Spir Dynamics 785-790 2/18/96

DOCTRINE OF JOY

A. The concept of joy is taken from the corrected translation of Phil 2:1- 2, “Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ [and there is], if there is any comfort from virtue love [and there is], if there is any fellowship with the Spirit [and there is], if there is any mercy and compassions [and there is], bring to completion my joy that you might be thinking the same things, having the same virtue love, united in soul, intent on one objective.”

1. There is encouragement from being in union with Christ.

2. There is comfort from virtue love because you have entered the door of hope on God’s agenda into the unique spiritual life. 1 Cor 13:13.

3. There is fellowship with the Holy Spirit per Jn 14:26 and 2 Cor 13:14.

4. Being merciful and compassionate is a part of joy or happiness.

5. Bringing your joy to completion is thinking on the other side of the door of hope—the integrity envelope of personal love for God the Father and impersonal love for all mankind.

6. Your one objective is maximum glorification of God.

B. Definition.

1. The Greek noun CHARA is defined by Kittel, Vol IX, page 369, “the eschatological significance of joy is connected with hope.”

a. Your personal eschatology is a part of your problem solving devices. Your personal eschatology has to do with your future as you persist in using the four spiritual skills to execute the spiritual life and as you begin to understand and realize the dynamics of the spiritual life.

b. There is a happiness on the other side of the door of hope which is totally divorced from circumstances, pleasure, or environment.

2. Joy is a system of thinking doctrine and is accompanied by enthusiasm for that doctrine. Joy is thinking not emoting.

3. Joy is good thinking resulting in good emotional response to that thinking. Joy is doctrine circulating in the seven compartments in the stream of consciousness. Then as you go through the gate of hope on God’s agenda it eventuates in sharing the happiness of God.

4. This joy has a response which includes animation in the soul, enthusiasm, and exultation. Exultation is a liveliness of the spiritual victories that will come to you, and with these victories the proper and true biblical elation as a response to doctrine, as the use of doctrine in perception, metabolization, and application.

5. Joy must be defined as cognition. Joy is a system of cognition related to Bible doctrine. From this cognition we have a response. The emotion is not the joy but the response to it.

6. Joy is inner liveliness caused by response to metabolized doctrine in the soul’s stream of consciousness. Joy is perception and metabolization of Bible doctrine. Joy is animated thinking.

7. Joy is the reality of the spiritual life in the thinking of your soul. Joy is related to Christian fellowship in 1 Jn 1:3-4, because the purpose of Christian fellowship is perception of metabolization of doctrine in a Bible teaching situation under the mentorship of the Holy Spirit, “that your joy may be brought to completion.”

8. Joy begins in spiritual childhood with the deployment of the basic problem solving devices as a result of perception of basic doctrine. When the believer enters the door of hope on God’s agenda and continues his momentum in the integrity envelope, he attains the objective of joy, which is sharing the happiness of God. So joy begins in spiritual childhood but is enhanced and reaches its operational function as you move from the orientation envelope through the door of hope into the integrity envelope.

9. Joy is both sharing the happiness of God and the invigorating response and lively excitement related to both the pleasure and exultation of possessing both an eternal and temporal relationship with God. Sharing the happiness of God is joy brought to completion.

10. Joy is the application of virtue and values to complete occupation with Christ and rapport with God.

C. Scripture.

1. Jam 1:2, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various testings [suffering for blessing].”

a. The Greek word used here is HEGEOMAI, which means to think, to consider, to regard. Thinking, considering, regarding is the liveliness of Bible doctrine in the stream of consciousness, the stream of consciousness being operational. Therefore HEGEOMAI provides us with three explanations of joy.

(1) To think means the reasoning of the conscious mind, the capability of reasoning, remembering, decision making, application. Therefore joy means to employ the mind rationally and objectively in evaluation and application of doctrine. The mood of the Greek word HEGEOMAI is imperative, which mandates the function of joy.

(2) To consider means to think carefully in making decisions. Joy is the process of thinking, and careful thinking in making decisions. Joy is making a decision based on thinking.

(3) To regard means to concentrate, to value, to honor, to revere; therefore to think in terms of high esteem, to evaluate the facts is joy.

b. Joy is thinking, considering, regarding.

This is an imperative mood, in which God makes a direct positive demand on the volition of the believer involved in suffering for blessing.

c. This verse applies only to the adult stage of the spiritual life. You are commanded to face providential preventative suffering, momentum testing or suffering for blessing with joy—a system of thought based on cognitive self-confidence and the integrity envelope. This is a system of thought that does not use prayer as a problem solving device.

2. Ps 30:5, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

3. Neh 8:10, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

a. Emotion has no strength. Emotion is totally self-centered. For example, guilt is all emotion and is full of sin. It has no strength. Shame is a normal function of the soul, which is why it occurs at the judgment seat of Christ in resurrection body and is not a sin. Shame is a normal function of understanding failure and regret of not using your time in a better way. Shame is normal and not sinful, guilt is abnormal and sinful.

b. How you feel is never the issue in the spiritual life. When a person is motivated by works, they produce dead works.

c. Joy is far greater than emotion. It is sharing the happiness of God, a happiness that does not depend on circumstances.

4. Joy begins as the production of the Spirit, Gal 5:22, “The advantage [gain, profit, production] of the Spirit is virtue love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.” “Joy, peace, etc.” are the reality words that describe the spiritual life. Peace is harmony with God, tranquility of soul. Joy is happiness in a system of thinking.

5. Rom 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing [faith perception], that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Joy and peace must be related to thinking because your fellowship is with invisible God. When you love someone you cannot see, you have a relationship with the invisible person through thinking, thinking, thinking.

6. The purpose of true Christian fellowship with God (the communication of Bible doctrine) is the completion of your joy, 1 Jn 1:4, “And these things we write that our joy may be brought to completion.”

7. Jn 15:11, “These things I have communicated to you, that My joy might be in you, and that your joy may be brought to completion.” The unbeliever cannot have joy, only the believer.

8. The power of joy in the prototype spiritual life of our Lord was demonstrated on the Cross. Heb 12:2, “Be concentrating on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our doctrine, who because of His exhibited joy, He endured the Cross, disregarding the shame, and has sat down at the right side of God.”

a. The maximum problem solving device for our Lord Jesus Christ during the first Advent was sharing the happiness of God, which is a system of thinking. This system of thinking has been given to us during the Church Age.

b. Sharing the happiness of God and occupation with Christ are two sides of the same coin.

c. Our Lord’s exhibited joy was the maximum metabolized doctrine circulating in His stream of consciousness as a problem solving device as He endured the bearing of our sins on the Cross.

D. The Biography of Joy.

1. The infancy of joy is cognitive happiness related to the persistent function of the two power options (the filling of the Holy Spirit and metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness), the development and deployment of the basic problem solving devices, the inner soul thinking producing an animation and a motivation to continue learning doctrine. When you first begin to learn doctrine, there is enthusiasm. When you first begin to understand some basic doctrines, there is an exultation. There is a liveliness in your soul. Doctrine has produced a spiritual animation, and this spiritual animation is the beginning of loving God.

2. The adulthood of joy is entering the door of hope on God’s agenda through the deployment of the advanced problem solving devices fulfilling stages two and three of the adult spiritual life. This is tantamount to the definition of joy as sharing the happiness of God.

3. Joy is not an emotion, but a system of biblical cognition, a strength from God. Emotion is not a strength. Emotion comes and goes. Emotion is an appreciator, a responder, but is not the real thing. Bible doctrine circulating in your stream of consciousness is your strength. The spiritual life is not emotion. The joy of the Lord is a strength to carry you through everything in life. The point of staying in this life after salvation is to come to love God. You do not even start living until you love God.

4. Joy is a system of cognition of Bible doctrine. It is an integral part of the spiritual life. Joy is a system of thinking in terms of metabolized doctrine in the soul. Joy is the capacity for loving God. Joy is cognitive awareness of the spiritual life on the other side of the door of hope.

5. Joy can only be understood in relationship to the doctrine of divine love. While joy is a part of God’s agenda for entering the door of hope, it reaches its peak and completion in sharing the happiness of God.

E. The Difference Between Joy and Pleasure.

1. Both joy and love are thinking functions of the spiritual life in contrast to pleasure. Joy and love are thinking. Pleasure is emotion.

2. Joy and love are associated with virtue righteousness and are in the soul, not in the emotions. We must distinguish between joy as a system of thinking and happiness and how it relates to love for God, and pleasure as a system of emotion.

3. There are some traps associated with pleasure. 2 Tim 3:4 describes the believer out of fellowship as “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”

4. Pleasure is a state of feeling pleased, a satisfaction derived from what is to one’s liking, a frivolous enjoyment which is not related to the biblical word joy.

5. Rom 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy by the agency of the Holy Spirit.”

a. The kingdom of God is described in terms of the word DIKAIOSUNE, which means our Lord’s permanent rule of the Church through the enactment of the unique spiritual life by which God rules the life of the believer through the power of the Holy Spirit and the formal documentation of the infallible word of God.

b. Joy is the inner soul thinking that does not depend on circumstances, environment or pleasure. There is nothing wrong with most pleasures if you are in your spiritual life. But pleasure can become a very definite destruction to your spiritual life.

c. Joy is thinking Bible doctrine. The result is peace, harmony, tranquility, rapport with God.

d. Compare 1 Thes 1:6, “Having received the word of God under much pressure with joy from the source of the Holy Spirit.” This joy under pressure is in contrast to pleasure.

6. 1 Pet 1:8, “And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you are not seeing Him now, but believing in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible, having been clothed with glory.”

a. Joy is occupation with Christ as a system of thinking in contrast to emotion. This verse is in contrast to believers who are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

b. Believing in Him is the actual function of operation Z—the metabolization of doctrine. As a result you rejoice to the maximum.

c. “Having been clothed with glory” is the execution of the spiritual life.

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