Full and Lasting Joy

April 18 | Rick Thiemke

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What is our position as followers of Jesus in this world? How are we to relate to the world around us as God’s gathered people? We are in the same world as everybody else. We are subject to the same things that they are. We are all here in this moment of history. But our relationship to Jesus has changed everything. The letter that we call 1 John is focused on the Christian and the world. The background and setting to the teaching is summed up well in 1 John 5:19:

“We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

There is the tension that John knows that every believer, in every generation, will feel. 

The Truth About Jesus

John starts this letter with a focus squarely on Jesus, “the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 2:2). John uses a similar Genesis-style introduction that he used in his Gospel account (John 1:1-4) - speaking of the “beginning” and calling Jesus the “Word of life” (verse 1). John is stating who Jesus is. He is divine - a God-man. He has always eternally existed with the Father. There has never been a time when the Son was not. Jesus was before the beginning, in the beginning and from the beginning. Jesus came to be with us. He is fully God and fully man. He is not half and half. Jesus was like no one else who will ever live. 

The Impact That Jesus Has on His Followers

Having received the grace of Jesus and now living in a world that “lies in the power of the evil one,” John will begin to lay out how we must engage the world that we live in. He does not tell us to start by trying to reform and improve the world - historically, when the Church has stated this as their function, it has resulted in tragedy. But we are also to avoid the opposite extreme: turning our backs on the world. Christian social reformers and becoming withdrawn monks are both extremes to be avoided. Verse 4 is where John shows his hope for redeemed believers living in a broken world. He desires for us to have full and lasting joy. The book of Acts is a great place to see God’s people with irrepressible joy that Jesus had promised. 

Christian people are meant to be full of joy. We are called to joy and are failing in our mission and witness unless we are experiencing it. Christians are to be honest and realistic, but 1 John will show us that Christians are not to be in a state of melancholy or unhappiness because the world is as it is. We are not to minimize our problems or grasp for things to remove our troubles. 

Joy is not just making the best of a bad life. This is not compatible with the New Testament concept of joy. John and Paul also go to great lengths to emphasize that we are not to be afraid (1 John 4:18; 2 Timothy 1:7). Christian joy can’t be summed up in a statement any more than Christian love (1 Corinthians 13). Jesus knew joy and He was a “a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief.” Paul knew great joy in prison. Joy is not an overdone cheeriness, nor cheap laughter. Christian joy is produced by something - it is the result of God’s work on your soul. Joy is complete satisfaction. Joy is rejoicing. In Christian joy you will feel power and strength. Regardless of anything that may happen in this world, your joy must remain full. We strive to have every desire find its completion in the Lord Jesus Christ.