A Virtuous LifeNäide

Joy

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23 NLT

Becoming a person of virtue means becoming like Jesus—being full of all of the good fruit that His Spirit produces in us when we let Him guide our lives. Yesterday, we talked about the first and greatest of the virtues, love. Love is so much more than affection; it requires action. It’s a choice to sacrifice yourself for the good of someone else. A choice that is best exemplified through Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross. Today, we are talking about joy—a virtue that we’d probably all like to experience a little more of in our lives! We’re going to see how joy that’s rooted in a real relationship with Jesus is better and lasts longer than the happiness that anything or anyone else can offer.

Let’s start by defining joy. We typically think of joy and happiness as interchangeable terms. Or maybe, if you grew up in church, you would say that joy is just the “Christian version” of happiness. So, let’s compare and contrast.

Joy and happiness both have to do with feelings of longing and desires for satisfaction. When a longing is fulfilled or a desire is satisfied, we feel happy or joyful. Where happiness and joy start to differ is in the target of those longings and desires. Happiness might aim for feeling content and comfortable in this world, making a good life for yourself, or avoiding painful experiences. Those are desires that are common to pretty much all humans! When they’re satisfied, we feel happy. But the reality that you already know is that, in this life, we don’t always get what we want. We walk through hard and painful things that, no matter how hard we try, we don’t get to avoid. So if living comfortably and pain-free (happiness) is the target we aim for, more often than not, we’re going to be disappointed.

What does the joy target look like? Joy longs for something that no earthly experience can fully satisfy. It’s a deep desire for the realities that we were created for! Life in perfect communion with God and with others. Being fully seen, fully known, and fully loved for exactly who you are. The world as it should be. Work that’s awe-inspiring and beautiful. Heaven, here, now. That’s the joy target.

So, honestly, which target are you aiming for? What results are you getting? Is it even possible to experience joy on this side of heaven?

Because of Jesus, real, lasting joy is possible. You can aim at that target and hit it because of the gospel.

The gospel is the good news that Jesus came to rescue us from our sin, repair our relationship with God, and restore us as God’s partners in His good plans for the world.

Jesus preached it like this:

“The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” Mark 1:15 NLT

Heaven is close! Our sins can be forgiven. Our relationship with God is repaired. Can you see it? Joy is at hand!

This is why, when Jesus was born, the angels burst onto the scene, declaring:

… “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” Luke 2:10-11 NLT

Jesus made joy possible because through His birth, life, death, and resurrection, He brought heaven, the reality you were made for, near. He launched the mission of reuniting heaven and earth, and now, we get to be part of God’s kingdom.

Joy is available through Jesus. So, stay connected to Him! In John 15, that’s the invitation Jesus lays out:

“When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” John 15:10-11 NLT

Jesus desires for you to experience joy, and He’s so good and so kind, He tells us exactly how to do it. We remain in His love by obeying His commands. Said another way, obedience to Jesus’ commands connects us to His heart and produces joy in our lives.

Thankfully, like we talked about yesterday, Jesus’ commandment is pretty straightforward:

“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.” John 15:12

Straightforward doesn’t mean it’s easy to do or a pain-free experience. Doing the work to die to ourselves so we can really love God and really love others is incredibly hard and sometimes painful. So much so that Jesus’ love for God and us took Him all the way to the cross. But, do you know why He did it?

… Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Hebrews 12:2 NLT

Jesus endured the cross because of the joy waiting for Him on the other side. The joy that comes from doing what God asks. The joy of a restored relationship with His people. The joy of launching the new creation project and getting to work with you to finish it.

Jesus’ example shows us something really powerful about joy. Unlike happiness, joy and suffering aren’t opposites. Sometimes, suffering provides a pathway to more joy than we ever thought possible. That’s why James, Jesus’ brother, says:

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. James 1:2-4 NLT

What James knows is that we grow to be more like Jesus through the hard stuff, when our faith is tested. And that’s why he says it’s an opportunity for great joy, because the more like Jesus we become, the better we get at loving people and bringing heaven to earth—at doing the stuff that leads to overflowing joy in our lives! And that leads us right back to where we started: Becoming a person of virtue means becoming like Jesus.