Just because someone says you’re guilty of something doesn’t mean you are. The world is swift to lay a charge that we are “judgmental.” They do so any time we seek to remind them of what God says about this behavior or that. Sometimes, however, an accusation sticks.
Consider the accusation made against Reformed people that we are arrogant. That one sticks. Some believe it’s because we believe in election, that we think we’re special because God chose us. The truth is we are arrogant because we begin as totally depraved. And we don’t have victory over our pride until we die.
The Reformed are also considered to be among the most joyless in the kingdom, which I can’t make heads or tails of. We, after all, if our ideology has anything to distinguish it, affirm with vigor that God is sovereign. Over all things. How then could we be anything but joyful?
God in His sovereignty does ordain in our lives various and sundry challenges, what the Puritans called “hard providences.” We do not deny that they are hard, that sorrow is not real, that mourning is out of bounds. What we affirm, on the other hand, is that every bit of hardship is under His sovereign control. We affirm it exists for our good and His glory. The very things that we allow to diminish our joy are the engines that drive the two greatest things we ought to seek, our good and His glory.
Paul wrote his epistle to the church at Philippi while he was in prison. He expressed how much he longed to be with them. This is not the epistle written after winning the Super Bowl or after receiving a clean bill of health. Yet, in its four short chapters Paul used 16 times some variation of the word translated in our Bibles, joy. Our call to joy is not some unnamed tributary on the way to the bay of our sanctification. It is instead the Mississippi.
Some Christians measure their spiritual maturity by how many of the really bad sins they don’t do. Others measure by the size and erudition of their own theological library. Still others measure by the sacrifices they made for others. Not committing bad sins, learning theology, serving others, of course, are all good things. But wouldn’t we avoid the sin of bitterness, learn the lesson of His sovereignty and serve others if we walked in the joy of the Lord?
Joy is not something we need to wait on. It is not the fruit of our circumstances, but the fruit of His Spirit, who guides us, directs us and indwells us. As long as we walk out the gospel we can be assured that unbelievers will be offended. The gospel itself is an offense, the aroma of death to those who do not believe. Joy, however, is an invitation, the light that shines before men. If we believed, from head to toe, that He is able, and that He is for us, we might not only change ourselves into His image, but change the world.