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Facets of Fruits: Joy Ever wondered what the difference between happiness and joy is? Turns out there isn't one. Learn where biblical joy comes from and how to water this facet of the Fruit of the Spirit.   Show Notes: I was taught growing up and have also heard multiple times as an adult that there is a difference between joy and happiness. Usually people say that happiness is a light, more earthly thing, and joy is a deep, abiding, biblical thing. In fact, there is no biblical evidence for this, and this teaching has only been around since the mid 1900s, starting with Oswald Chambers. Both the bible and church fathers before Chambers used joy and happiness interchangeably, as synonyms. If you study the Hebrew and Greek words translated as joy and happiness, there are variations in meaning from word to word, but every one of them has an indication of an outward expression of the emotion felt. Somehow along the way we’ve lost the fact that to rejoice in the Lord, as Paul commands on four occasions in Philippians, means to be happy and glad and smile and shout and dance around! And we’ve made an excuse for this by saying that we have the joy of the Lord, it’s just way down in our hearts. Well let me tell you what: it wasn’t designed to just be way down it your heart; it was designed to be on your face. Now there are a few objections to this, so I’ll take a minute to address those. If you’ve been paying attention to this podcast, you’ve heard me say a couple of times that non-believers can’t produce the Fruit of the Spirit. But we’ve certainly all been around non-Christians who were displaying joy of some kind. There isn’t a magic moment when people get saved and can suddenly smile and laugh. But wouldn’t that be interesting. Maybe I’ll write a novel with that premise… Anyway, so how can non-believers experience joy if joy is a facet of the Fruit of the Spirit? There are a couple answers to this. First of all, the joy that comes from the Spirit is not situationally dependent. It can be there in tough times and easy. It doesn’t matter what’s going on in our lives, we can experience this happiness of the Spirit. Obviously this is not true of unbelievers, and it is a massive witness to them when we can smile and laugh despite our circumstances. Their circumstance-driven joy comes as a part of common grace, which is the idea that God shows some kindness to everyone, regardless of whether they believe in Him or not. Psalm 145:9 says, “The Lord is good to everyone; His compassion rests on all He has made.” Matthew 5:45, “For [God] causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Acts 14:17, “[God] did not leave Himself without a witness, since He did what is good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and satisfying your hearts with food and happiness.” Now that we know that joy is not distinct from happiness, let’s look a little more at where it comes from. Each facet of the fruit of the Spirit certainly comes from the Spirit, but there are things we can point to that God uses to bring about growth in each area. The facet of love comes from knowing how greatly God loves us and how greatly He loves others. Dwelling on those truths waters the fruit. I’m going to read a few passages and explain how they water the facet of joy. John 16:16-24, “‘A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.’ So some of his disciples said to one another, ‘What is this that he says to us, “A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me”; and, “because I am going to the Father”?’ So they were saying, ‘What does he mean by “a little while”? We do not know what he is talking about.’ Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, ‘Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, “A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me”? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.’” This in between of after Jesus has gone but before He’s come again is sorrowful. We are expecting something great and fulfilling, but it’s not here yet, and we sense that tension. In this time, though, we see and taste the future joy by asking things of the Father in Jesus name and being given them. So joy comes from both the anticipation of the coming fulfillment of everything God has promised us and from seeing God work in our lives in the midst of the time of sorrow. 1 Peter 1:3-9, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Joy comes from the knowledge of our great salvation and the coming fulfillment of it, and though it is coupled with grief to test our faith, it is not overcome by it. The more we dwell on the beauty of our imperishable, undefiled, unfading inheritance and how amazing and wonderful it is that Christ would save us and cause us to be born again, the more joy we have. Romans 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Joy in the Holy Spirit, along with righteousness and peace, sum up the kingdom of God. Psalm 16:11, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Joy comes from spending time in God’s presence and receiving His gifts to us. Romans 15:8-13, “For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, ‘Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.’ And again it is said, ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.’ And again, ‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.’ And again Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.’ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Joy comes from God through the experience and knowledge of salvation. James 1:2-3, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” Joy is not exclusive from trials and hardships but should be deliberately pursued through them. It’s not a matter of trying to find joy despite the things you think are bad and wish weren’t happening. Those things in and of themselves are to be counted as joys. Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” To rejoice in the Lord is a command, and it’s repeated twice in this one verse, four times in the book, probably because he knew we wouldn’t be good at it. You’ve probably noticed some patterns. First of all, the number one thing that causes joy is understanding and dwelling on the salvation of our souls that has come from God the Father through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what enables us to rejoice in the sorrow of a lost loved one. If they are a believer, we rejoice that we will see them again. If they are not, we rejoice that God in His sovereignty and love chose us to be His child, despite ourselves. If you are ever having a rough day and finding it hard to be cheerful, spend some time reading about and thinking on the fact that our omnipotent Creator God made Himself like us and died in the most humiliating way so that you could be called His child again and be used for His amazing plan for history and humanity. If that doesn’t spark joy, I dare say the Spirit is not in you. Now really, we shouldn’t wait until we’re feeling particularly depressed to start thinking about how great God is and how wonderful what He’s done for us is. This should be a daily exercise that reorients our minds and hearts toward Him and gives us the Spirit-enabled joy to make it through the day, whatever it may bring. Maybe you start journaling about how you feel about your salvation. Maybe you spend five or ten minutes every morning just going over it in your mind and thanking God for it. Whatever that may look like for you, I hope you set aside some time to water the facet of the fruit of the Spirit called joy. Thanks for listening to More than Milk. I’m still trying to get the hang of this new rhythm of life with throwing podcasting into the mix, so I hope you’ll bear with me and put up with my off-kilter schedule. Next week we are going to talk about the facet of fruit called peace. I hope you’ll join me then.