Joy: the Fruit of the Spirit Part 3
“But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23
It’s amazing how much theology there is in the children’s songs we sang in Sunday school or with our own children. Here is one I remember singing often as a child:
“I’ve got joy, down in my heart, Deep, deep down in my heart!J-O-Y, down in my heart, Deep, deep down in my heart! Jesus gave it to meAnd nothing can destroy it!I’ve got joy, down in my heart,Deep, deep down in my heart!”
Despite the simple and repetitive nature of the lyrics, this little song contains a sometimes uncomfortable truth from Scripture. It says that the joy Jesus gives is indestructible. Think about that for a moment. Jesus said,
“These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” (John 15:11)
For the saved in Christ, our joy is the joy of Christ dispensed to us by the Holy Spirit. As Jesus said, our joy is to remain. That word means to stay, be present, continue, abide, dwell, or endure.
Once joy is given, God means it to stay put.
But we don’t always feel joyful, do we? You may be reading this with a heart that feels as if all the joy has been sapped out of it. What do we do with the reality of joyless seasons, when Jesus Himself said that His joy was to remain?
We trust that what God’s Word says is true.
Remember that the fruit of the Spirit is a list of things that will fill and overflow our hearts as we walk in the Spirit. Just as love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8) yet we will fail to love if we are letting our flesh control us, so the joy that is to remain will be conspicuously absent if we are not in submission to the Holy Spirit.
Restoring Joy
James 4:8-10 was written to a group of Christians who had been chasing after worldly things, finding themselves aligned with the world instead of with God.
Though James points out the seriousness of their sin, he does not leave them helpless. He tells them how to get back to a right relationship with God:
“Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.” (4:8-10)
When we find ourselves without joy because of sin, it is a call to repentance. We can never enjoy the calm delight of the Spirit of God if we are grieving Him by sin left unconfessed and undealt with. We have no right to expect joy when following our own way instead of God’s.
But what exactly is joy, anyway?
Joy’s Definition
The word joy in Galatians 5:22 is the word chara, which has to do with cheerfulness and gladness. The part of the Strong’s definition I found the most enlightening was the phrase, “calm delight.”
We often think of joy as a frenetic energy, like a small child jumping up and down with excitement they just can’t hold in, but that is not what joy is, and I’m glad of that! That kind of excitement is enjoyable for a time, but is intended to fade. We are not built to sustain a frantic happiness for long.
That is why this idea of a calm delight is so helpful to us. For many, joy is elusive because the things being sought for is not really joy. Rather than a burst of energetic happiness, joy is meant to stay quietly in the background, to be always there, to be enjoyed continuously. This is Biblical joy, the joy that remains.
Interestingly, this word for joy comes from the same root word as the word grace. Both share an initial root word that means to be happy or well. In fact, that very root word that connects grace and joy could itself be translated as joy or rejoice.
I think this connection between joy and grace is both interesting and informative, because it shows just how much joy is to be a part of the Christian life which is lived by the grace of God. (Titus 2:11)
To put it simply, grace is the gift of God that enables us to have abiding joy.
Joy and the Gospel
Not only are joy and grace tied together, joy and the gospel are likewise inseparable. When the angels announced the birth of the long-awaited Savior, what did they say?
“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” (Luke 2:10)
We sing songs like “Joy to the World” at Christmas, but as we have already seen, the joy of Christmas is an abiding joy. It is the joy of the gospel: Christ came to die in our place, bearing the punishment for our sin and offering the gift of salvation to all people.
Acts 8 tells of the first recorded presentation of the gospel in Samaria. Notice its result:
“Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city.” (vv.5-8)
The people “with one accord” believed the gospel, and the result was great joy. That brings us to our next point:
Joy and Fellowship
Not only did the truth of the gospel and the salvation it offered bring great joy to the Samaritans, it brought them into a new kind of fellowship one with another. They were all hearing and seeing and for those who believed, it was the beginning of a new life in Christ, a new life they shared with their fellow believers.
If we are walking in the Spirit, there will be a beautiful kind of unity as we exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in our interactions one with another.
Joy and Persecution
One of the defining differences between the joy of the Spirit and what the world calls joy is its relation to outward circumstances. The world’s joy depends on things going well, while the joy of the Spirit not only withstands difficulties and trials, it actually thrives in them!
In the book of Hebrews, we are told to persevere in the Christian life,
“Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)
Christ’s joy was not found in the pain He would suffer, but rather in the end result that pain would accomplish. The joy of the end result made the grievous difficulties of the process seem like nothing.
For the Christian, the “end result,” so to speak, is heaven. No matter what valleys God leads us through on earth, no matter what pain, sorrow, or trouble, we can keep in our hearts the calm delight of heaven, looking to Jesus as our example.
And according to Jesus, true persecution is actually a cause for rejoicing.
“Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.” (Luke 6:22-23)
This is why the disciples in Acts 5 rejoiced when threatened and beaten by the Jewish leaders.
“And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (v.41)
Instead of discouraging the disciples, the council’s persecution encouraged them to be bold for Christ! When we face persecution for the sake of Christ, we likewise can be encouraged, for “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2 Timothy 3:12)
Joy and Trials
Not all difficulties we face in life will be due to persecution. What significance does joy have when we are facing the other hard things of life? James 1 tells us,
“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” (vv.2-3)
God never allows anything into our lives which He does not intend to use for our good. When we come face to face with a trial, we can do so with a calm delight, trusting that God is going to do something good through it.
This joy does not necessarily lessen the pain or sorrow of the trial, but it does give us hope and peace as we go through it, knowing God is right there with us.
The book of 1 Peter also gives us some perspective on trials and joy:
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1:7-9)
Our joy in trials is not that we have a trial, but that through it, God is building our faith. Though we cannot see Christ, we nevertheless find joy “unspeakable and full of glory” in the truth that He is and that He will fulfill His promise to come again.
If our eyes are fixed on Christ, nothing can dim our joy. Our calm delight in all that God is and has promised will transcend all earthly sorrows and difficulties.
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 15:13)