1219AFC051112 Overflowing Joy
NAB: John 15:11
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.
NJB: John 15:11
I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.
Aloha nui loa, hiwahiwa! Today we look at JOY, the second of the Fruits of the Spirit listed by Paul in his letter to the Galatians (5:22-23). The first fruit listed is Love. (So when we are told throughout Scripture to bring to God the first fruits …). When we first experience the Love of God it is followed immediately by the Joy of his presence. Joy is more than happiness. Happiness is fleeting, dependent on external stimuli, a state of mind perceived intellectually, and is derived from a subjectively realized source of satisfaction. Joy is a persistent delight, a state of being arising from an objective internal realization of exceptional fulfillment. Jesus’ Joy truly was exceptional – he lives in the Father and the Father lives in him – and that is the Joy, his own personal Joy he gives to his disciples. We are his disciples if we keep his command to love one another as he has loved us.
Notice I used the word command and not commandment. When I think of “commandment,” I think of a prescribed rule in accordance with which a thing is done. When I think of “command,” I think of an order to which obedience is mandatory. If you look at that passage in multiple Bible versions, you can see that both words are used. To me, a rule is something set up out there for everyone which I should know about, but might not always follow. A command, on the other hand, is something aimed directly at me, and I am fully and individually responsible for obeying that command. So in John 15:12, when Jesus says “This is my command(ment): That you love one another as I have loved you, ” is Jesus giving us a rule to live by or a direct order to be carried out? We have the same options in John 13:34 and John 15:17. Whether you choose command of commandment, compliance with the intent is an absolute requirement.
In John 14:27, Jesus tells us he is leaving us his own Peace. Here in today’s passage, John 15:11, Jesus is filling us with his own Joy, a Joy that far exceeds any sense exceptional fulfillment. This is a Joy that is more than exceptional; it is unsurpassable – endless, boundless, perpetual, infinite – it is Divine Joy because it is HIS Joy.
This JOY is cara chara {khar-ah’} – a word related to χαίρω – chairo which is “to rejoice exceedingly. Here we have a great Mystery of Faith as well as a great Gift of Grace: We are to be filled with the Peace of Christ which opens our hearts which the Holy Spirit deluges with inexpressible, overwhelming Joy. “Love one another as I have loved you.”
How does he LOVE you, LOVE me, LOVE us? With Perfect Peace. With Total Joy. Completely. Unconditionally. Eternally. He knew us before we were formed in our mother’s womb, and he knew us because he created us, and he created us because he loved us, and he loved us because he is LOVE. In Ecclesiastes 11:5 we read, “Just as you know not how the breath of life fashions the human frame in the mother’s womb, So you know not the work of God which he is accomplishing in the universe.” We are known by him before, during, and after we have life, and the life we have comes for the Spirit, the LORD, the Giver of Life. The same LORD who is
LIGHT ≡ GOD ≡ LOVE ≡ TRUTH ≡ WAY ≡ LIFE
graces us with Peace and Joy which began with the first word of creation, took shape in us at conception, and stays with us through perpetuity … when we love one another as he has loved us.
How can we love one another that perfectly? When we live in, with, and for The Way, The Truth, and The Life – when the Veil is torn from top to bottom – then Peace and Joy transcend all our brief existence in our present life. And therein we find our hearts opened to that complete Joy. Here, complete is πληρόω pleroo {play-ro’-o} – filled to the top so that nothing more can be added, complete and perfect in every way, absolutely and totally filled in a way that will cause God’s will (as made known in the law) to be followed and obeyed as it should be, and God’s promises (given through the prophets) to entirely fulfilled. Jesus’ Divine Peace comes to us through Jesus’ Divine Love and refreshes our hearts in the River of his Divine Joy, The River of Life.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.
Share-A-Prayer
© For all the folks who are seeking lasting, meaningful, financially rewarding work including CC, TH, TO, CT, KD, & all of the people you might know who need good jobs.
© Bless and protect the lives and works of the gallant men and women who serve in our Armed Forces around the world. For those who are in the greatest danger in combat zones, send your mighty angels to stand with them against our foes.
© Bless and protect the lives and works of the gallant men and women who serve in our Armed Forces around the world. For those who are in the greatest danger in combat zones, send your mighty angels to stand with them against our foes.
© We pray for Christians, and for people of all faiths, who are being persecuted for their beliefs, especially Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. Deliver him and his whole family from the Lions’ Den and from every possible threat of danger or death.
© We continue to pray for and support the families who are affected by addictions of any kind. Bind and eject the demons that imprison these souls.
© Continued prayers also for all of our friends suffering serious illnesses – cancer, diabetes, heart ailments, mental illness, and any other debilitating disease: FO, CC, GW,SC,CW,MG, TM, JC, JG, JM, and everyone you know – especially the children – whose life is threatened by acute or chronic illness.
© Bless everyone who prays for us and everyone who asks for our prayers. Bless all of us with the will to do small things with great love, that love which we share among all of the members of the Moon Beam Network.
© Please send me your pray requests. We’ll get together to give God our PUSH. Pray Until Something Happens.
