John 15:9-17
Jesus Gives His Disciples Joy
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
John 16:24
Making Joy Complete
24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
1 John 1:3-4
Complete Joy
3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
2 John 2:12
Making Joy Complete
12 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
Matthew 7:24-29
Wise and Foolish Builders
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Luke 10:21
Joy of the Holy Spirit
21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
Galatians 5:22-23
Fruit of the Spirit
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
1 Peter 1:8-9
Glorious Joy
8 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, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
I have read where there is a difference in happiness and in joy…Happiness is more of a temporary state…Joy refers more to a type of contentment…I think one can be happy and have joy…But one can also not be happy and be contented and in joy…And there is pleasure that is found in both happiness, and in joy...This joy or contentment comes from the LORD…It is a foundation in our lives that we have built…No storm or winds of troubles can bring down this joy, and this hope in this kind of joy…This joy is found in hope, belief, and in faith...Jesus said this about joy, “As the Father has LOVED Me, so have I LOVED you...Now remain in My LOVE...If you keep My commands, you will remain in My LOVE, just as I have kept 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. "...
The Archbishop Fulton Sheen said this about joy..."Joy is not the same as pleasure or happiness...A wicked and evil man may have pleasure, while any ordinary mortal is capable of being happy...Pleasure generally comes from things, and always through the senses; happiness comes from humans through fellowship...Joy comes from loving God and neighbor...Pleasure is quick and violent, like a flash of lightning...Joy is steady and abiding, like a fixed star...Pleasure depends on external circumstances, such as money, food, travel, etc...Joy is independent of them, for it comes from a good conscience and LOVE of God."...
In some similar thoughts on joy, C. S. Lewis commented on happiness, joy, and pleasure...Along with happiness and joy, C. S. Lewis also brings into the conversation about pleasure...He thought that happiness was not a replacement for joy...Pleasure, also was not a replacement for joy...Lewis said, "I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for Joy."...In C. S. Lewis’ book Surprised by Joy, it is about his spiritual journey to God…Lewis travels from atheist to believer (and in my opinion) to theist in Surprised by Joy…And when he makes it from the non-believer to believer, he is Surprised by Joy…Surprised that he has made the journey to the Light Side, because of his past beliefs…In this quote from his book, he gives us some meaning of what he sees as happiness and what is joy…Lewis said, “I call it Joy. 'Animal-Land' was not imaginative...But certain other experiences were...The first is itself the memory of a memory...As I stood beside a flowering currant bush on a summer day there suddenly arose in me without warning, and as if from a depth not of years but of centuries, the memory of that earlier morning at the Old House when my brother had brought his toy garden into the nursery...It is difficult or find words strong enough for the sensation which came over me; Milton's 'enormous bliss' of Eden (giving the full, ancient meaning to 'enormous') comes somewhere near it...It was a sensation, of course, of desire; but desire for what?...Before I knew what I desired, the desire itself was gone, the whole glimpse... withdrawn, the world turned commonplace again, or only stirred by a longing for the longing that had just ceased... In a sense the central story of my life is about nothing else... The quality common to the three experiences... is that of an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction...I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and Pleasure...Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again...I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world...But then Joy is never in our power and Pleasure often is.”...
And although Lewis here sees joy as a more fleeting thing, it is something we search for and want and seek again and again...We want more of this joy...And getting a slice or a glimpse of this joy, will forever have us looking for more of it...Joy is found in finding Jesus, and finding His Word and following His commands...C. S. Lewis found this joy, and reluctantly became a believer in God...
The Christian mystic Julian of Norwich said this of relating Jesus to joy...We shall never cease wanting and longing until we possess Him in fullness and joy...
We can see how joy is different from happiness and pleasure as we read these above ideas...Joy is Spiritual...Joy is a contentment, that is linked to Jesus...Joy is a faith that survives the heavy rains, the heavy winds, and the rising streams...This is because the foundation of Joy is an authority from God Himself...
Jesus relates joy to love…And we can see how there is great joy in the one and the ones we love…Jesus LOVES His Disciples and wants to make their joy complete...And their joy will remain complete, if they can stay in His LOVE...As we read through His words and try to understand His LOVE connection to joy, He talks about the fruit we will bear...As God has LOVED His Son, He has LOVED His Disciples...Now if the Disciples remain in His LOVE and can keep His commands they will remain in His love...And just as He has kept His Father’s commands, He remains in God's LOVE...Jesus told His Disciples this so that His joy might be in them and that there joy could be made be complete...Jesus' command was this: Love each other as I have LOVED you...Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends...The Disciples are now His friends, if they can do what He commands...He would no longer call them servants, because a servant does not know His Master’s business....They know know His business and His purpose on coming to earth...Instead, He will now call them friends, for everything that He has learned from His Father He has made known to His Disciples...The Twelve did not choose Him, but Jesus chose the Twelve and appointed them so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever they would ask in Jesus' name the Father will give them...This was His command: Love each other...
Joy is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit...I think His love and His joy made complete in us, might be the two main the fruits of the Spirit...The all important fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control...Love and joy are the first of the fruits mentioned of the Holy Spirit...