The Link Between Love, Joy, And Abiding In Jesus

This week, we delve further into the depths of the Word as we explore the profound love of God and the overwhelming joy of the Lord. In a world filled with conflict, both on a global scale such as wars, and on a more intimate level like internal political turmoil, the message of love and joy is incredibly relevant and crucial. We have previously discussed the concept of Vine life and the importance of abiding in Jesus, focusing on the initial seven verses of John fifteen. Now, our discussion expands to encompass verse eight and delves into the aspects of love and joy that are integral to abiding in Him. The celebrated American poet James Weldon Johnson began his work “The Creation” with a striking scene: And God stepped out on space,and He looked around and said: “I’m lonely—I’ll make me a world.” These lines are lovely if seen simply as poetry. Yet they reflect a fundamental theological error. [Here’s at least one point we need to make. Don’t just swallow everything because it sounds nice. Stay with the Word.] God has never been lonely. Quite the contrary. From before all eternity, God has enjoyed the mysterious communion we know as the blessed Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of these three divine Persons within the Godhead loves and delights in the other two in perfect, unbroken fellowship. So God has never needed anyone else; the Father, Son, and Spirit have never been alone. Why, then, did they create a world? [Well, God is love First John 4:8 tells us that and so all His actions are clothed in love because that’s who He essentially is.] [Now,] we may never know all the reasons, [God created Planet Earth] but [since He is love, love is one and] at least one [other] is clear. [This writer says] For the pure joy of it.¹ Love and joy, what a combo and what a marvelous connection to Jesus. The Link Between Love, Joy, And Abiding In Jesus, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
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God is four things according to the Bible. God is light. God is fire, God is spirit, and God is love. How does knowing this change your perspective of the Lord?

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Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
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Question: How has the love and joy of the Lord transformed your life? Please share your God story in the comments section below.

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We are currently teaching in the Gospel of John. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 45 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 40 years, emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

Well again, welcome.
Let’s come boldly to the Throne of God and talk to the Lord.

Father God, everything about you is wonderful to the highest degree that can be. We love you so. We honor you so. We bless your Name, so. Help us. Build us. Strengthen us in your Word so that we may go forward with the message of Jesus. We give you all the glory for everything wrought in the precious Name of Jesus.

Love, Joy, and Abiding Are Linked

John 15:7–11 (ESV) — 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Love and Joy: An Illustration

Jesus said, ‘these things have I spoken to you that my joy might remain and that your joy may be full.
And with that thought, let’s start out with the Illustration of the Day.
This illustration comes from the life of my spiritual dad.

He said, “ I remember talking to one minister who had been saved as a young man, as a result of watching the life of a believer, who knew how to stay renewed and filled up with joy in the Holy Ghost.

When this minister was a young man during the depression days, his father died. He was the oldest child to drop out of high school and took a menial job doing hard manual labor in order to provide for the rest of his family. Complaining to himself that he had received a bad lot in life, the young man became sour on life. He hardly ever smiled and always acted grouchy towards other people. This young man worked on a road building crew. As days past, he began to notice one particular coworker. Instead of being grumpy and negative, this other man was always singing and was full of joy. Long story short, the negative man inquired about why this individual was so full of joy. The co-worker replied, ‘It’s all because of Jesus! I’ve been born again, and that’s why I could be so joyful.’

As it turned out, this grumpy grouching negative man followed this joyful believer to church and ended up giving his heart to Jesus.

You see joy is a good God thing.

Love and Joy: Four Things God Is

There are four things that God is according to your Bible.
God is light.

1 John 1:5 (ESV) — 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

God is fire.

Hebrews 12:28–29 (ESV) — 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

God is a spirit.

John 4:24 (ESV) — 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

And finally, God is love.

1 John 4:8 (ESV) — 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

So, God is light, fire, spirit, and love.
Jesus, the Son of God is light, fire, spirit, and love.
What we are doing today is examining the link between love, joy, and abiding in Jesus.
Now, it’s pretty easy to see a connection between love and joy when it comes to relationships in the natural world.
For all you romantics out there, just watch a Hallmark movie and you’ll see it.
For all you parents out there, think back to the day you became a father or a mother for the first time.
What was that like for you holding that special little one in your hands for the first time?
What were your emotions like?
Jesus alluded to this very thing.

John 16:21 (ESV) — 21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

Did you experience love and joy all piled up on top of each other as you saw that baby come down the chute?
I know I, as a father, did with my children.
You talk about tears of joy!
Man, I was wiped out when my kids were born.
Oh my goodness!
Talk about joy!
Talk about love!
Sharon, as the sweet child of God that she is, experienced exactly what Jesus said she would in giving birth to our four exceptional, highly motivated, children.
How precious and irreplaceable those moments are.
Dad’s how about the day when you walked your daughter down the aisle on her wedding day?
How would you characterize those emotions?
I did the Father Daughter dance with Tami and totally lost it.
Mom’s, how about your little ones first day at school?
You can see how love and joy float to the surface quite easily in these scenarios.
The point is that love and joy are a package deal.
That’s the reason wrong sex is lust not love.
There’s no joy in lust.
Thomas Aquinas, a 13th century Catholic priest, recognizing the distinct link between love and joy, said the following and with that thought, here is the Quote of the Day.

“No one truly has joy,” observed the great theologian Thomas Aquinas, “unless he lives in love.” Joy, after all, is the fruit of love. It’s the sense of delight we experience in the presence of someone whose goodness we cherish. It’s the pleasure we take in what we love.²

So the link between love and joy is so obvious and we know that the spiritual produces the natural.

The Depth of Love and Joy

God who is a spirit, God who is love, made man and He was happy — He said it was ‘very good.’
God loves you and rejoices over you.

Isaiah 62:5 (ESV) — 5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

God, who is love, rejoices [or is full of joy] over you.
Do you know that you make God happy?
Do you know that the Father loves you fiercely?
Well you judge by these verses of scripture.

Isaiah 49:16 (ESV — 16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

This a reference to Jesus crucifixion.
In this day and hour, people have themselves tattooed to show their love for others.
God had holes put in his hands [the wrists are considered part of the hand] for you.

Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV) — 3 the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

God’s love is eternal — Jesus is saying abide in it.

Psalm 103:17 (ESV) — 17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children,

Stedfast love is the Hebrew word ‘hesed’ and with that thought here is the Definition of the Day.
The Hebrew word ‘stedfast love’ is loyal love.
It’s an unfailing kind of love, a never-ending kindness, often used of God’s love that is related to faithfulness to his covenant.³
God’s love is not moved by personal emotions.
Some walk away from others over some offense.
They cut ties because of disagreement.
God never does that.
His love is loyal and unfailing.
He will never walk away from you.
God’s love is the pinnacle kind of love.
It’s stronger and more powerful than anything in the natural realm for greater love has no man than this — that a man lay down his life for his friends. [John 15:13]
You know that’s exactly what Jesus did.
He laid down His all for you and me.

Jesus Ties Love and Joy Together

So now up to verse seven in our text in John, the words ‘the Vine, ‘the branch’, and the word ‘abide’ have been our focus.
We’ve posted several podcasts [Season 11, Episodes 33, 34, and 35] on these words and they are available at www.emeryhorvath.com for your benefit.
In those podcasts, when we focused on the word ‘abide,’ as in ‘abiding in Jesus,’ we understood that this ‘abiding’ is one that includes the Word of God.
You cannot separate Jesus from the Word because Jesus is the Word.
As we move on from there, we see in verse nine yet another tie-in to this abiding in Jesus.
We see the word love.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.”

Love and Joy: How Jesus Walked

So, there’s a link between love and joy and they’re both connected to abiding.

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

We know the word abide means to settle down and remain.
Have you really settled on the fact that God loves you?

1 John 4:16 (ESV) — 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Now, this is vital.
The words ‘known and believed’ are both verbs.
They are verbs in the perfect tense, emphasizing not only a past completed act but abiding results in present time.⁴
So what John is saying is that we have ‘known and believed that God loves us yesterday and we are continuing to believe that today.
Which means — we are not letting this truth go.
One day a man asked Jesus a question about how to possess eternal life.
Listen to Jesus response as the gospels record it.

Mark 10:21 (ESV) — 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Jesus is a lover.
He loved this man.
Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.
You find that in John eleven.

John 11:5 (ESV) — 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

Jesus loved His disciples.

John 13:1 (ESV) — 1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he [loved them to the end].

He loved all of them including Judas.
One of the twelve disciples, referred to himself not by his name but by the phrase ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’

John 13:23 (ESV) — 23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side,

Five times he referenced himself this way.
Almost everyone believes this disciple was John.
John didn’t want to be known as John — he wanted to be known as the disciple that Jesus loved.
It’s not who I am that counts — it’s who I am hooked up with.
Jesus walked in love — He was a lover.
You’re hooked up to Him — you’re hooked up to love.
If abiding is being connected to Jesus, then it would be fair to say that love has to be rub off on you.
You see this principle with Jesus.
“As the Father has loved me,” He said, “so have I loved you.”
Water flows down hill.
As Jesus loves us, so we love others.
Abiding in Jesus is abiding in love.
There’s no two ways around it.
This love-fest — this loving people as Jesus loves — or allowing His love to flow through us to others culminates in joy in verse eleven.

John 15:11 (ESV) — These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Walking in love is about others.
Now knowing that love and joy are linked — that at least means one thing.
Since living the Jesus love life is about others than we can know that true joy in our life’s comes from ministering to others.
You want to be really happy in life? — help others.
Do you desire to have a deep satisfaction pushing thru your core being — sow into others.

Love and Joy In Other Places

So, we have divine links between love, joy, and abiding in Jesus the Vine.
First, it’s helpful to know that the links between love and joy are seen elsewhere in scripture.
In other words, in other places besides John fifteen.
We know that’s so because there are eight other Bible verses that contain the words love and joy in them.
Love and joy are spoken of in one another’s company.
They simply go hand in hand.
Take for example this well known verse in Galatians.

Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV) — 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

It’s significant that love is first in this list of nine fruits of the recreated born again human spirit.
These are not fruits of the Holy Spirit.
As you already know, fruit grows on the branch due to the life that flows from the Father, God who is the Vine Dresser.
That life flows through Jesus because He is the Vine and since we [that is you and me as members of the Christ] are the branches of the Vine, that life courses individually through us.
Mark it down — the Holy Spirit doesn’t bear fruit – you do.
Again ‘you’ means as an individual member of the Body of Christ.
But, if you noticed, the word spirit in Galatians 5:22, ‘but the fruit of the Spirit’ is capitalized.
When you see the Word ‘Spirit’ capitalized, that points to you that the third member of the Godhead ‘meaning that the translators of the Bible are saying that this fruit is Holy Spirit fruit.
Is that correct?
Are these nine fruits, fruits that the Holy Spirit bears?
Well, we know that when the Greek New Testament was originally penned by its divinely inspired authors that the letter or document was written in all caps — [that is all capital letters].
It also had no punctuation.
The word for spirit in the Greek is the word pneuma.
It’s the same word for spirit when speaking of the human spirit or speaking of the Holy Spirit.
Since all the cases of pneuma in the New Testament are capitalized because every Greek word is capitalized from Matthew to Revelation, a translator has to make a decision whether the word refers to the Holy Spirit or the human spirit.
So, the decision to have the word spirit capitalized so that it refers to the Holy Spirit is a decision made by those who have translated the Bible for us into our ‘home’ languages.
What I am saying is that in small number of cases, the translator made the wrong call.
For you, a reader of the Bible, every place you see the word ‘spirit’ you must ask yourself yourself a question and with that thought, here is the Question of the Day.
Here is the question.

Is the word ‘spirit’ that I’m coming across in my Bible supposed to be capitalized because the verse is refers to the Holy Spirit? Or should it be small caps because it refers to the human spirit? Did the translators get it right?

This concept of man as a human spirit is vital in this work of determining which one it is — Holy Spirit or human spirit.
Man is a spirit being just like God.
We know that from John 4:24 which says God is a spirit and those that worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth.
We know that’s so from Genesis 1:26 where man was created in the image and likeness of God.
We know that from 1 Thessalonians 5:23 where man is identified as spirit, soul, and body.
So, it’s okay to ask questions of the text.
Reviewing this again — Galatians 5:22 shows us that the first two fruits of the recreated in Christ Jesus human spirit is love and joy.
The fact that they are the first two in the list of nine speaks volumes of their importance and their link to each other.
Walking in love is a Jesus followers standard.
Being joyful while you do so is God’s essential will for your life.

The Sidekicks of Love and Joy

Check this verse out and look for the link between love and joy.

Philippians 2:1–2 (ESV) — 2:1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Look at the words that surround love and joy in these two verses.
We can call them love and joy’s sidekicks.
Did you hear the word ‘comfort’ in the phrase comfort from love?

Philippians 2:1 (ESV) — 1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love…

Comfort is one of love and joy’s sidekicks.
Affection and sympathy are two other close associates.
Let’s look at these three.

Sidekicks of Love and Joy: Comfort

The word “comfort” is the translation of a Greek word which means literally, “a word which comes to the side of one to stimulate or comfort him.” [The word] has an element of tenderness and persuasion involved in its meaning.⁵
Love and tenderness — tenderness and love — have a persuasive element.
People are moved by love and tenderness.
Have you ever heard the phrase ‘speak the truth in love?’
Could we say it this way — speak the truth in tenderness?
You’re speaking the truth because there is something that needs to be altered — maybe a person’s thinking.
You don’t want to hammer them into submission.
Speaking the truth in tenderness will get you much further.

Ephesians 4:14–15 (ESV) — 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

So here, we are speaking the truth in spirit of love with tender words that come alongside to stimulate or comfort him the individual you are talking to.
These words are designed to persuade and move people who are being tossed all around by winds of doctrine to a place where they stand on solid ground.
So do it! — Speak the truth in love — speak the truth with tender persuasion and encouragement.
This harsh stuff — where a person says ‘I just told them the truth’ — ‘I spoke the truth and I didn’t care what they thought’ is not the way of love.
You won’t persuade anybody to do anything with that kind of tone.
You see, it’s not just ‘speaking the truth’ but it’s speaking the truth in love.
The tender persuasion and encouragement which exhorts to unity [among the Philippians,] comes from God’s love for them.
Instead of harshness of speech, there’s a gentleness that rules the heart of the Jesus man and women.

Sidekicks of Love and Joy: Affection

Now what about the next sidekick, affection?
Paul says, ‘If there’s any affection.’
The KJV uses the word ‘bowels’ emphazing that ‘affection’ comes from the inside of us.
The Greek word ‘affection’ means compassion that flows from the inward parts.
‘Tenderheartedness’ is another good synonym for ‘affection.’
This is vital to understand because what is the temperature of the conversation that comes from compassion flowing from the inward parts?
Out of tenderheartedness comes tender words of love.
If you are speaking in harsh tones in the name of truth — that’s not this compassion or affection.
Look at Philippians 1:8.
This word ‘affection’ or bowels, or compassion that flows from the inward parts appears there.

Philippians 1:8 (ESV) — 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Compassion that yearns for others — now you understand what affection means?

Sidekicks of Love and Joy: Sympathy

Now, look at the word ‘sympathy.’

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy…

The word ‘sympathy’ here doesn’t mean ‘oh, you poor little thing.’
The Greek word means “compassionate yearnings and actions.”⁶
Now that we understand what these words mean, let’s reread this.

2:1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any [comfort from love] tender and persuasive words which comes alongside to stimulate or comfort him, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion that flows from the inward parts, any compassionate yearnings and actions 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Paul is saying ‘you will complete my joy by walking in a spirit of unity because you are flowing in a loving tender compassion that comes from inside of you. And you ought to do it, you ought to persuade one another with loving words of persuasion.
So, no matter how you cut it — love and joy overlap one other.
Where you see one, the other is close behind.
So you can guage your love walk by taking your ‘joy temperature’ and vice versa, you can know how joyful you are by the real of God flowing out of you.
I assure you — it will make you happy.
And all of this comes via abiding in Jesus.

Now, Father God thank you for loving us — thank you for Jesus loving us. We are excited and we resolve to maintain our joy and not allow circumstances to steal that joy from us. We give you all the praise, glory, and honor in Jesus Name, Amen.

The Link Between Love, Joy and Abiding in Jesus.
You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

Choosing to Serve God with Joy

__________
References:

Discipleship Journal, Issue 124 (July/August 2001) (NavPress, 2001). ↩
Discipleship Journal, Issue 124 (July/August 2001) (NavPress, 2001). ↩
The Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the Hebrew Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017). ↩
Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 13 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 168–169. ↩
Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 5 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 57. ↩
Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 5 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 58. ↩

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The Link Between Love, Joy, And Abiding In Jesus

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Thirty-Eight

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe in PlayerFM

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the Gospel of John. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Love, Joy, and Abiding Are Linked

Love and Joy: An Illustration

Love and Joy: Four Things God Is

The Depth of Love and Joy

Jesus Ties Love and Joy Together

Love and Joy: How Jesus Walked

Love and Joy In Other Places

The Sidekicks of Love and Joy

Sidekicks of Love and Joy: Comfort

Sidekicks of Love and Joy: Affection

Sidekicks of Love and Joy: Sympathy

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe in PlayerFM

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the Gospel of John. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Love, Joy, and Abiding Are Linked

Love and Joy: An Illustration

Love and Joy: Four Things God Is

The Depth of Love and Joy

Jesus Ties Love and Joy Together

Love and Joy: How Jesus Walked

Love and Joy In Other Places

The Sidekicks of Love and Joy

Sidekicks of Love and Joy: Comfort

Sidekicks of Love and Joy: Affection

Sidekicks of Love and Joy: Sympathy

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