But of the Son He says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.
“You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness above Your companions” (Hebrew 1:8-9 NASB).
Jesus has been anointed with the oil of gladness (exultation and extreme joy).
As we grow in our knowledge of God being our Highest Joy, we will look at how Jesus’ glad heart strengthened Him and gave Him courage. And we will look at how we’re fueled by the nearness of Jesus and His joy.
In spite of what He faced, even on the cross, Jesus’ life was marked by joy and gladness. And we’ve been called to follow Him and learn from His life, as we depend upon His Spirit within.
What can we learn about His Joy, which He says completes our joy.
The Joy of Relationships
Relating – a connection between.
Out of the depth of love within the Trinity, man was created and given the breath of life. We were created for fellowship and relationship with God. And, as amazing as it seems, God delights in our connection with Him.
In fact, Zephaniah writes that our connection with Him causes the Lord to rejoice with shouts of joy. [1] We actually bring joy to God.
This helps bring clarity to the following verses in Hebrews: Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2 NASB)
Reconciling our connection with Him was the joy set before Jesus.
Knowing His death on our behalf would re-establish our broken relationships with God because of our sin, gave Jesus joy, a joy which fueled His endurance on the cross.
Consider Jesus’ words to His disciples the night before He went to the cross: “If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you (John15:10-12 NASB)
His command – Love others as He’s loved us.
His reason – That His Joy might be in us and that our joy might be complete.
It may seem strange from an earthly perspective, but realizing the complete joy of Jesus seems to have everything to do with loving.
Love and Joy are tightly coupled. They appear together at the beginning of Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit. [2]
True, lasting joy doesn’t spring from earthly happenings, but rather from the depth of love in our relationships.
Paul wrote about it:
But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me (Philippians 2:17-18 NASB).
For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy (I Thessalonians 2:19-20 NASB).
In fact, he tells us to always rejoice in our love of God.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you (Philippians 3:1 NASB).
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! (Philippians 4:4 NASB).
Story: I remember a tough day in the early nineties when our kids were small. My wife had just found a nest of mice in her clothes drawer. Our dryer was broken. I had some high priority work issues, along with the normal challenges of parenting four children.
After disbursing of the mice, I was hanging up our wet towels and blue jeans on the clothes line, trying to formulate a plan for fixing what else was broken.
Then it hit me. Like an apple bouncing off the head of Isaac Newton, I was awakened.
What happened with the mice and the dyer and how my work issues were resolved was very temporal, what really mattered was how my wife and my relationship survived the strain. She was in distress over finding rodents in our room.
Our relationship, and how I loved her through the difficulties was much more important than solving the problems.
When I finished hanging up the clothes, I sat down to unpack what seemed to be a huge paradigm shift. Could relationships and loving be the key to life?
Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees, from Matthew 22:36-40, came to mind. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Then I thought of the ten commandments and how they are all about loving God and loving others.
Since then, though I’ve forgotten the focus for great chunks of time, I’ve been intentional about having a love first mindset. I will testify that when this focus is operating as it should, I have unexplainable joy.
Conclusion
Jesus’ life was marked by joy. And, as we look deeper, we see a definite connection between love and joy. It was His love for us, and our reconciliation with Him which gave Him joy on the cross. In fact, it fueled His endurance.
On the night before Jesus was crucified on our behalf, He gave His disciples a formula for experiencing His joy. The secret – loving others as He’s loved us. If we do this, we will remain in His love and our joy will be made complete.
Paul also experienced the joy of sacrificial love. He equated joy with being poured out like a drink offering and he called the Thessalonians his glory and joy. Paul also commands us to be full of joy in our love for the Lord.
Joy, which satisfies our longing hearts doesn’t come from fighting for ourselves. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Our experience of joy is directly related to how we love.
Prayer
Lord, You’ve awakened me to the tight connection between love and joy. Thank you. Please stop me quickly when I forget and try once again to derive my feelings of being okay from my circumstances. Please keep my heart in a love first mode, realizing all along that any loving I do must come from You. I pray the people I love would recognize You in every word and deed.
Amen.
Personal Study
Highlight Hebrews 12:1-3
Explain it in your own words
Apply it to your life
Respond to God in prayer
[1] Zephaniah 3:17
[2] Galatians 5:22-23
Previous posts in the UP series:
.Joy in the Journey is about the gladness of God’s nearness in the midst of life’s adventures.
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