THE LIFESTYLE OF JOY!

“That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”  1 John 1:3-5

In order to know how to live a lifestyle of joy, we must first understand the heart of the Apostle John. The Apostle John had a thorough understanding of intimacy with the Lord. His epistles are mostly about love.

John was so transformed by God’s love that it changed his identity. As a young disciple of Jesus, John was nicknamed a “son of thunder” (Mark 3:17) for wanting to call down fire on an unreceptive Samaritan village (Luke 9:54). As John was continually exposed to the love of Christ, it transformed the way he viewed himself and others. Several times in scripture he describes himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23 and John 21:7). He was unashamed to put his head on Jesus’ bosom (John 13:23). Eight times in his epistles he refers to those in the churches in Asia as “beloved.”

As John focused on intimate fellowship with the Lord, he found out it was integral to a lifestyle of joy. Once he had experienced this lifestyle of joy, he wanted everyone to experience it:

“That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full” (1 John 1:3-5).

Since John became a master at receiving God’s love, he is well equipped to instruct us in that same area. In John 4:19, he says, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

John loved Jesus because he learned to receive love from Jesus. It was the Lord’s idea to love us long before we loved Him. God “so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). With regard to love, the Lord is the initiator and we are the receivers. The only way we can effectively love God is to first receive his love. Receiving God’s love is step one. We can’t get anything right in our relationship with the Lord if we don’t get step one right. Receiving God’s love equips us to love Him back. Our ability to love God is completely determined by our receptivity to His love. It takes God to love God.

Jesus Initiates Love

The dramatic story of a bride awakened by the bridegroom is depicted several times in Scripture. In Song of Solomon, which can be viewed as an allegory of our love relationship with Christ, the bride (Shulamite) is awakened by the bridegroom’s kiss (Song of Songs 8:5 and 1:2). The entire drama of Christianity begins with Jesus loving us first. God, like the director of a drama, has cast us in His divine romance as the object of His love. And, He, as our Bridegroom, is the only one who can initiate it, first awakening us with a revelation of His love.

In the story Sleeping Beauty, the prince had to awaken the sleeping princess with his kiss. Just like this prince, Jesus awakens us out of our slumber by coming to us with a revelation of His love. Once we are awakened to His love, we are enabled to love Him back.

We remain passive and paralyzed until our Jesus, as our Bridegroom, initiates love.

Jesus tells a parable describing virgins who are called to arise from their slumber to behold the coming bridegroom (Matthew 25:1-13). This parable, shows a passive and slumbering bride who must wake up to a revelation of God as a Bridegroom. Jesus is initiating love by coming to them, and their response to Him is to wake up.

Jesus initiates love towards you when He says in John 15:9, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” This is an amazing statement. Jesus is saying that He loves you with the same intensity as He is loved by the Father. Then He tells you to live in a constant state of being loved. He tells you to cultivate a lifestyle where we are consistently receiving the same intensity of love that flows between members of the Godhead. Wow! This blows my mind! Can there be any better deal for the human race than to be invited to swim in the ocean of love that flows in the Godhead? If this were not possible as a lifestyle, Jesus wouldn’t have told us to do it. Jesus never gives us a command without also giving us the ability to obey it.

Jesus has initiated love towards us, but only if we are consistently receptive to His love will we be empowered to obey Him. That is why Jesus doesn’t even mention the word “commandments” until the next verse (John 15:10). Jesus knows we will fail any requirement to obey Him unless He first empowers us to obey him with His love!

The immensity of love Jesus gives us to empower our obedience is beyond human comprehension. He has to open our eyes to be able to believe it and receive it (Eph. 3:14-19).

Delighting to Do God’s Will

Let’s revisit the topic of Jesus being inspired by His Father’s love and how He wants us to discover His lifestyle of joy too. Jesus says this: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11).

It is very important that we pay close attention to what Jesus teaches immediately prior to the above statement. Why? Because Jesus gave us the purpose of His teaching: He wants us to walk in the same lifestyle of joy that He does. If we are going to be successful in emulating Jesus’ life of joy, we have to understand what He is saying prior to John 15:11.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus teaches us to live the same way He does. He unveils a pattern for how we can maintain joy while we walk in partnership with God. Since Jesus lived a life of joy, He wants us to live that way too. Because Jesus is filled with His fathers' love, it inspires Him to obey. As Jesus is filled with his Father’s delight, he delights to do his Father’s will.

What a gift from the Lord! He reveals, in practical terms, how to live a life of joy. Jesus mastered this joy-filled life. His motive in instructing us to live the way He does is so our joy may be made full.  The joy-filled lifestyle is actually a cycle that begins with receiving God’s love.

We declare you will live a lifestyle of joy as you receive God’s love and His power to love Him back!