The Duty of Joy

To the Puritans, joy in the Christian was not just a matter of personality, neither was it optional.  John Howe, affirming that God requires joy of all believers, wrote: “Settle this persuasion in your hearts, that the serious, rational, regular, seasonable exercise of delight and joy is a matter of duty, to be charged upon conscience, from the authority of God, and is an integral part in the religion of Christians.”  Another stellar Puritan, Richard Sibbes, agreed with that, stating: “Joy is that frame and state of the soul that all who have given their names to Christ either are in, or should labor to be in.”  We are not only required by God to have joy, but in salvation we have abundant reasons for joy, regardless of our outward circumstances.  Consider, Christians have been freed from the most terrible condition possible—being subject to the just wrath of God.  Knowing they have been set free from the greatest harm and that they now possess the greatest good, how can joy not be an eminent characteristic of the lives of Christians?  For such blessed ones, to lack joy is utterly irrational.  The Puritans emphatically insisted that that joy is the only rational response believers can make to these things.  More tomorrow.