Today I'd like to look at this thing about "joy" a little more, picking up where we left off with the verse from 1 Peter. Even today's devotionals were about this subject so I'll start with a verse from them:
John 15:9-11 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
I know most of us really don't like looking at "commands" and we certainly don't like calling them commands either, yet there it is. You know, over the years I've noticed something about God's commands to us, even the ones we don't like. All of them are for our good, not His. Even this next command which has to do with joy:
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
God doesn't "need" us to pray. he already knows what we have, what we need and what we want--better then we ourselves do! So our prayers don't help Him. He doesn't need us to be joyful or to give thanks either. Again, it's not going to do a thing for Him. So why does He say that? He commands us to do these things because these things will help us. Like any good father, He knows what's best for us, what will truly make us happy and healthy etc, so He has made rules for us to follow so we can be joyful and happy all the time.
We don't have to follow His rules. We will still be saved if we don't follow His rules, so our salvation isn't at stake here, but something very important IS at stake. Our relationship with Him. Think about it on an earthly level. As a parent I too made rules for my children to live by and I expected them to follow my rules because they loved me. Sometimes they didn't though. When that happened, I didn't stop loving them, and they didn't suddenly stop being my children. Even the child that seemed to constantly rebel against the rules didn't stop being my child. It did affect our relationship with each other when they didn't obey me though. I would get upset, they would get rebellious and defensive. Generally they would either avoid me as much as they could and when they couldn't avoid me, they'd attempt to avoid the subject of what was wrong.
It's the same way with our Heavenly Father after we're saved. When we don't obey His rules it affects our relationship with Him. We find that we're no longer "abiding in Him" or "remaining in Him", because we're trying to either avoid Him or avoid the subject of the area we're in rebellion about. Often if this isn't taken care of we'll start trying to do things on our own instead of relying on Him and so our relationship will deteriorate even more. Again, we're still saved, but our relationship with Him isn't healthy and full anymore. So let's go back and look at those verses again now that this is clear:
John 15:9-11 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
He has told us what so that our joy is complete? He has told us that the way to remain in His love is by obedience to His commands. Ouch! Now this Christian walk is starting to sound a little difficult! Now we have responsibilities. We are to obey His commands, but what do we get out of this? He says that if we do, His joy will be in us and our joy will be complete. Now that is quite a promise don't you think?
Does that word "complete" ring a bell? Remember where we heard it last?
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
So here we again have joy and completion linked together again and Jesus and/or our faith in Him is also an integral part of both passages. If you think about it, that verse from 1 Peter has all these things as well because our goal is the completion of our salvation:
1 Peter 1:6-9 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
So now we see that this joy is linked to Jesus and our faith in Him. Remember, this is a "living hope" a living faith, not just some head knowledge. We're talking heart knowledge if you will. We're talking about the joy from our relationship with Jesus, but not just from our side of that relationship, but from His side of it too. Now let's look at some other verses this time from Hebrews. First we learn something pretty amazing--
Hebrews 5:8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered
Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered! If that's how Jesus learned while He was on earth, why do we think we're so different that we could learn some other way? We've already seen how important obedience is in our relationship with Him, so if it's that important, to keep our relationship to Him close and good, doesn't it stand to reason that obedience is going to be one of our big lessons to learn?
Let's see what else Hebrews says about this subject of obedience, trials, suffering, discipline etc, faith, completion (remember, we receive the completion of our salvation when He comes to get us at the rapture), perseverance, and joy:
Hebrews 10:35-38 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.”
Hebrews 12:1-7 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. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
So once again we're right back at our relationship with the Lord. When we're saved we become His children. As His children He expects obedience and will discipline us to get it. He also will test us to refine our faith and encourage our growth to maturity. You see, we can't be "complete" if we're not mature. So all of this is entwined together. There's yet other words that are going to become part of this pattern too such as "peace", "holiness", "righteousness", and "our good". Let's look:
Hebrews 12:10-11 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
And how do we come by these things--righteousness, holiness and peace? We are trained by God's discipline and those trials we hate so much! Look again at what James says:
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Let's see what Paul said about being mature and complete:
Philippians 3:12-16 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
Paul let's us know that even he knows he's not perfect yet, but he's doing his best to be obedient to God and so always presses onward. Then he says something very similar to what James says although we hadn't looked at that yet. he says that god will make this clear to us. Here's how James puts it:
James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
We usually take this verse out of context and think it means that God will give us wisdom about anything we ask. While God will do that, in the context this verse is in, James is saying that God will give us wisdom about the subject he's talking about. So let's read it in context:
James 1:2-5 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
So James and Paul are telling us that if we want God's wisdom about our trials and how they can and should be faced with pure joy, and what those trials will do for us, that we must ask God for wisdom about it.
This is a good place to end for today and I hope we'll all ask the Lord to give us His wisdom about this subject, that He will open our eyes and ears that we might see and hear what He has to say to us about this.
Romans 15:13 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.
Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials
John 15:9-11 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
I know most of us really don't like looking at "commands" and we certainly don't like calling them commands either, yet there it is. You know, over the years I've noticed something about God's commands to us, even the ones we don't like. All of them are for our good, not His. Even this next command which has to do with joy:
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
God doesn't "need" us to pray. he already knows what we have, what we need and what we want--better then we ourselves do! So our prayers don't help Him. He doesn't need us to be joyful or to give thanks either. Again, it's not going to do a thing for Him. So why does He say that? He commands us to do these things because these things will help us. Like any good father, He knows what's best for us, what will truly make us happy and healthy etc, so He has made rules for us to follow so we can be joyful and happy all the time.
We don't have to follow His rules. We will still be saved if we don't follow His rules, so our salvation isn't at stake here, but something very important IS at stake. Our relationship with Him. Think about it on an earthly level. As a parent I too made rules for my children to live by and I expected them to follow my rules because they loved me. Sometimes they didn't though. When that happened, I didn't stop loving them, and they didn't suddenly stop being my children. Even the child that seemed to constantly rebel against the rules didn't stop being my child. It did affect our relationship with each other when they didn't obey me though. I would get upset, they would get rebellious and defensive. Generally they would either avoid me as much as they could and when they couldn't avoid me, they'd attempt to avoid the subject of what was wrong.
It's the same way with our Heavenly Father after we're saved. When we don't obey His rules it affects our relationship with Him. We find that we're no longer "abiding in Him" or "remaining in Him", because we're trying to either avoid Him or avoid the subject of the area we're in rebellion about. Often if this isn't taken care of we'll start trying to do things on our own instead of relying on Him and so our relationship will deteriorate even more. Again, we're still saved, but our relationship with Him isn't healthy and full anymore. So let's go back and look at those verses again now that this is clear:
John 15:9-11 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
He has told us what so that our joy is complete? He has told us that the way to remain in His love is by obedience to His commands. Ouch! Now this Christian walk is starting to sound a little difficult! Now we have responsibilities. We are to obey His commands, but what do we get out of this? He says that if we do, His joy will be in us and our joy will be complete. Now that is quite a promise don't you think?
Does that word "complete" ring a bell? Remember where we heard it last?
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
So here we again have joy and completion linked together again and Jesus and/or our faith in Him is also an integral part of both passages. If you think about it, that verse from 1 Peter has all these things as well because our goal is the completion of our salvation:
1 Peter 1:6-9 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
So now we see that this joy is linked to Jesus and our faith in Him. Remember, this is a "living hope" a living faith, not just some head knowledge. We're talking heart knowledge if you will. We're talking about the joy from our relationship with Jesus, but not just from our side of that relationship, but from His side of it too. Now let's look at some other verses this time from Hebrews. First we learn something pretty amazing--
Hebrews 5:8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered
Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered! If that's how Jesus learned while He was on earth, why do we think we're so different that we could learn some other way? We've already seen how important obedience is in our relationship with Him, so if it's that important, to keep our relationship to Him close and good, doesn't it stand to reason that obedience is going to be one of our big lessons to learn?
Let's see what else Hebrews says about this subject of obedience, trials, suffering, discipline etc, faith, completion (remember, we receive the completion of our salvation when He comes to get us at the rapture), perseverance, and joy:
Hebrews 10:35-38 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.”
Hebrews 12:1-7 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. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
So once again we're right back at our relationship with the Lord. When we're saved we become His children. As His children He expects obedience and will discipline us to get it. He also will test us to refine our faith and encourage our growth to maturity. You see, we can't be "complete" if we're not mature. So all of this is entwined together. There's yet other words that are going to become part of this pattern too such as "peace", "holiness", "righteousness", and "our good". Let's look:
Hebrews 12:10-11 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
And how do we come by these things--righteousness, holiness and peace? We are trained by God's discipline and those trials we hate so much! Look again at what James says:
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Let's see what Paul said about being mature and complete:
Philippians 3:12-16 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
Paul let's us know that even he knows he's not perfect yet, but he's doing his best to be obedient to God and so always presses onward. Then he says something very similar to what James says although we hadn't looked at that yet. he says that god will make this clear to us. Here's how James puts it:
James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
We usually take this verse out of context and think it means that God will give us wisdom about anything we ask. While God will do that, in the context this verse is in, James is saying that God will give us wisdom about the subject he's talking about. So let's read it in context:
James 1:2-5 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
So James and Paul are telling us that if we want God's wisdom about our trials and how they can and should be faced with pure joy, and what those trials will do for us, that we must ask God for wisdom about it.
This is a good place to end for today and I hope we'll all ask the Lord to give us His wisdom about this subject, that He will open our eyes and ears that we might see and hear what He has to say to us about this.
Romans 15:13 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.
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