NOTE: This is an excerpt from my sermon on 1 John 1:1-4 in 1-3 John: Fellowship in the Family (Crossway).
John gives us another purpose for writing in verse 4; “so that our joy may be made complete.” John says when we have fellowship with you, our joy is full. John speaks of joy in all three of his letters (1 John 1:4; 2 John 12; 3 John 4). Interestingly, Jesus speaks of joy in relationship to his disciples three times in his farewell discourse and prayer in John’s Gospel (15:11; 16:24; 17:13). In all three examples, Jesus is concerned that the disciples’ joy might be “full” or “fulfilled.”
Christian joy is far removed from what is commonly construed as happiness, which is dependent upon outward circumstances. It can certainly include such, but Christian joy is much deeper and richer in meaning. Joy is the presence of Jesus in our lives by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Joy describes a reality in life of genuine satisfaction intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. Joy is a spirit of exultation regardless of circumstances. Joy is a sense of supernatural strength which can only come from the Lord: “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).
I have seen the joyless eyes of miserable people in many cities around the world. I have observed the joyless faces of people in third world countries, clawing and scratching to eek out an existence for themselves and their families. Even those fortunate enough to be in decent economic shape along with those who have anything and everything money can buy, might sometimes experience happiness, but without God through Christ they can never experience genuine joy.
The wisest and richest man who ever lived found that out when he sailed the high seas of life in an effort to find fulfillment. The man on whom the world exhausted itself and for whom the world was not enough, discovered the bitter truth that at the end of every paycheck, the bottom of every bottle, and the morning after every one–night stand, there was no joy in Mudville. So he tells us in his personal memoirs known as Ecclesiastes. Mighty Solomon had struck out.[i]
Only God can grant joy to the human soul. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). The crown of joy can only be worn by those who have been adopted into God’s royal family through his Son, King Jesus. The banner of joy will only fly over the castle of your life when the King is in residence there. Joy is the response of the soul that is rightly related to God through the knowledge of Christ as our Savior and Lord.
In one four verse prologue, the “Son of Thunder,” as Jesus once called him, summarizes God’s revelation of Christ, and in so doing takes on the world of philosophy in his day and wrestles it to the mat. Philosophies had always dreamed of a Savior, but what philosophy could only dream about and aspire to, God has given to the world in the person of Christ Jesus. Joy to the world, the Lord has come!
[i] A gloss of the final line from the poem “Casey at the Bat” by Earnest Lawrence Thayer, ca. 1888.