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FULNESS OF JOY

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 36.

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FULNESS OF JOY.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

“THESE things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” John 15:11. There is something wonderful in these words, especially when we consider the circumstances under which they were spoken. “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you.” That shows us that by receiving and retaining what Jesus says to us, we receive and retain his joy. Joy comes by believing the words of the Lord, as we read, “The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” Rom. 15:13. Notice, it is “all joy” in believing, just as Jesus says: “that your joy may be full.” By receiving his words we get fulness of joy—perfect joy.
But that shows us also that he had perfect joy—fulness of joy; for it is his joy that we are to receive. “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” We get fulness of joy through Jesus, simply because his joy is perfect. As men sometimes express it, his cup of joy was full. When was it that he expressed the wish that his perfect joy might remain in his disciples?—The very night when he was betrayed; while he was on the way to the place where he knew that he would be delivered into the hands of cruel men, to be mocked, and beaten, and scourged, and crucified. Ah, that is joy worth having,—a joy that is perfect in distress and affliction, a joy that is perfect in itself, and does not depend on circumstances! It is the possession of such joy, and that alone, that enables one to endure affliction. Jesus, because of the joy that he had continually before him, and present with him, “endured the cross, despising the shame.” Heb. 12:2.
This joy is found, not in doubting, not in experimenting, but in trusting. There are millionaires that would give all their possessions for such joy, that delivers from painful anxiety, when the poorest man can have it by simply taking the words of the Lord and letting them work out their fulfilment in him. How can Christians be otherwise than glad, when they serve a Master who is gladness itself? E. J. W.