JOY
These Things Have I Spoken Unto You, That My Joy May Be in You, and That
Your Joy May Be Fulfilled--John 15:11
If any one asks the question, "How can I be a
happy Christian?" our Lord's answer is very simple: "These things," about the
Vine and the branches, "I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and
that your joy may be fulfilled." "You cannot have My joy without My life. Abide
in Me, and let Me abide in you, and My joy will be in you." All healthy life is
a thing of joy and beauty; live undividedly the branch life; you will have His
joy in full measure.
To many Christians the thought of a life wholly
abiding in Christ is one of strain and painful effort. They cannot see that the
strain and effort only come, as long as we do not yield ourselves unreservedly
to the life of Christ in us. The very first words of the parable are not yet
opened up to them: "I am the true Vine; I undertake all and provide for all; I
ask nothing of the branch but that it yields wholly to Me, and allows Me to do
all. I engage to make and keep the branch all that it ought to be."
Ought it not to be an infinite and unceasing joy to have the Vine thus work
all, and to know that it is none less than the blessed Son of God in His love
who is each moment bearing us and maintaining our life?
That My joy may be in you--We are to have
Christ's own joy in us. And what is Christ's own joy? There is no joy like
love. There is no joy but love. Christ had just spoken of the Father's love and
His own abiding in it, and of His having loved us with that same love. His joy
is nothing but the joy of love, of being loved and of loving. It was the joy of
receiving His Father's love and abiding in it, and then the joy of passing on
that love and pouring it out on sinners. It is this joy He wants us to share:
the joy of being loved of the Father and of Him; the joy of in our turn loving
and living for those around us. This is just the joy of being truly branches:
abiding in His love, and then giving up ourselves in love to bear fruit for
others. Let us accept His life, as He gives it in us as the Vine, His joy will
be ours: the joy of abiding in His love, the joy of loving like Him, of loving
with His love.
And that your joy may be fulfilled--That
it may be complete, that you may be filled with it. How sad that we should so
need to be reminded that as God alone is the fountain of all joy, "God our
exceeding joy," the only way to be perfectly happy is to have as much of God,
as much of His will and fellowship, as possible! Religion is meant to be in
everyday life a thing of unspeakable joy. And why do so many complain that it
is not so? Because they do not believe that there is no joy like the joy of
abiding in Christ and in His love, and being branches through whom He can pour
out His love on a dying world.
Oh, that Christ's voice might reach the heart of
every young Christian, and persuade him to believe that His joy is the only
true joy, that His joy can become ours and truly fill us, and that the sure and
simple way of living in it is--only this--to abide as branches in Him our
heavenly Vine. Let the truth enter deep into us--as long as our joy is not
full, it is a sign that we do not yet know our heavenly Vine aright; every
desire for a fuller joy must only urge us to abide more simply and more fully
in His love.
My joy--your joy. In this too it is: as
the Vine, so the branch; all the Vine in the branch. Thy joy is our joy--Thy
joy in us, and our joy fulfilled. Blessed Lord, fill me with Thy joy--the joy
of being loved and blessed with a divine love; the joy of loving and blessing
others.