HomeVIETNAMESE YOUTH CHRISTIANSA Case For The Duty Of Joy

“A CASE FOR THE DUTY OF JOY”

By David Nguyen, M.Div.

The Quest for Unification

Throughout Scripture we find a God who cares deeply about justice and righteousness. Some take the perspective that God commands such things because that is who He is by nature. This is commonly referred to as a Modified Divine Command system of ethics. We shall examine this system more carefully, specifically with regards to the question of how it can simultaneously be congruous with a Christian Hedonist persuasion. Integrating the two systems will require that the duty to pursue joy in God is fundamentally grounded in the nature of God.

God Commands His Very Nature

In the Modified Divine Command perspective God commands that which is good because it is good. An action is right and good if it corresponds with the nature of God. God’s essence is purely and immutably good, and His commandments are grounded in this absolute reality. At the same time, there exists no standard external and independent from God because the standard is His very own nature, eternally binding just as He is eternal. In Leviticus 20:26, God grounds his commandments by appealing to his very own nature: “You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy.” God intended for his people to understand His commandments as equivalent to understanding Him. Obedience is not a prerequisite for covenant relationship with God; it is the very definition of that relationship. Thus, Jesus took the exhortation in Leviticus and framed it in the context of a love relationship: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Perhaps this is why God reserved the special revelation of his Law for his covenant people alone. The commandments brought the Israelites into relationship with Him because given to them was His very essence: the nature of God expressed through divine command.

God’s Nature Consists in Supreme Joy

It is hard to imagine a God absent of joy. This is because the Scriptures speak of a God who is the true source and cause of joy. Here are some things that have been revealed to us: Jesus desired his joy to be made full in his disciples (John 15:11; 17:13), joy comes from the Holy Spirit (1 Thes. 1:6), the joy of the Lord is the strength of His people (Neh. 8:10), joy is in God’s dwelling place (1 Chron. 16:27), there is fullness of joy in His presence (Psa. 16:11; 21:6), and the Lord’s faithful ones will enter into His joy (Matt. 25:21).

Though this is not an exhaustive list of all the references to God’s joy in the Scriptures, there is a common thread that runs through them. They all speak of joy as either belonging to God directly or as an experience actualized by necessity in His presence. In either case, it is reasonable to argue that joy is inseparable from the very essence of God. If God’s commands are grounded in His nature of which joy is a necessary part, the question we must consider is this: Does God really command that we find this joy in Him?

Moral Duty to Find Joy

If the sole standard for what is right and good is the nature of God, our understanding of God’s vast joy and satisfaction within this nature is of utmost importance. That is because finding joy in Him very well might become a moral obligation if indeed that is what He commands. There are at least two things worth noting at this point. First, we are saying our duty is to find joy in Him. Receiving joy from other things with which God has blessed us ought to be understood as God’s underlying activity to lead us back to Him, the gracious Giver and source of true joy. Thus, grounding our joy in and crediting our joy to any other object is to commit the grievous sin of idolatry. Second, the quest for joy is rooted fundamentally in a divine command, not some notion of ethical egoism. For an ethical egoist, the basis for morality is that which advances his own interests. To be sure, acting to ensure joy in God is, indeed, in the agent’s best interest, but this moral principle is derived from the nature of God alone and not from the benefits of the act themselves. We have a moral duty to find joy in God because it corresponds to His nature, and He has revealed that it is right and good to do so.

Some of the early apostles seemed to have this joy in mind. In Paul’s letter to the young Timothy, he says, “As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy” (2 Tim. 1:4). He also urged believers to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil. 4:4) echoing the Psalmist that commanded, “Delight yourself in the Lord” (Psa. 37:4). At least twice, John expresses his desire to write and visit his brethren in order that his “joy may be complete” (1 John 1:4; 2 John 1:12). Although these are quite significant statements, it remains unclear whether the apostles desired joy out of actual moral duty or by some other motive.

Perhaps the clearest illustration of duty comes from Jesus’ own words in John 16:24: “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” According to Jesus, it is imperative that his disciples ask with clear expectations that they will receive and be filled with joy. Moreover, we observe that Jesus desires this because he himself is filled with joy: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). Indeed, Jesus commands and longs for his followers to have joy – and not just some generic kind of joy – but rather, his joy, the one he enjoys in perfect union with the Father (John 17:11). Thus, if we adopt a Modified Divine Command system of ethics, we cannot overlook this duty to make God the object of our highest affections, for the reason the duty binds is that Jesus commands the joy that he already has by divine nature.

A Subtle Utilitarian Function

Though one has a moral duty to maximize his own joy in God, this divine command is actually twofold. Throughout redemptive history, God acts in ways that not only promotes His own glory but also promotes the joy and welfare of His people in Him: “Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant!” (Psa. 35:27). In fact, this brings him so much delight, that He sent His only Son to secure it: “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2; see also Rom. 8:32). The joy set before Jesus was the joy of bringing his sheep to their greatest good, the Great Shepherd (1 Peter 3:18), through the merits of his perfect obedience, even unto death on the cross (Phil. 2:8). What we find in the Scriptures is a God who emptied Himself for the sake of His own joy and that of others. It should be no surprise that Jesus commands us to do the same, counting the two greatest commandments as loving God with one’s whole being and loving others as oneself (Mark 12:30-31). Thus, the divine command for one to find joy in God has a subtle utilitarian effect since that joy partly and penultimately consists in helping others arrive at their greatest good: eternal joy realized in God.

Called to Imitate

“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:21). If we are to dutifully obey God’s command to make His joy our own, then it is also our moral obligation to find joy in bringing others to the same joy in God, no matter the cost to ourselves. Even Paul’s joy was rooted in the welfare of his brethren. He writes to the church in Thessalonica, “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.” (1 Thes. 2:19-20). The Apostle John expressed a similar sentiment: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 1:4). There is joy that comes from knowing that others have arrived at their greatest good: the communion with their Creator in whom there is everlasting joy. To this selfless and most joyous pursuit we are thus called and held accountable to obey, for it corresponds to His example and nature, by which all moral duty is grounded.


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