Should Christians Generally Be Characterized by Happiness?

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All right, Tim, the question for today's episode is, should Christians generally be characterized by happiness?

If you were to ask me this question, I think, early on in my life, when I was unwillingly single,

I developed a... You mean the happiest part of your life?

The happiest time of my life. No, it developed certain views of joy, and I think certain views of joy that are very common to Christians today that seem to make sense to me, particularly in a time of unwilling suffering, suffering for righteousness' sake and all that.

I think as I got married, I've had kids, and life has settled down and stabilized.

Over the years, I've had to rethink my basic posture towards this topic in general to where I think early on in my life, the answer would be absolutely not.

So Jesus was a man of sorrow as well, acquainted with grief. We're destined for affliction. Don't think

I've come to bring priests. I haven't come to bring priests, but a sword to set father against mother, sister against brother, men's enemies will be those of his own household, and all that.

I think early on, what I did was I took joy, and I basically made it an enemy to happiness.

So I took the idea of joy, and I completely disconnected any notion of happiness in there whatsoever.

Then if you ask me to define the difference between the two, then I would say that happiness is generally a feeling of pleasure based on desirable positive circumstances.

So happiness is kind of circumstance -based. Then joy, on the other hand, is more about contentment, but then it had no kind of necessary happy undertones in there.

Jesus was a man of sorrow, well -acquainted with grief, but then at the same time, he's filled with joy, but then joy doesn't always look like happiness.

So I basically made those two things enemies in my mind. I think in general, as I look out at the

Christian world in general, most Christians are probably happy at all the wrong things and sad at all the wrong things.

So meaning most Christians are happy when their sports team wins or their favorite show comes on or whatever else.

Those are the things that make them happy. Then the things that make them excessively sad are when things don't go their way.

So what really should be happening is they should be happier than what they are.

Most Christians are very discontent in their life, and they're not nearly as happy as what they should be.

But they should be happier in the Lord than they are and happier about the right things.

But then they should be equally sad about all the right things too, which is not just things aren't going your way, but the fact that sin is in the world and it's alive.

If you really do desire to live righteously in Christ Jesus, you are going to experience pushback, and you should be grieving the right things more instead of the wrong things.

You should be happier at the right stuff more instead of happier at all the wrong stuff.

Not that it's wrong to celebrate when you're out.

You're out. When your sports team wins. Yeah, that you're somehow pretending that you're a member of even.

But most people have more of a category for rejoicing and being exceedingly glad that their sports team won, but then the idea of rejoicing and being exceedingly glad that they're saved and that someone has come to know the

Lord, there's just nothing like that. So yeah, I think early on, if you were to ask me, should

Christians be generally happy? I would say, I don't know.

Maybe, maybe not, but I don't think they should be. In fact, the more godly they are, the more maybe men of sorrows they'll be in that way.

But then if you're asking me that today, I would say, yeah, I mean, why not? If you're filled with contentment, rejoice and be exceedingly glad.

Great is your reward and heavy is your happy. I don't know how to read rejoice and be exceedingly glad when you're persecuted as not happiness, right?

I don't know how to read the Sermon on the Mount, all these blessed statements, which can also, like makarios, which can also mean happy, in a completely emotionless, stoic, contented kind of way, right?

So I think there's just, like Isaiah 57 too, how beautiful upon the mountains of the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your

God reigns. I mean, I just think the Bible has a lot to say about, you know, happiness in general, more than maybe we think, and I don't know that you can disconnect joy entirely from happiness, maybe in the way that we used to do.

Pete Right, right. Yeah, I'm of a similar position. I think, you know, I can understand how, you know, you can rejoice in the midst of trials and it not necessarily be like a 100%, you know, entirely happy emotion that's coupled along with it.

But at the same time, you know, especially where we live right now, you know, you're not really facing severe, severe persecution quite yet.

Unfortunately, it seems like that is starting to ramp up more and more. So that statement might not hold true for, you know, for very long.

But, you know, we can go to church, you know, without being persecuted for the most part.

And so you just have all these examples of, like, how Christianity is still very popular in the

United States, so much so that typically, you know, you're not going to necessarily outright lose your job or your home or whatever.

You're not going to get thrown to the lions yet for being a Christian. And so, you know, for the average person just trying to live their life, you know, to the glory of God, trying to obey his commandments and know his word.

You know, I think if you are the joyful kind of person, which it does seem like is separate from, it's not like an emotion.

Joy is not an emotion. In the same way, happiness is more like an emotion. You know, you can be joyful and not be happy.

And so I guess my sort of position on it now, I think

I was in a similar camp to you to start with, but I think now it's essentially, you know, Christians should be joyful all the time and happy probably most of the time, right?

Meaning, like, obviously there's going to be times where, you know, like where happiness is not the appropriate response to a certain situation, but joy is still going to be an appropriate response, right?

Yeah, and I would probably just say that part of where I've changed is I would say something similar to what you said, like in terms of, like, joy is not necessarily emotion because I'm trying to account for the fact that, you know, there's times where, like, people go through difficult trials.

Sure. And then what you're trying to say is, like, if you're supposed to have joy all the time, then that kind of joy, like, there must be a kind of joy that's present even in the midst of intense suffering that is okay.

But then I think maybe going there to say joy is not an emotion may be a little bit too much, like, in general, like meaning, like, you just make, like,

I think contentment, like joy can sometimes mean, like, the way to talk about it, I think, is joy can sometimes mean contentment, okay?

Mm -hmm. And contentment is not necessarily a– does not always manifest itself in a happy emotion, okay?

Sure, yeah. But then the problem is that, like, throughout the Bible, like, over and over again, like, with this idea of, like, joy and rejoicing, like, anytime, like, you see the idea of rejoicing, it's almost, like, impossible to separate a happy emotion from that, if that makes sense.

Mm -hmm. So, like, just to, you know, give you some examples of how this could look, you know,

Acts 2 26, Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope.

Whatever's happening there, that sounds like happiness, doesn't it? Mm -hmm. You know, when they read it–

Yeah, especially the, my heart will be glad. My heart will be glad and rejoiced, right? Right. So, like, the idea of rejoicing seems to be definitely, like, happiness, right?

So, Acts 15 31, and when they read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. I mean, that sounds like they gave thanks, right?

But, like, what you don't want to– what you don't picture, like, naturally is kind of where my mind typically went, is just, like, you know, a hipster, like, with a stoic disposition who doesn't know how to laugh or smile, right?

And the most that they can manage is kind of a, you know, a slight grin, you know, or something like that.

Like– They're just like– Yeah, I rejoice greatly, you know?

I rejoice greatly. Yeah, but Philippians 4 10, I rejoice in the Lord greatly for–

I rejoice in the Lord greatly, you know, smirk. You know?

I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.

So, I mean, I think that, like, the Bible does encourage a lot more emotional expression than the standard hipster would probably think would be appropriate, or the stoic person would think appropriate.

And so I think joy in general can sometimes mean contentment, and, you know, maybe that there's different types of– like, different ways contentment can look.

But then I do think, like, the standard idea of joy is kind of happiness and thanksgiving, too. And, you know, so, yeah,

I think Christians generally, as a generality, I know people hate generalities. They can't stand–people react to our questions where we ask generality questions on Twitter with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

But– Definitely not with joy. Not with joy, yeah, because they can't stand the thought of a generality.

But yeah, I think in general, the Christian life is a happy–should be a happy life. And particularly, like, it shouldn't be,

I'm struggling with depression in life because I have so many groceries and so much free time on my hands. I'm so bored, and, you know, nothing's going my way.

And so there's that kind of person who's just, like, very, very discontent.

And then they think–they kind of divorce all the happiness from the Christian life that should be normal because of vices that they've taken off in that way.

Sure. Okay. Fair enough. This has been another episode of Bible Bashed. We hope you have been encouraged and blessed through our discussion.

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