Be joyful always.
~1 Thess. 5:16
That’s somewhat of an oxymoron these days. Be joyful always? Really? Yesterday I heard about three different amber alerts for local teens gone missing. My sister said one of her employees committed suicide – or so he said, no one has found him yet. As as I live down the street from a major hospital, I hear the ambulances fly by every hour and a half, whereas two months ago it was only one every other day.
Be joyful always.
Grammatically, it’s an “active imperative of command.” What the heck is that? Active means that we have a role to play. Imperative of command means that this is something we are being strongly instructed to do. God is expecting this of us. He is commanding us with the same expectation that I use when I tell my son to brush his teeth.
Our world equates joy with happiness, but the Bible does not. We’re not commanded to be happy. Happy (aka. Blessed) is the word found in Matthew 5 in the Beattitudes. The word is never used as a command; it’s usually an adjective. Happiness is an emotion and is as inconsistent as as my ability to find my phone.
How did joy get mixed up in this? Because our language uses things like “joyful” and “joyous” as synonyms for “happy.” In our effort to push the limits with words, we lose uniqueness and words become watered down. (This of the word “unprecedented” right now. Ugh. The word has completely lost its punch.)
There is a parable in Matthew 18 about a sheep that was lost. The shepherd had 99 sheep who weren’t “lost.” So, the shepherd went in search of the one who was “lost.” I put “lost” in quotes because, as this is a parable about how God searches for and values each one of us, it’s completely possible to be among the crowd and still not have any idea what’s going on. Ever space out during the sermon on a Sunday morning? You’re there, yet completely lost. In the end of this parable, the shepherd rejoices. It’s the same word as in 1 Thessalonians 5:16. It’s a state of being, not an emotion. Could you imagine what would have happened if joy were an emotion? Two days later, after the party, that shepherd would have shrugged his shoulders again. What motivation would the sheep have for staying with their shepherd if his desire to be with them was fleeting? Joy is a posture of viewing the world through contentment and hope.
Enough grammar. Analyzing Greek grammar is what I do, but I say the word “grammar” and my third grader rolls his eyes and glares at me. Every single time. It’s unfortunate that teaching grammar is a part of this “learning at home” adventure we’re all on right now.
How do we put this into action? What does being joyful look like in our coronavirus world?
What would happen if we turn off the news and the social media for a day? I’m not asking you to become ignorant. We all know what’s going on. Unless the government tweaks their stay-at-home shelter-in-place orders, it’s all the same anyway. More people are getting sick. More hospitals are being overrun. None of that is going to change by turning off the news for a day. If joy means that we view the world through the lens of hope, then our hope isn’t in the government anyway. Yes, I hope the science community finds a vaccine for all this, but I don’t need to follow that development every step of the way.
The shepherd threw a party when he found his lost sheep. The father of the prodigal son threw a party when his lost son came home. God throws a party when we come home. Joy means we’ve been invited to the party and the command behind it means we need to walk into the crowd and join the celebration. God is still God, and even though His world is under attack, we know He wins in the end. Revelation 21 says that one day He will wipe out all sickness. In a coronavirus world, that’s our hope and that’s something to be joyful about.