Joy Amid Suffering: A Christian Reality
“Not just I alone, or in the company of a few people, but absolutely all people want to be happy.”¹ These words were written about AD 400. They sound pretty accurate today. We are all pursuing happiness to some degree or another, whether through pleasure, notoriety, or wealth. But what happens when trouble arises? Our joy is robbed and swallowed up by our creaturely circumstances, only seen as a distant hope of another time. Does this instability sound like a fruit of the Spirit of our unchanging God? Let us examine true joy, a joy rooted not in feeling or emotion but in God. Joy as a fruit of the Spirit is both an emotional response and a state of spiritual being. This state is rooted in our salvation in Christ, is administered by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, and is expressed in happiness and delight in Christ.
Scripture helps us see joy amid suffering clearly in the example of the church of Thessalonica. Acts 17 sets the stage for the Thessalonians to receive the Word amid suffering. Paul and Silas enter Thessalonica, and Paul reasons with the Jews about Christ. This leads to some believing but others becoming jealous enough to form a mob. The mob seizes Paul and Silas. They are later released and then sent to Berea. This new church plant is now without their planters in a city of Jews who had incited a mob full of “rabble” to persecute the church. Yet, they had joy (1 Thessalonians 1:6). How did the Thessalonians have such joy amid their suffering? Paul explains four ways they had joy.
The first way they had joy was by realizing no matter what their circumstances may have been, they were chosen by God (1 Thessalonians 1:4). What a powerful reminder that Paul gives them. They were God’s special selection.² God loved them so much that He chose them despite them and poured His love out on them. David understood this theme when he wrote in Psalm 16:9-11,
Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
David understood that joy comes with being secure in the Lord; in His presence there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. How encouraging to understand while we are suffering or experiencing troubles, in the presence of God—where we are welcomed as His special selection, His beloved—we will have joy!
Second, Paul instructs them that real joy is administered by the Holy Spirit through the conviction of God’s Word. Paul tells the church that as he preached the Word to them, it came in power and with the full conviction of the Holy Spirit. The Word of God administered by the Holy Spirit brings power to change and full conviction of your sins. No matter what the circumstances or sufferings may be, God uses His Word to change and convict His people. True joy comes when we are in the Word, which reveals the truth and enables us to obey when it is empowered by the Spirit.
Third, Paul reminds the people that affliction, suffering, and troubles do not thwart our ability to have joy. In fact, the Thessalonians did the exact opposite. Paul says they received the Word—meaning they heard it, believed it, and lived it—amid afflictions. Remember the angry mob? That was their context. Jealous jews were conspiring with the rabble of the city to persecute Christians. Even so, the Thessalonians received the Word with joy! You see, affliction, suffering, and trouble do not thwart joy, they reveal it. Acts 17 says that the entire city of Thessalonica was in an uproar, and people’s homes were being attacked; yet these new Christians had joy! How? Their joy was not based on their emotions in the moment; their joy was based on a new state of spiritual being. They were experiencing joy amid suffering because it was a fruit of the Spirit. The early church father Chrysostom comments on this very fact when he says,
“With joy inspired by the Holy Spirit,” Paul says. So that no one can say, “How can you speak of affliction and of joy in the same breath?” he adds, “inspired by the Holy Spirit.” The affliction pertains to the body, and the joy to things spiritual. But how? The things that happened to them were burdensome, but not so the things that sprang up out of them, for the Spirit does not allow it. So then, it is possible for one who suffers not to rejoice when he is suffering for his sins but nevertheless to experience pleasure when he is being beaten and suffers for Christ’s sake. For such is the joy of the Spirit. In return for the things which seem to be burdensome, the Spirit brings delight. They have afflicted you, he says, and persecuted you, but the Spirit did not forsake you even in those circumstances.³
Paul calls it “the joy of the Holy Spirit,” not the joy of circumstances. I hope this simple fact is reassuring. All Christians will face troubles; that is not an “if” but a “when.” But you can have joy amid suffering when Christ has chosen you. You may lose your friends, your family, your job, your wealth, your reputation, or your dreams, but you will never lose your joy because it is not based on what you have earned but on the salvation that God has given you. The New Testament places joy with suffering (John 16:20-22; 1 Peter 1:6-9; James 1:2-4). Part of our joy is an eschatological hope. Christ has given us a joy that no one and nothing can take away—not our troubles, afflictions, or even persecutions. That is because if Christ has given you something, no one can take it away.
Fourth, Paul shows how their joy was expressed through delighting in discipleship. Joy does not stay silent. The Thessalonians observed and imitated the joy of Paul and Silas, and then others observed and imitated them (1 Thessalonians 1:6-8). In fact, joy amid suffering is contagious. People see what you really take joy in when suffering, affliction, and troubles arise. And when you are joyful about Christ, others see it and want to imitate it.
In conclusion, how can you help counselees have joy amid suffering? First, help them see that joy is not just an emotional state based off what makes you happy. It is a spiritual state that is given to you in a new identity with Christ. Then point your counselees to these four realities:
1. Remind them of their joy that is based on their salvation.
They are chosen by God.
Have them write out their testimony, and remind them of the grace they have received.
2. Remind them that we receive joy by hearing the Word of God.
The Holy Spirit administers the Word of God to a believer, bringing power to change and full conviction, which leads to joy.
Have them memorize scripture about suffering and the Christian life.
3. Remind them that suffering does not thwart joy but reveals it.
Suffering is promised to the believer. Remember that your suffering both tests and purifies your faith in Christ. Turn to Christ in your suffering, not your circumstances.
Have them sing, “How Firm a Foundation.”
4. Remind them that joy, as the fruit of the Spirit, should lead them to discipleship.
Even in suffering, we are called to make disciples of all nations. Whether the counselee needs to be discipling someone or needs someone to disciple them will be a wisdom issue. However, a reason they may be joyless is because they are not observing someone else’s joy in Christ, or they are not pouring into someone else. This is a command that they are to follow, and following the commands of Christ will bring them joy!
Assign them homework to either start discipling someone, or assign them a discipler.
I began with a quote from Augustine about joy. Here is another one: “How sweet it suddenly became for me to do without the sweetness of trifling things, and it was now a joy to put aside those things which I had been afraid of losing.”⁴ Joy is not found in circumstances of life that can be taken away at any moment. Joy is found in Christ, who promises to be with us for eternity. Now, how could you not be happy?
¹ Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, ed. Roy Joseph Deferrari, trans. Vernon J. Bourke, vol. 21, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1953), 291.
² William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 306.
³ Peter Gorday, ed., Colossians, 1–2 Thessalonians, 1–2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 61.
⁴ Augustine, Confessions, 228.