The Scriptures & Joy by A.W. Pink
By Christin Szczesniak
What does the Bible say about joy?
Scripturally, what is joy? Where does it come from, and how can we get it, even if - perhaps especially if - we don’t feel it?
In this classic Christian article, allow A.W. Pink (1886-1952) to guide you through what the Scriptures teach about the true source of happiness. Updated and edited for contemporary readers, with reflection and application questions at the end.
The Scriptures and Joy
Adapted from A.W. Pink
True Joy Is Only Found in Christ
The ungodly are always looking for ways to have joy, but can’t seem to find it. Their hearts are turned away from the Lord, and they look for earthly things to try to make them happy.
For these, joy is like a shadow. Everyone keeps running after the shadow, but since the shadow has no substance they are not made happy. Nothing can make a sinner truly happy but this: God in Christ.
Ungodly people will not believe in Christ, so they go from creature to creature, from one created thing to another, trying to find joy. But joy can’t be found in broken cisterns (Jeremiah 2:13).
In John 4:13 Jesus speaks of Himself as the living water. He says that whoever drinks of the regular water will keep getting thirsty again. In the search for joy every new thing promises to satisfy, but time and again those who do not drink the living water will come up empty and disappointed.
Joy Is a Duty
We will profit from the Word if we understand that joy is a duty.
Yes, it’s true. Read it again: Joy is a duty.
In Philippians 4:4, Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice.” It’s a command. Here and elsewhere in Scripture, God speaks of rejoicing as a duty for His people to carry out.
If we are to rejoice it must be in an object that will last forever. This kind of joy is an intelligent, steady, heart delight in God Himself. Every attribute of God, when contemplated by faith, will make the heart sing. Every doctrine of the gospel, when truly understood, will bring gladness and praise.
Joy is a matter of Christian duty. You might read this and think, “My emotions aren’t under my control. I can’t help it when I feel sorrowful.“
True, you cannot help being sorrowful in the presence of sorrowful thoughts. But you can refuse to let your mind dwell on those thoughts (2 Corinthians 10:5). You can pour your heart out to the Lord, and cast your burden on Him (1 Peter 5:7). You can seek grace to meditate on His goodness, His promises, and the glorious future awaiting you (Colossians 3:2).
The Secret of True Joy
John tells us, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete” (1 John 1:3-4).
When we consider the littleness and shallowness of our fellowship with God, it is not a shock that many Christians are joyless. If we want our joy to be maintained there must be a steadfast occupation of the heart and mind with Christ. We must rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4).
There is no other object in which we can always rejoice. Everything else is inconstant, but God is always the same. He is to be enjoyed in seasons of hardship and seasons of prosperity.
The next verse (Philippians 4:5) helps us understand how constancy works. It says, “Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” So be temperate about external things, and do not be taken with them when they seem pleasing, nor troubled when they are displeasing.
Maintain an indifference to outward comforts, and do not let yourself be moved based on the world’s approval. Why be occupied with these things when the Lord Himself is at hand? If persecution is violent, or if losses are heavy, the Lord is “a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1), ready to comfort and support those who cast themselves upon Him. He will care for you, so “be anxious for nothing”(Philippians 4:6). People of the world are haunted with many cares, but the Christian should not be.
Joy in the Scriptures
“These things I have spoken to you, that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). As these words are pondered by the mind and treasured in the heart, they cannot but produce joy. A rejoicing heart comes from an increasing knowledge of and love for the truth as it is in Jesus.
“Your words were found, and I ate them; and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16). It is by feeding and feasting on the words of the Lord that the soul is made fat, and we are made to sing and make melody in our hearts to Him.
“I will go to the altar of my God, my exceeding joy” (Psalm 43:4). The psalmist desired spiritual fellowship: fellowship with God Himself. What are all of the rites of religion unless the Lord is in them? Nothing but empty shells. Note the holy rapture with which David regards His Lord. He is not his joy alone, but his exceeding joy; not just the giver of joy, but joy itself.
“Though the fig tree shall not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17-18). This is something of which the world knows nothing. Sadly, it is an experience to which even many professing Christians are strangers. It is in God that the fount of spiritual and everlasting joy originates - from Him it all flows forth. Happy is the soul who has been taught this secret!
The Great Value of Joy
We profit from the Word when we are taught the great value of joy. Joy is to the soul what wings are to the bird, enabling us to soar above the dregs of the earth. This is brought out plainly in Nehemiah 8:10: “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”
The day of Nehemiah marked a turning point in the history of Israel. A remnant has been freed from Babylon and returned to Palestine. The law, long ignored by the captives, was now to be established again as the rule of the newly formed commonwealth. There had become a remembrance of the many sins of the past, and tears not unnaturally mingled with thankfulness that they were again a nation, having a divine worship and a divine law in their midst.
Their leader, knowing that if the spirit of the people people began to diminish they could not face and conquer the difficulties, said to them, “This day is holy unto the Lord: this feast we are keeping is a day of devout worship: therefore, mourn not, neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Confession of sin and mourning over the same have their place, and communion with God cannot be maintained without them. Nevertheless, when true repentance has been exercised, and things put right with God, we must forget “those things which are before” (Philippians 3:13).
We can only press forward with eagerness as our hearts are joyful. If there be no joy, there can be no worship. My dear readers, there are tasks needing to be performed, service to others required, temptations to be overcome, battles to be fought; and we are only fitted for them as our hearts are rejoicing in the Lord.
If our souls are resting in Christ, if our hearts are filled with gladness, work will be easy, duties pleasant, sorrow bearable, endurance possible. Neither contrite remembrance of past failures nor strong resolutions will carry us through.
Dedication to the Root of Joy
We profit from the Word when we attend to the root of joy. The spring of joy is faith: “Now the God of hope fill you with all peace and joy in believing” (Romans 15:13).
There is a wondrous provision in the gospel, both by what it takes from us and what it brings to us, to give a calm and settled glow to the Christian’s heart.
It takes away the load of guilt by speaking peace to the stricken conscience. It removes the dread of God and the terror of death which weighs on the soul while it is under condemnation. It gives us God Himself as the portion of our hearts, as the object of our communion.
The gospel works joy, because the soul is at rest in God. Faith must receive these blessings, and when it does the heart is filled with peace and joy. The secret of sustained joy is to keep the channel open, to continue as we began. It is unbelief which clogs the channel. If there is a weak faith, joy cannot be strong.
We need to daily pray for a fresh realization of the preciousness of the gospel, a fresh appropriation of its blessed contents; and then there will be a renewing of our joy.
How to Maintain Joy
We profit from the Word when we are careful to maintain our joy.
Joy in the Holy Spirit is altogether different from a natural buoyancy of spirit (Romans 14:17). It is the product of the Comforter dwelling in our hearts and bodies, revealing Christ to us, answering all our need for pardon and cleansing, and so setting us at peace with God; and forming Christ in us, so that He reigns in our souls, subduing us to His control.
There are no circumstances of trial and temptation in which we may refrain from it, for the command is, “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4). He who gave this command knows all about the dark side of our lives, the sins and sorrows which beset us, the “much tribulation” through which we must enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22).
The joy to which we are exhorted is not limited to any set of circumstances or type of temperament. Nor does this type of joy fluctuate with our varying moods and fortunes. You, Christian, may be loaded with heavy responsibilities, your plans may be thwarted and your hopes grim, the grave may close over the loved ones who gave your earthly life its cheer and sweetness, and yet, under all these disappointments and sorrows, your Lord still bids you “rejoice.”
Remember the apostles in Philippi’s prison? In the innermost dungeon, with feet shackled, and backs bleeding from the terrible scourging they had received - how were they occupied? In grumbling, in asking what they had done to deserve such treatment?
No. Rather, “At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God” (Acts 16:25). There was no unconfessed sin in their lives, they were walking obediently, and so the Holy Spirit was free to take the things of Christ, and show them unto their hearts, so that they were filled to overflowing.
Here, then, is how to maintain joy in your life:
Flee from sin. If we are to maintain our joy, we must keep from grieving the Holy Spirit.
Worship Christ above all. When Christ is supreme in the heart, joy fills it. When He is Lord of every desire, the source of every motive, the ruler of every lust, then joy will fill the heart and praise ascend from the lips.
Live sacrificially. The possession of this joy involves taking up the cross every hour of the day: self-sacrifice, the cutting off of the right hand, the plucking of the right eye (Matthew 18:8-9). These are the avenues through which the Spirit enters the soul, bringing with Him the joys of God’s approving smile and the assurance of His love and abiding presence.
Live not for self, but for others. Much also depends upon the attitude in which we enter the world each day. If we expect people to pamper us, disappointment will make us bitter or fretful. If we desire our pride to be ministered unto, we are dejected when it is not. The secret of happiness is forgetting self and seeking to minister to the happiness of others. “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
Avoiding Hindrances to Joy
We profit from the Word when we are diligent in avoiding the hindrances to joy. Why is it that so many Christians have so little joy? Are they not all born children of the light? This term “light,” which is so often used in Scripture to describe to us the nature of God, our relations to Him, and our future destiny, is suggestive of joy and gladness.
What other thing in nature is as beneficent and beautiful as the light? “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). It is only as we walk with God, in His light, that the heart can truly be joyous. It is the deliberate allowance of things which mars our fellowship with Him that chills and darkens our souls. It is the indulgence of the flesh, the fraternizing with the world, the entering of forbidden paths which blight our spiritual lives and make us cheerless.
David had to cry, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation” (Psalm 51:12). He had grown lax and self-indulgent. Temptation had presented itself and he had no power to resist. He yielded, and one sin led to another. He was a backslider, out of touch with God. Unconfessed sin lay heavy on his conscience.
Oh, brothers and sisters, if we are to be kept from such a fall, if we are not to lose our joy, then self must be denied, the affections and lust of the flesh crucified. We must spend much time on our knees. We must drink frequently from the fountain of living water.
How to Experience Godly Sorrow with Joy
We profit from the Word when we diligently preserve the balance between sorrow and joy. If the Christian faith has a marked tendency to produce joy, it has an almost equal design to produce sorrow. “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10) is the rule of the Christian’s life.
If faith casts its light upon our condition, our nature, our sins, sadness must be one of the effects. There is no surer mark of a superficial character than unshaded gladness. This empty euphoria rests on no deep foundations of quiet, patient grief - grief because I know what I am and what I ought to be; grief because I look out on the world and see hell’s fire burning at the back of laughter, and know what it is that men are hurrying to.
He who is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows (Psalm 45:7) was also “the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Through the Gospel, both of these character traits are impressed upon every heart that really receives it. By the fears it removes from us and the hopes it breathes into us and the fellowship into which it introduces us, we are anointed with the oil of gladness.
On the other hand, by the sense of our own vileness which it teaches us, by the conflict between flesh and the Spirit, there is infused a sadness which finds expression in “Oh, wretched man that I am!” (Romans 7:24). These two are not contradictory but complimentary.
Questions for Personal Reflection & Application
Reflection
How often do you find yourself dwelling on negative emotions and circumstances, rather than casting your burdens on the Lord, meditating on His word, and finding your delight in Him?
Can you think of times where you let outward circumstances control your emotions, causing you to be anxious about many things? How can you find your joy in the Lord in those times?
What would be different in your life and relationships if you were to daily pray for a fresh realization of the gospel, be much in the Word, and walk in faith and joy in the Lord?
Dear reader, do you regularly find yourself searching for lasting joy and not finding it? Do outward situations make or break your happiness? Is whatever happiness you find fleeting, and never fills you up?
Jesus speaks of Himself as the living water that truly satisfies. All of the other things in the world can never satisfy or give you rich and lasting joy.
But how do we access this lasting joy?
First, we must repent and believe. Repent of sin and turn to Christ.
Second, we must make Him our daily delight. He does not change, like all of the circumstances we often rest our satisfaction upon. The more we dwell on and come to know the one who can truly satisfy, we will find our joy unshaken by outward things.
The primary way we do this is through God’s word. He says “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). It is only by closely walking with the Lord that we can be full of joy. Here are some practical steps to give a lending hand.
Application
Memorize John 15:11.
Journal ways you can prepare for hard times, so that you can maintain your joy in the Lord.
Think of 5 specific ways you can deny self and love God and others more, then make plans to do these things daily. What will you do today?
Pray daily for a fresh realization of the Gospel, thinking regularly on all that God has done and will continue to do.
Meditate on God’s attributes, to find greater joy in the knowledge of Him.