Should Christians Generally Be Characterized by Happiness?

People react to our questions where we ask generality questions on Twitter with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Definitely not with joy or happiness.

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

Christian Happiness and the Difference Between Joy and Circumstance

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, yeah, time, happiest time of my life. No, I 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, you know, particularly in a time of, you know, unwilling suffering, you know, suffering for righteousness sake and all that.

But so, you know, I think as I've, you know, I got married, I've had kids, and life has settled down and stabilized. You know, over the years, I've had to kind of rethink my basic posture towards this topic in general to where I think early on in my life, the answer would be like, absolutely not, right?

So, Jesus was a man of sorrow as well, acquainted with grief. We're destined for affliction. You know, don't think I've come to bring peace. I haven't come to bring peace, but a sword set fathering his mother, sister against brother, men's enemies will be those of his own household and all that.

And so, I, you know, I think early on, what I did was I took joy and I, like, I basically made it an enemy to happiness. So, like, took the idea of joy and I completely disconnected any notion of happiness in there whatsoever.

And then if you asked me to define, like, the difference between the two, then, you know, I would say that happiness is generally, you know, a feeling of pleasure based on desirable, positive circumstances, right?

So, happiness is just kind of circumstance based. And then joy, like, on the other hand, is more about contentment, but then it had no kind of necessary happy undertones in there. So, you can, like, 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.

And so, I basically made those two things enemies in my mind. And I think in general, you know, as I look out at the Christian world in general, most Christians are probably, you know, happy at all the wrong things and sad at all the wrong things.

So, like, so meaning, like, most Christians are happy, like, when, you know, their sports team wins or, you know, their favorite show comes on or whatever else. Like, those are the things that make them happy.

And then the things that make them excessively sad are when things don't go their way, right? Jared. So, what really should be happening is, like, they should be, like, happier than what they are. Like, most people, most Christians are very discontent in their life and they're not, like, nearly as happy as what they should be.

But they should be happier in the Lord than they are, right? And happier about the right things. But then they should be equally sad about all the right things too, which is not just, you know, things aren't going your way, but the fact that, like, sin is in the world and it's alive.

And, you know, if you really do live to, like, desire to live righteously in Christ Jesus, you are going to experience pushback. And you should be grieving, like, the right things more instead of the wrong things, right?

And you should be happier at the right stuff more instead of happier at all the, you know, the wrong stuff. And I mean, not that it's, like, wrong to, you know, celebrate, but when you're Pete. When your sports team wins.

Jared. Yeah, that you've somehow, like, pretending that you're a member of even, you know. But most people have more of a category for rejoicing and being exceedingly glad, like, that their sports team won.

But then, like, the idea of rejoicing and being exceedingly glad that they're saved and that someone has come to know the Lord, like, there's just nothing. And so, yeah, I mean, I think early on, if you were to ask me, like, should Christians be generally happy, I would say, you know, I don't know.

Maybe, maybe not. But I don't think they should be, you know. 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, you know?

Pete. Right. Jared. Like, if you're filled with contentment, right? Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, great is your reward and heavy. So, happier. Like, I don't know how that to read, like, rejoice and be exceedingly glad when you're persecuted as not happiness, right?

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

So, you know, I think there's just, like, Isaiah 57, too, how beautiful upon the mountains are 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 I used to.

Joy, Happiness, and Christian Life in a Less Persecuted Culture

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, you know, probably most of the time, right?

Pete and Sarah laugh. 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 and then what you're trying to say is like if you're 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 may like I think contentment, like joy can sometimes mean like the way to talk about it I think is like joy can sometimes mean contentment, okay?

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

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 is happening there, that sounds like happiness, doesn't it?

You know, when they read it Pete Yeah, especially my heart will be glad.

Jared. My heart will be glad and rejoiced, right? Jared. 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 really 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 a, 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.

Pete. And they're just like….

Jared Yeah, I rejoice greatly, you know?

Pete I rejoice greatly.

Jared. Yeah, but Philippians 4 10, I rejoice in the Lord greatly for I rejoice in the Lord greatly, you know, smirk. Pete 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 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.

Pete. Definitely not with joy or happiness.

Jared. 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 hand. 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 on in that way.

Pete. Sure. Okay.

Closing Appeal and Podcast Sign-Off

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