New Found Joy

 “Always be joyful.”1 Thessalonians 5:16 (NLT)

By Alexandra Copeland

God gives us a very simple directive in 1 Thessalonians 5:16 (NLT). It says, “Always be joyful.” As we survey the world around us, most of us would say that we don’t see too many folks that can maintain a state of consistent joyfulness. Some might even smirk that such a thing is unattainable, but as followers of Jesus Christ, we know that if God says something, then it must be so. If He says that it is available to always be joyful, then we can know with absolute certainty that not only is it attainable, it’s His expectation that we put on the joy of Christ, and wear it like a second skin.

In Galatians 5:22, we learn that joy is a fruit of the Spirit. It’s one of those delicious spiritual goodies that we receive when we accept our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, into our hearts and become saved by his Spirit. We do not have to strive and struggle to receive the fruits. They are freely given to us through God’s grace. 

In Galatians 5:1 (NKJV), the Apostle Paul wrote, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” The yoke of bondage that the Apostle Paul is talking about here is one where the people of God tried to make themselves holy and right through their own human effort. The Apostle Peter also addressed this issue in Acts 15:6-11 (NIV). He said, “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. ⁸ God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. ⁹ He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. ¹⁰ Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? ¹¹ No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

In this record, many Gentiles were hearing the wonderful good news of salvation for the first time. Peter’s commission from God was to make the gospel known to them, and he was instructing others in the church that were not accurately teaching this liberty in Christ. Instead, they were causing the Gentiles to think they were not good enough to be saved through the blood of Christ. Peter wanted the church to understand that the Gentiles would receive salvation freely from God in Christ, and that God didn’t discriminate. It wasn’t because of anything that they had done or could do that they were receiving the gospel of salvation. It was because God loves everyone, and wants everyone to be saved through Jesus Christ.

Peter asked in verse 10, “Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?” He’s pointed out that their ancestors had not been able to dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s, no matter how hard they all tried. He told them that God has given us a better covenant through Jesus Christ, and there was no need to go back to the old way of trying to make ourselves right before Him. He has worked it out and makes us right through Christ. 

 

Paul said in Romans 8:15-16 The Message (MSG), “This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children.” This new life that we have through our Lord Jesus is unlike anything we could have ever imagined. It’s not a life of drudgery, trying desperately to be something we could never be. God’s Spirits touches our spirits! It’s a Spirit to spirit connection that we have with Heavenly Father. 

We are saved by God’s grace. Ephesians 2:8 (NLT) declares, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God.” He sent His Son to do for us what we could never have done for ourselves. Our mission now is to rest in what God has accomplished for us and count it all joy. 

So often we attempt to define our spiritual standing in Christ by our emotional state in the flesh. In many ways, our emotional state is learned by association over time. We may have experienced a set of circumstances or a situation that brought us joy in the past, and based on our personal experience we set the parameters for joy. We don’t readily separate the realm of the soul from the realm of the Spirit, but we should. The Word of God tells us that God will give us a peace that passes understanding. He’s given us joy in the Spirit.

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. It is a state of being that is produced by faith. This means that it will exceed our experience in the flesh. God has defined for us what real joy feels like, and our faith is required to trust His Word. We must trust that He will give us joy, and we need to minimize our dependence on the flesh or the soul, and begin to experience the tremendous goodness that God offers us in the Spirit.

It’s so much deeper than our emotional whims from one day to the next. When we get it into our heads that God is working within us to will and do of His good pleasure, and that all we have to do is to renew our minds to His Word, trust Him, and follow the Spirit’s lead, then joy will come very easy for us. The Apostles understood this. They faced incredible circumstances, and their lives were on the line often, but despite their external circumstance, they were filled with internal joy. We can have this as well.  

Heavenly Father is really pressing us to learn to operate in the Spirit. In our time, we are witnessing the separation between holiness and worldliness in real time. It is happening before our very eyes. For many years now, the body of Christ has been taught that we have to clean ourselves up, that we have to make ourselves holy. God is the one who does this work. Our responsibility is to come into agreement with Him, receive what He has freely given, and live with the fullness of joy because of it.■

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Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.