An eclectic group of individuals who have two things in common: faith in Jesus and a connection to St. John's College. Here we gather, across time and space, to carry on a dialogue.
Friday, March 02, 2007
joy
Posted by Kristi at 4:22 PM
The fruit of the Spirit includes joy. Joy, more than any other quality listed in Galatians 5:22-23, I associate with a feeling. Most of the others in the list - love, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, etc. - I tend to view as being linked more to action. John 15 speaks of abiding in Christ so that our joy may be full. Jesus spoke of "your joy" which sounds like something possessed rather than acted. (So is it indeed more of a sense of being, a feeling, or can it be an action? If an action, how can we understand it as thus?)

Yet, why is it that so often, we're not feeling or possessing that joy? (am I right to assume I'm not alone on this??) It's not as though we can always identify a concrete reason - like some sin or an actual medical reason - to explain away our too-often lack of joy... but how can we think about joy? How as a believer do you experience joy or what do you do when you are for so long not experiencing it?
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  Comment by Blogger Jared at 2:01 AM, March 05, 2007
Sweet! I’ve been wondering about joy, too: this is also my question.
I think joy shows up in action just like the other fruits. It can overflow into action, and we call that rejoicing—an action solely for expressing joy, like shouting, singing, dancing, or sacrificing an animal. More often it (like the other fruits—see Matt. 10:13 or 1 Thess. 3:12) is a manner one has. Joy’s linked to action by being the ease of action: joy turns work into play. And of all the listed fruits to be most associated with emotion (gladness). But here I get confused—I don’t think that joy is itself an emotion, but maybe that gladness is the physical analogy of the spiritual thing. I want to look at joy apart from gladness, but I don’t see anything left when I take gladness away.
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  Comment by Blogger Jackson at 9:53 AM, March 05, 2007
I dunno, I'm kind of inclined to think that since it's included in a major list of things primarily associated with action (though not divorced from feeling), maybe we are supposed to think of joy as something we do, or perhaps more accurately as something the Holy Spirit does in us. Hmm, it seems I agree with Jared regarding this! I also think it's important to look to Christ for our example in this--who went to parties and created wine for parties and even talked about how the Kindgom of Heaven was like a party, and yet was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."

There's my thoughts, but I can point you to someone else who has a bit more to say on the subject.
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  Comment by Blogger Kristi at 2:16 PM, March 05, 2007
was also studying how similar the words for joy - chara - and grace - charis - are. interesting, eh?

i know joy is more than a feeling, perhaps also coming from a state of being. I mean, it's not one of the fruits, but part of the whole package deal of THE fruit, right??

so if you don't have the subjective feeling of joy, what then? choose to rejoice nonetheless? ask God for that joy?.... ??
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  Comment by Blogger Jackson at 1:40 PM, March 09, 2007
asking God for it sounds like the best call to me. in fact, asking God for joy when you don't have it might well be the only way possible of choosing to rejoice regardless.
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