The Psalmist had the importance of the Bible in mind when he wrote Psalm 119. Paul had freedom in mind when he wrote Galatians. In writing the church Philippi he repeatedly refers to joy or rejoicing. 

 

Let’s do a topical study of joy in Philippians using the “3 C” study method. Collect all of the references in which that topic is found in a given portion or book. You can do a more extensive study by using a concordance and listing all the references in the Bible. After each reference, write an explanation of what that reference says about the topic.   

 

Once you have done this with each reference, correlate the material by grouping similar information or emphasis together. Give each group a descriptive title and put the titles into a logical order. Then give the resulting outline a title. 

 

Based on the outline, crystallize what you learned into some conclusions or applications showing how the topic relates to your life experience. 

 

In the book of Philippians the words joy or rejoice are mentioned 14 times in the following references: 1:4, 18, 19, 25-26; 2:2, 17, 18, 29; 3:1; 4:1, 4, 10. In your notebook give a brief statement about what is said in each reference regarding joy or rejoicing. For example, Philippians 1:4 says that as Paul thought about the Philippians’ faithful partnership it brought him great joy and led him to pray for them. 

 

After I collected the information in this way, I correlated it into an outline. To prepare for our next visit start collecting information on joy in a notebook.