“I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11).
“…so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”
Did you know that our joy is intimately related to Christ’s joy? As we have seen this week, joy isn’t an emotion we feel, it is a decision we make based on a changed reality. The reason why Christ gives us his word is that his joy may be in us.
John tells us “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
The Word of God and the Son of God are one and the same.
There is no way we can come to know the Son of God apart from the Word of God. As you read the full fifteenth chapter of John, you can see that the context of verse 11 refers to the relationship of God’s Word and the fruitful disciple.
Jesus tells us, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11).
The way we live in joy, experience joy is to have Christ living in us. That Christ lives in us is not that the idea of Christ is in us, or that a feeling of Christ is in us. Christ living in us means that the Word of God is in us. Christ lives in us as his word lives in us. And when Christ lives in us through his word, Christ’s joy is in us. And when Christ’s joy is in us, our joy is made complete.
That you are reading this is a good thing. This and other ways of regularly spending time with God’s word is how we spend time with God.
May Christ’s joy be in you so that your joy may be complete!
Praxis: Faith in Action 