9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?” (1 Thessalonians 3:9–10 (ESV)
Joined with the attitude of thanksgiving and gratitude for the Thessalonian believers, was the joy felt by the Apostle Paul, Silas and Timothy. The Holy Spirit revealed through Paul all three shared this inner happiness and peace by the apostle’s use of the personal pronoun “we,” and “our.” Joy is a positive human experience that is both an emotion and an action. The Bible uses “joy” in both senses.
In today’s text, joy (χαρᾷ; chara) refers to the emotion of gladness or great happiness. Joy is felt because of well-being, success, or good fortune. A person automatically experiences it because of certain favorable circumstances. It cannot be commanded. Paul. Silas and Timothy felt joy in part because of the faith, love and hope in God by the Thessalonians (I Thess. 1:1-4).
The Tyndale Bible Dictionary says, “The shepherd experienced joy when he found his lost sheep (Matt. 18:13). The multitude felt it when Jesus healed a Jewish woman whom Satan had bound for 18 years (Lk. 13:17). The disciples returned to Jerusalem rejoicing after Jesus’ ascension (Lk. 24:52). Joy was also the feeling of the church at Antioch when its members heard the Jerusalem Council’s decision that they did not have to be circumcised to keep God’s law (Acts 15:31). Paul mentioned his joy in hearing about the obedience of the Roman Christians (Rom. 16:19). He wrote to the Corinthians that love does not rejoice in wrong but rejoices in the right (1 Cor. 13:6; see also 1 Sam. 2:1; 11:9; 18:6; 2 Sam. 6:12; 1 Kgs. 1:40; Est. 9:17–22).”
In Psalms 137:1–6, the psalmist shows joy cannot be commanded. The Jews’ Babylonian captors wanted them to sing in the land of their exile. However, this was something they were unable to do. Faraway Jerusalem was their chief joy.
There is a joy that Scripture commands. Joy as an action can be expressed regardless of how the person feels. Proverbs 5:18 tells the reader to rejoice in the wife of his youth, without reference to what she may be like. Christ instructed his disciples to rejoice when they were persecuted, reviled, and slandered (Matt. 5:11–12). The Apostle Paul commanded continuous rejoicing (Phil. 4:4; 1 Thess. 5:16). James said Christians are to reckon it all joy when they fall into various testing’s because they produce endurance (James 1:2). Joy is possible since as a fruit of the Holy Spirit, it is present in every Christian (Gal. 5:22).
“Paul was greatly comforted in the afflictions he faced in the course of his ministry (1 Thess. 3:1–8). Their well-being brought fresh joy to his soul, for he understood his deep connection to them by virtue of their common union with Christ (Rom. 12:5). Ultimately, this joy was a gift of the Savior. Paul even describes Timothy’s report as “good news,” using a word that elsewhere in the New Testament always refers to the preaching of the gospel (1 Thess. 3:6). The good state of the Thessalonians, then, was “gospel” to Paul. Why? Because their perseverance was ultimately a gift of Jesus—the One announced in the gospel—to them. Their faith was evidence of Christ’s work in them and thus a reminder of and testimony to Christ’s salvation,” explains Dr. R. C. Sproul.
“Today’s passage helps us understand even better the depth of joy that the Apostle enjoyed after hearing of the Thessalonians’ progress in faith. His question that begins “What thanksgiving can we return to God for you . . .” implies that the joy he felt was so profound that he was having difficulty finding the words to adequately express his thanks to God for the Christians in Thessalonica (v. 9). But the difficulty in finding the proper words was not due to Paul and his companions’ lack of trying. We see in 1 Thessalonians 3:10 that they were spending day and night in prayer for the Thessalonian believers. Paul and his friends were regularly offering up prayers for the Thessalonians, thanking God for them, for the Lord was sustaining their faith.”
Besides the LORD, who has brought joy into your life? What circumstances have not only brought you joy, but also caused you to glorify God by counting it all joy when facing those circumstances?
May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here. Have a joyful day in the Lord.
Soli deo Gloria!
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