Theological Journal – March 4

“Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

We’ve discovered a bit about why that’s so in our previous posts. I want to transition away from my original question about how it is possible to “count it all joy” in the midst of suffering, persecution, or distress that befalls us for following and serving Jesus Christ to some of its effects and consequences in our lives. Chief among them for me are these four:

1.       Joy is not a sedative that insulates the church from its struggles or a consolation prize that salves the wounds it incurs for not “winning,” fire in belly

2.       Joy mobilizes the church to “keep on keeping on” with its struggle and resist the allure of settling in and settling down. increase of power

3.       Joy is not a soft, “touchy-feely,” inner thing opposed to a militant resistance to movements and powers in the world that seek to impose unjust and oppressive ways upon the church and others. Joyful militancy

4.       Joy is God’s “enchantment” that gives us our compelling reason for living as we do and suffering as we must.

These will occupy the remainder of my reflections on joy.