Sunday, May 23, 2010

Joy is Our Duty

A strong emphasis on joy being a duty as well as a privilege is charateristic of Puritan teaching.  They all affirmed that joy is an essential part of God’s kingdom, not just icing on the cake.  A Christian life that does not manifest joy is not a true representation of God’s nature.  Romans 14:17 tells us that the kingdom of God is not a matter of observing religious rituals, but is experienced in the righteousness and peace and joy of the Holy Spirit.  Romans 15:13 fills out this picture of what is essential in Christianity: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  We see throughout John 14 that Jesus, when He was about to leave His disciples and return to the Father, took great pains to assure them that He had made provision for their joy.  He promised that the Holy Spirit would come to them specifically as the Comforter.  Christ was so solicitous about this because He knew the essential part joy plays in the life of the individual believer.  Nehemiah 8:10 shows how indispensable it is in the spiritual life: “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”  Thomas Manton brilliantly explains the superiority of Christian joy over that of the world: “Certainly joy revives us in well-doing, it renders the functions of body and mind free and vigorous, that we may walk with alacrity and good conscience.  The joy that we impress upon you is not a wantonness by which we cast away care and labor, and give ourselves up to ease and lusts, as those do that make their life nothing but recreation; but such a joy that makes us go about our duties and callings with encouragement.”  True happiness is not found in going on vacation.  Christians experience sweet refreshment when they delight to go about the business God has given them.   

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