Skip to Content Area

Fruit of the Spirit: Joy

Our blog posts on the fruit of the Spirit continue this week with the second thing listed in Galatians 5:22-23joy. As Stacey, our youth director, reminded us last week there are two assumptions in the phrase “fruit of the Spirit.” First, fruit is the product of growth and life. Second, the source of that growth and life is located in the Holy Spirit. So when we discuss joy as a fruit of the Spirit we are acknowledging that we can grow in our lifetime in the area of joy and that we need the Holy Spirit in order to do that. But what would it look like exactly?

Joy is that quality of life that stems from experiencing the love of God, both receiving it and giving it away. It is also related to peace, the kind of peace that is implied by the Hebrew word shalom, which is not just the absence of conflict, but a whole world, all-encompassing, cosmic harmony between all the diverse parts of God’s creation. Living in a fallen world we experience the absence of joy acutely because we experience the presence and power of sin all around us. Rebellion against the good Creator creates chaotic hatred rather than cosmic harmony. This comes in many forms from passive suffering such as disease, disasters of nature, or being a victim of someone’s sin, but also active rebellion such as lying, stealing, or cheating. Knowing the world is in this condition, how can we ever expect to have joy? Would not the absence of a universal shalom also rob us of universal joy?

Our joy is rooted in the truth that God is on the move. Our joy comes from knowledge of the truth that God is not a clockmaker who has wound up the universe and is sitting idly by waiting for it to wind down, but He is and has been always intimately involved in His creation with a plan to restore shalom and to give us cosmic joy. Where do we see this?

Of course it’s all throughout the story of Scripture. Every time the Spirit moves a piece of creation back toward the rule, reign, and peace of God, joy follows. Miriam sings joyfully in Exodus 15 when the Israelites are rescued from the slavery experienced in Egypt. The people of God set up stones of remembrance and rejoiced when they entered the Promised Land in Joshua 4. Solomon prays a prayer full of joy after the temple is built. These are just a few examples of the Old Testament. Maybe the most famous verse about joy is spoken of the Magi who came from the East to find Jesus in the manger in Matthew 2:10: When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And here then is where we see it in ourselves.

Jesus was a baby. The world was still in chaos. No universal shalom had yet begun. Yet the appearance of the star signaled that God’s plan in the past was coming true—truer than at any time previous in history. The Spirit is at work and moving pointing more and more people toward the Christ, the Savior of the world, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Still today we see chaos all around and shalom is not yet universal, however, the Spirit continues to point us toward our Savior and we have the hope of His return when He will complete the work He began. So we see more and more the battle against sin and the reign of Christ’s peace, first in our own inner being with the Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance as children of God. Then it produces joy in the present as we submit to our King and expand His kingdom until he comes again.

In Him,

Tag

Contact

This field is required.
This field is required.
I need prayer I would like to volunteer I would like more information
Send
Reset Form