Join in the Joy
Through the years, I have frequently preached about joy. It is more than an emotion (although it includes emotion); rather, it is a settled attitude, a stable and sturdy approach to life that focuses us on the things that matter now and forever. Joy is much greater and much more powerful than happiness, which is event or circumstance driven. There is nothing wrong with happiness. It is certainly better than unhappiness. Also, we have different personalities. For example, my wife is happy-go-lucky. Of course, she has every reason to be, being married to me. However, not everyone can be married to me. We need something more substantial than happiness; that something is joy. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
We have been studying John 17:13 for more than a week. Jesus said, “These things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” One of “these things” is peace, as we find in John 14:27 and 16:33. The peace of God is difficult to define, but it is far more than our human concept of peace, which is the lack of fighting. It includes the idea of completeness and wholeness; it is the best of God’s goodness to us. As we have seen several times in this study of joy, we cannot compartmentalize the perfections of God. Thus, we should not be surprised that joy and peace are linked. We cannot be complete in Jesus without His joy; in context, we are also taught that we are to expect the antagonism of the world and the resulting “tribulation.” This contrast highlights the absolute difference between Jesus and the world. The fact that He would die on the Cross to offer His eternal joy and peace to everyone in this wicked world further display His grand goodness. Without Him, we cannot be whole; with Him, as a Gospel song says, “He will make you ev’ry whit whole!”