolence to others is not genuine sympathy. We must appropriate the trials of others and carry them upon the spirit. For such a service we need to have the Spirit of the Master within us, learning first His comfort for ourselves as displayed here, and then ministering the same to others.