‘Always rejoice!’ This is a legitimate (which has its rightful place) commandment, because it is a consequence of the commandment—’In everything (and always! because if you thank for everything, it means also always—V.A.) give thanks!’ We thank for what we received as a gift! And what do we have that we would not have received from God?! Space, time, Paradise, God, and ultimately you yourself are God’s Gift (see 1 Cor. 4). Every moment of your existence (existence)— is God’s Gift (everything stands, moves, and lives, everything stands by the Word of God in the Hypostasis of the Logos, the Son of God). Absolutely everything that you ‘have’, ‘own’ and ‘who you are’—God’s gift and the gift of Others (and that everything is a gift, not a necessity—we know from the knowledge that God is Personality, absolute freedom, that is, Love, and Love is an absolute gift, every energy of the being of God—hypostatic Love, hypostatic Gift (Grace), kenotic self-giving, self-sacrifice…). God is Love—this means that everything is given to you, for your Happiness (without credits, collateral, debt ethical obligations (like: you will do this, you will earn that), unconditionally; the law of commandments was given for the manifestation of sin, so that, fulfilling the commandments of God, a person would recognize his powerlessness, godlessness, nothing-being (nothing-being, what we are without God—nothing!), become righteous (one who knows the truth about himself) and by humility (the state of righteousness, the state in which one who knows the truth about himself and hopes for God’s mercy) could receive the Gift (of the Holy Spirit)). ‘God gives us all things richly to ENJOY’ (see 1 Tim. 6:17). The giving of the Gift is the Mystery of God’s providence (God protects our freedom every moment, and, directing, leading everyone to Happiness, helps to correct our mistakes…).
How can one rejoice when I have diseases, persecutions, troubles…? Very simple, say the Christians (that this is generally possible, see the example of the life of the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 11-12). How can this be?! To explain, let’s draw a picture. If you are in the operating room, where the Surgeon (in this case, the Surgeon-Teacher-Healer—a specialist so skilled that all who fall into His skillful hands become healthy, healed. That is, the road after the operating room to the ward (the chambers of Paradise), not to the morgue!), a professional; yes, your situation is so serious that it cannot be completely anesthetized (with anesthesia…)—but aren’t you rejoicing and thanking God (or fate, or the gods, if you are a pagan) that you are not dying of pain and wounds on the street, but are safe, saved (your healing—a matter of time! you are in reliable hands, not abandoned to your fate)… All sorrows, diseases, persecutions, troubles (even—sin-fall—manifestations of symptoms of sin godlessness)—are God’s mercy, God’s Gift—healing medicines for a patient with egotism, selfhood, pride, and such medicines that he could never have bought himself, or an operation that this poor fellow could never have afforded—he is doomed to death—and here is the joyful News, the Gospel: a Benefactor, Sponsor was found (better to say, who found the sick!) and paid for the operation (‘torture’) and (painful) treatment!!! Isn’t this a joy for the one who wanted to Live! Yes, you still have to endure a difficult operation and a painful course of treatment (‘The Kingdom of God is taken by force’, ‘Whom I love, I chasten’), but the entire treatment process (despite the screams of pain, tears, etc.) what will it be permeated with?!—Joy, constant joy!!! Yes, like the one whose tooth hurts (or some other organ or system)—whatever he does, always feels pain, which is the background (context) of all affairs, feelings. Similarly, joy for a Christian is the background of all feelings, affairs, deeds. Always rejoice! Yes, this commandment is realized (lived) only by those who are Christ’s, who have the Spirit of Christ, who are members of the eucharistic community-parish, those who fight for the Joy of Christ against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, which (to the faithful) prevent being faithful to Christ…
He who does not rejoice—is not a Christian! This is one of the criteria by which one can recognize the disciples of Christ. Yes, the motivation for joy can be different. True joy—is joy in the Holy Spirit, joy based on the knowledge of the Kingdom of God, which has already come, joy, which lies at the basis of penitential labors, acquisition, acceptance, mastering the Gift of Adoption, Deification, joy, which is the source (lies at the basis) of the joy-creating tears of repentance, caused by the knowledge of the pleasure of Paradise, which does not yet have the strength to retain, and therefore must leave this state, but with the aftertaste of the paradisiacal pleasure of the Holy Spirit on the hypostatic lips of the heart… But there are many dreamers, who moralistically read in the Bible, that one should always rejoice, and who squeeze joy out of themselves, in which they egoistically (relying on themselves and their fantasies) dwell through self-suggestion, that they are already saved, that they are already in Paradise—although they do not partake of the Eucharist. They dream and, deceiving themselves, convince themselves (and believe) that they are in the Kingdom of God (at least convinced that after death a place in Paradise is guaranteed to them, while there are no grounds based on the experience-knowledge of the Heavenly Kingdom in the Holy Spirit, that is, the deposit has not been accepted!?)… Drug addicts also rejoice when doses of narcotic substances timely enter the body… Dreamers of various kinds, when living in their own illusionary fantastic worlds, seeking pleasure and in it joy, or conversely—rejoice with such illusory, unfounded joy… We are not talking about such (changeable, occurring, temporary) joy. We are talking about the Truth; Christians (Orthodox) are not looking for pleasure, not joy, but Christ, the Truth and as a result of union with Christ in the Eucharist (communion of the Holy Spirit, the Divine essence) receive both joy and pleasure! Christians are looking for the Truth, not pleasure, what is, not what happens (passes)! (When I say ‘looking’, it’s only because they have already found; they just can’t keep it yet, can’t stand on the height of the dignity of godsonship). Even into hell—just not to lose Christ, the Truth!