The Fruit of the Holy Spirit - What is joy?

We must remember that joy is the second of the fruit of the Spirit: "Love, Joy, Peace". Also, Joy is a legacy, like Peace, that our Saviour left us before He returned to Glory: "These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full". (John 15:11). He was leaving them: but His joy would remain in them. And again, ponder our Lord's most wondrous prayer: "And now come I to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves". (John 17:13).

Many new things bring joy at their reception or beginning, and afterwards the joy is displaced by distresses that eat like a canker. But Christianity is very different. Having saved us from our sins, God brings us into His kingdom. This kingdom is characterised by "Joy in the Holy Spirit," and in order that we may possess the joy constantly, God has given us the source of it by shedding His love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which He has given to us. One of the precious fruits of the Spirit as delineated in Gal. 5:22, is joy.

The joys of nature are dependent on circumstances. If a man's circumstances are grievous, his joy disappears. But the joy given by the Lord is independent of circumstances, and therefore persists in seasons of trial and sorrow. Although the Lord Jesus on earth was "A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" it is written of Him "He rejoiced in spirit." His joy was from communion with His Father, in spite of His rejection by men. The apostle Paul following in the steps of His Master, shared His rejection and sorrow but knew the blessedness of His Master's joy, and commended this joy to others. In his epistle to the Philippians more than once he says "My joy," and he exhorted them to "Rejoice in the Lord alway."

So joy is something that can be produced in the power of the Holy Spirit.

"The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." The fruit too of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, with other beautiful traits, and this is produced in the believer's heart by the Spirit for God's glory. The apostle desired for the Romans that the God of hope would fill them with all joy and peace in believing. Rom. 15:13. The Thessalonians too had received the word in "much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost." Many more passages might be cited to show how joy is one of the leading characteristics of those who have been brought to know God. The one only Man who never had to be so brought — because His delight was ever in God, as God's was in Him: He who is called a "man of sorrows" — this perfect and blessed One had His own deep joy in communion with and in dependence upon God; and He desires for His own in the world that this His joy might be theirs.

Into the scene of man’s fading joys the Son of God has brought an entirely new kind of joy; and happy indeed it is for the bridegroom and bride that can drink with their guests of the wine that Christ supplies. This joy belongs to another world: it is the joy of Christ, that of which He spoke to His disciples, when He said, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” It is the joy in the Holy Spirit that belongs to those who have been brought, by the new birth, into the kingdom of God; a joy in which we can “Rejoice in the Lord always,” whatever the circumstances of life may be.

Now look at the fifth chapter and the eighteenth verse, "Be not drunk with wine" — mere natural excitement — "wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things to God, and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Eph. 5:18) Filled with the Holy Ghost! What a privilege! Then it is that you find a man always rejoicing. You may say, That was instruction given to Christians in early days. True, but equally is it for us in these days. If you read in the Acts, you will repeatedly hear of individuals being "filled with the Holy Ghost" (see Acts 2:4, Acts 4:8, Acts 6:5, Acts 7:55, Acts 9:17, Acts 11:24, Acts 13:9-52); and what was the result? You may be sure they were bright and happy. You remember when Paul and Silas were cast, bruised and bleeding, into the jail at Philippi, what they were about. "At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises to God" (Acts 16:25). joy is ever the fruit of being filled with the Spirit.

The Lord Jesus spoke not only of a new garment, but also of "new wine." Wine is the familiar emblem in Scripture of joy. In Ps. 104:15 we read: "Wine that makes glad the heart of man." Christ has introduced new joys for His people. Everything "under the sun" has been marred by sin. All around us the hiss of the serpent resounds in our ears. Foolish indeed are they who seek to content themselves with things here. Now, Christ has gone up on high, and has entered into that scene where there is fullness of joy, and where there are pleasures for ever more (Ps. 16:10). To that scene of fadeless delight He would lead the hearts of His own to day. Let us not defer the joys of heaven until the present world is no more; let us rather rise upon the wings of faith and live now in the spirit of our minds where we shall find our home throughout eternity. In order that this may be, the exalted Lord has poured out upon us the Holy Spirit from above. He is the living link between our souls here and Christ in His present glory. It is His office to minister His things to us, and to maintain our hearts in perpetual peace and joy. Notice the effect on the day of the Spirit's coming. So full of ecstasy and power were the disciples that some, mocking, said: these men are full of new wine" (Acts 2:13). They were indeed full of new wine, but it was not the vintage of earth. It was the new wine of heaven.

Moreover the joy of which the Lord speaks is not only a joy that remains, but He can say to His disciples it will be "in you." Being in us it is not like the joy of this world, dependent upon outward circumstances. The Psalmist could say "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and wine increased" (Ps. 4:7). Earthly joys depend on the prosperity of outward circumstances, the gladness of the Lord is in the heart. In His outward circumstances the Lord was an outcast Man and lonely — the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. In His pathway of perfect obedience to the Father's will, He abode in the constant realization of the Father's love and in that love He found the constant spring of all His joy. We too, in as far as we walk in obedience to the Lord, shall abide in the realization of His love, and, in the sunshine of His love we shall not only find His joy, but, a fulness of joy that leaves no room for grieving over the failure of all things earthly.

We should beware of any inference to the effect that Christians have no joy. On the contrary, Christian joy exceeds natural joy: it is independent of circumstances, which can change all too quickly (Phil. 4:4). The joy of the world diminishes, but not the joy that the Lord gives. The more we enjoy earthly things (whether money, luxury, travelling or whatever), the less they are able to bring forth true, lasting joy.

When we are full of the love of God, we enjoy it with a power that hinders our seeing anything, especially the objects of the goodness of God, save with the eye of divine love. But where there is a real knowledge of the existence and nature of this love of God, the walk will also be characterized by faith in that love, even though the heart may not realize the whole power of it; and, thus, we shall dwell in God and He in us. But since this fulness of joy can only be realized by the action of the Spirit, it is easy to understand that, if grieved, He will become a Spirit of reproof, judging the ingratitude with which such love, as the love of God is requited, instead of filling the heart with that love; though it is impossible for Him to cast a doubt upon it. It is evident that the love made perfect in us is the work of God; and this it is which forms the joy — the whole of the state. That which the Holy Ghost sheds abroad in our hearts is the love of God; and this love, powerful in our hearts, cannot but shew itself externally.