TR Hartley

A friend recently confessed to me, somewhat downcast, that he felt he didn’t experience joy well. To him, joy was supposed to be this bright and high emotion, and he felt a bit embarrassed that wasn’t really an apt description of his own emotions.

I appreciated my friend’s honesty, and I think his problem, not experiencing joy like the Bible seems to indicate that Christians should, is pretty common. I wonder, however, how much of that is a reflection of us misunderstanding joy.

I think we might be well served to understand joy as less of a ceiling (the highest state or expression of good emotions), and more of a floor (a foundation upon which other emotions are experienced).

Let’s look at a few different verses as we explore this.

Romans 15:13 says: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Let’s look at this verse line by line, noting the correlation between hope and joy in this verse:

“May the God of hope” : God is identified as the source and foundation for hope.

“fill you with all joy and peace” : This God of hope is willing to fill His people with joy and peace.

“as you trust in Him” : This filling with joy and peace takes place as His people resolve to trust in (Greek “pisteuō“, literally “to have faith in”) Him.

“so that you may overflow with hope” : The result of being filled with joy and peace as we decide to trust, is to “overflow with hope”, or to have hope in great abundance.

“by the power of the Holy Spirit” : And all of this is happening not just of human will or emotion. This isn’t a “power of positive thinking” moment, it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Taken altogether, I think Romans 15:13 is showing us that God (the “God of hope”) brings about joy and peace in His people as His people trust in Him, and this results in an overflowing, or abundant or abounding hope, accomplished by the Holy Spirit.

So… why are joy and hope correlated? Why is there so much intersection between these two?

The starting point is faith in Who God is and in what He has promised: our sure knowledge that God will bring about the redemption of things. We can choose to rejoice in all circumstances, because we know that the goodness of God is such that He will redeem all of life, the good and the bad. That allows us to have joy and peace, and for those to culminate in an enduring hope, as we trust in Him.

So, for now, joy is an emotional floor… it’s like contentment. Regardless of what is going on, even if I’m in the midst of grieving, I can be joyful, because I know that this will pass, and it will end well for God’s people. I can have joy be the floor, or foundation, of my emotional life, even if there is grief or disappointment or depression or loneliness, etc, on top of that foundation. I know that in Christ, God will redeem all things for His people.

I think one of the most powerful examples of this is Christ heading to the cross.

Hebrews 12:1-2: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Jesus knew that God would use the ultimate injustice and tragedy, the death of the Son of God, to bring about a great good, the redemption of God’s people. And so Jesus endured the Cross. He didn’t enjoy it. He didn’t delight in it. He wasn’t happy as He was being maimed. But because He hoped in the goodness of God, He was motivated by joy even in the midst of His suffering.

Ultimately, at the end of history, when we see the redemption of God, all of God’s people will experience joy as an emotional ceiling. Full of bright and exuberant happiness… forever. That’s the joy that will come to God’s people.

But for now, we are joyful as we find contentment in our current circumstances.

So, what do we do with this? Why does this matter?

I think a lot of times Christians beat themselves (or others!) up for not experiencing happiness.

This line of thinking, that joy should be this high emotional feeling that we experience constantly, is an awfully high bar to demand of people, and isn’t really biblical. We are called to “Mourn with those who mourn”, etc.

Joy as a high emotion is what God ultimately has in store for His people. But for now, we groan with all creation for the redemption of God, as we place our faith in a Kingdom that has already come, and is coming.