By: Jared TharpJoy is Not an Option
St. Augustine of Hippo (AD 354 – 430) is arguably one of the most influential church figures since the time of the Apostles, and his masterpiece writing Confessions has, over the centuries, stood as one of the most influential works in all of church history and Christian theology. To this day, there is one sentence written within the first few pages of Confessions which stands out. Augustine wrote, “You [God] stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
If you know anything about St. Augustine, then you know that his life was one spent in a tireless, exhaustive search for happiness. He sought to find fulfillment and satisfaction in the fleeting, temporal pleasures of this life, which only left him unsatisfied and wanting more. He sought after joy and could not find it, and it wasn’t until his dramatic conversion to Jesus Christ that Augustine finally found what he had been searching for all his life. It was not until the “sovereign joy”, as he called it, broke in and awakened within his heart and soul a delight in the beauty, worth, and magnificence of Jesus Christ that he finally found rest.
There is a restlessness and joylessness about our world today, but what Augustine reminds us is that God made us with cravings and longings for joy that would never be satisfied until we came to find our joy in Christ. Our problem isn’t that we want to be happy or desire to be happy, but it’s that we are far too easily pleased, and we settle for things that fall infinitely short of satisfying our happiness. We are, in the words of C.S. Lewis, like little, ignorant children playing around with mudpies, having no idea that we are being offered a holiday at the sea.
Despite what many people today think, God is not indifferent to your feelings. He is not against you being happy; he made you to be happy! God cares about your joy, and that is why it should not surprise us that in Galatians 5:22, the Apostle Paul includes “joy” among his list of the fruit of the Spirit. Do not try and put happiness and holiness against each other. They are not at odds with one another. God doesn’t “care more about your holiness than your happiness,” they go hand-in-hand.
What is Joy?
How should we define this fruit of joy? Joy is a happiness of the heart. A disposition toward cheerfulness or gladness. It is within the heart and soul of a Christian, a deep and pleasurable feeling of delight and satisfaction. Christianity doesn’t consist of merely enduring religion but enjoying salvation. In the words of John Piper, “Joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ both in the word [Bible] and in the world.”
Joy is Expected for the Christian Life
This is the kind of joy that should be a part of every Christian’s life. Since it is described as a “fruit of the Spirit,” it’s obvious that Paul believes that joy is the distinguishing and necessary mark of the Christian life. Joy is not merely icing on the cake but something that should be normal to our character and regularly flow out of our everyday experience and walk with Christ.
The fruit of the Spirit is not to be confused with the gifts of the Spirit. Gifts of the Spirit are given and distributed in different measures to different individuals among the body of Christ; but when it comes to the fruit of the Spirit, all members of the body of Christ are to share and abide in them.
Not only is joy expected in the Christian life, but it’s commanded. Paul says in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice.” Psalm 32:11 says, “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” These are not suggestions but are imperatives or commands. This is unusual to us because we do not typically associate happiness with duty, but rather as an emotion that comes and goes passively and involuntarily.
However, it is clear from Scripture that joy, like any other fruit, ought to be something we cultivate in our very own life—it must become a habit of the heart. Now, don’t get me wrong, joy will certainly come as an “unforeseen kiss” from heaven, but more times than not, we will find ourselves in difficult and desperate situations and circumstances, and it will be in those moments that we will have to learn to put into practice the art of contentment and rejoicing (Phil. 4:10–14), as well as to “consider it all joy” (James 1:2).
Joy is Supernatural in its Source
Since joy is a “fruit of the Spirit,” we are reminded that the source of our joy is found in that which is supernatural. The source of our joy comes from the Holy Spirit, which means that true joy and happiness can only be obtained by Christians who have placed their hope and faith in Jesus Christ. In our pre-conversion, natural human condition, it is impossible for us to be joyful because joy does not exist apart from Christ.
In contrast to the works of the flesh Paul gave us in Galatians 5:19–21, the fruit of the Spirit is not natural to our human condition, but unnatural and can only come as the result of the spiritual transformative work of the Holy Spirit within our lives. The flesh cannot produce this fruit in our life. Joy is not something we possess when we are born or something we adopt as we get older and gain more exposure to life—it must be given to us supernaturally.
Jesus said in John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” The only kind of joy that is true and lasting is the joy that Christ had, and that is the very joy that we are given when we are united to Christ by faith through the Holy Spirit. We are not given a joy “like his” but his very own, real joy.
There is nothing in this world that can possibly give us this kind of happiness. The world can only give us echoes and shadows of joy, not the substance. It can only produce the scent of happiness, but it cannot deliver to us the flower of joy. The only thing that money, fame, sex, drugs, alcohol, houses, family, friends, or experiences can offer us is fleeting, superficial, and artificial pleasures. The only kind of happiness the world knows, in the words of Don Draper from Mad Men, “is that moment before you need more happiness.”
Joy is Multifaceted
Now, we must remember that on this side of heaven, our experience will not be one of constant joy but will be more like a rollercoaster. It will have ebbs and flows. Joy in this life will not always look how we think it should, and it certainly won’t look like how it will in the next life. Joy is multifaceted. Sometimes, it looks like smiles, giggles, and rainbows, and other times, it will look like frowns, sorrows, and grief.
We are told in the Scriptures that we can, in fact, experience joy and sorrow together (2 Cor. 6:10). The best illustration of this, I think, is from Disney Pixar’s movie “Inside Out,” wherein (spoiler alert!) the final moments of the movie Joy and Sadness come together to save and restore Riley’s core memories and personality, only to create a new core memory which consisted of both the colors blue (sadness) and yellow (joy) mixed together. Our emotions, in their fallen, sinful state, are not perfect but are complicated and complex, and sadness and happiness can, in fact, intermingle and co-exist with one another.
True Christian joy does indeed endure and rise above the circumstances in our lives, but it is not removed from them. It is not a faced, or a “fake it till you make it” mentality. Joy does not try to deny the reality of pain, sorrow, or grief, but rather walks alongside it and abides with it.
The Psalms are another great example of how it is possible for a Christian to have joy even in the midst of utter turmoil; and what is it that the Psalms teach us? No matter what is happening around us, no matter how painful our experiences are, how dreadful the outcomes may be, or how excruciating the circumstance, we still have a song to sing, and the last note of every song for the Christian is joy because while you may not have a joyful spirit at all times, you do always have the Spirit of joy within you wherever you go!
Joy Must be Fought For
Finally, if you and I are going to experience joy in this life, we must fight for it. It will not come to us accidentally or by mere coincidence. But how should we fight for joy? Take these three points to heart as you fight for joy:
Look to Christ (the object of your joy) in his word
Cry out to God (the source of your joy) in your prayers
Fellowship with another (the extension of your joy) in your community
The fight for joy will be the fight against “flesh and blood,” the fight against our pride, our selfish desires, and our sin. It will be a constant fight against the tendency to settle for the quick and immediate pleasure that is at our disposal, and to rather fix our faith upon Christ and be satisfied with all that he has done for us in salvation.