What is Joy?

John 15:8-11

What is joy?  Is it being happy and filling your time with family, work, friends, and accomplishments; will that bring joy into a person’s life?  This is what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 2:9-11,  “So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem.  Also my wisdom remained with me. ¹⁰ And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. ¹¹ Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” 

He is clear that those are words few of us can define, and could it be that there is a form of earthly joy that is often fleeing, it can slip out of our hearts in a moment.   The great prophet Isaiah has spoken on this in chapter 24 of the book with his name.  Is the loss of Divine favor, the loss of joy, this is what is being referred to both by Isaiah and by John in the Revelation, chapter 18:23.

But is there not a joy that comes at the birth of a child, the marriage of a child, the possession of a home, and in a daughter or son that grows into a fine adult? Yes, there is, and Proverbs addresses such; “The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.”  (Proverbs 23:24 ESV)

But for us who have the hope of eternal life in and through Jesus Christ, we have the promise of joy in sorrow.  Jesus is our example of joy at the worst moment of His earthly life.  “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2 ESV)

You and I who have Christ, by keeping the commandments of Jesus and by abiding in Him, can live in joy, no matter what the Father allows to come into our life.  That is the promise of John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice