There are some topics that are more valuable
of the Christian’s study and attention than the topic of Christian joy and happy.
Gordon Fee hits the nail on the head when he writes, “Joy…lies at the heart of
the Christian experience of the gospel; it is the fruit of the Spirit in any
truly Christian life, serving as primary evidence of the Spirit’s presence”. He
goes onto say that, “Unmitigated, untrammeled joy is . . . the distinctive mark
of the believer in Christ Jesus”. The great British expositor, Martyn
Lloyd-Jones, wrote that, “Nothing was more characteristic of the first
Christians than this element of joy”. Elsewhere he said, “The greatest need of
the hour is a revived and joyful church”. And perhaps the great Puritan Richard
Baxter said it best when he said, “Delighting in God, and in his word and ways,
is the flower and life of true religion”.
This teaching completely permeates
the entire New Testament and is everywhere confirmed by it. Take in this
staggering emphasis on the centrality of joy in the Christian life as revealed
in Scripture.
There simply cannot be any doubt as
to the centrality of joy in the Christian life. Any thought of joy as being the
“icing on the cake” of the Christian life, or a “take-it-or-leave-it” fruit of
the Spirit, falls woefully short of the biblical testimony. The kingdom of God,
the fruit of the Spirit, the Gospel itself, the beginning and the end of the
Christian life, the goal of prayer, the goal of the Word, the goal of ministry,
the result of fellowship, the strength to endure suffering, and the occupation
of heaven. Joy absolutely saturates the pages of Scripture.
And in the same way, it must
saturate every fiber of our soul and of every aspect of our Christian lives. It
is to be the distinctive and dominating characteristic of the Christian life.
It is, as Baxter said, the flower and life of true religion. May God give us
grace to pursue our greatest and highest joy in Him through Jesus Christ and in
the power of the Holy Spirit.
