Questions and Answers

According to the Puritans, why is joy a duty and not merely an optional experience for the Christian?

The Puritan pastors taught that joy is not left to temperament or inclination but is a matter of duty charged upon the conscience from the authority of God. As Sibbes wrote, God requires joy at the hands of Christians because He has given them abundant matter for it—they are freed from sin, from the wrath of God, and from eternal damnation, and they are brought into the favor of God with the hope of glory. A Christian who does not rejoice wrongs his condition and brings a poor report upon the way of God, as if it were a desolate and disconsolate way. As Dr. Lloyd-Jones affirmed in the discussion, the command to "rejoice evermore" is a doctrine, and our whole danger is to define our doctrine by what we find in experience rather than allowing our experience to conform to what God commands.

How did the Puritans distinguish between true Christian joy and mere carnal mirth?

The Puritans were careful to expose the possibility that joy in a Christian could be carnal, wrongly founded, or merely a natural emotion with a veneer of spirituality. Baxter directed Christians to examine whether they were fit persons for mirth—that is, whether they were in a regenerate and justified state—and to consider the usefulness and tendency of their rejoicing. True joy is rational, spiritual, and always linked to God and His salvation as its source and object. False joy, by contrast, is an irrational emotion unrelated to God, and the cure for sinful mirth is to remember the presence of God, the nearness of death and judgment, the example of Christ, and the many calamitous objects of sorrow in the world that ought to chasten the believer's spirit.

What practical directions did the Puritans give for cultivating delight in God?

John Howe and Richard Baxter laid down several directions for the practice of holy joy. First, fill the mind with the essential truths of the Christian faith—repentance toward God and faith in Christ. Second, labor to become habitually holy in settled temper and inclination, for the paths of righteousness are pleasant to a restored soul. Third, persevere in holiness and continually mortify evil desires. Fourth, be frequent and impartial in exercising all the graces of the Spirit in every department of life. Fifth, understand that the Christian religion is intrinsically a delightful thing and that every true vital act of religion will be delightful. Sixth, do all acts of religion for a higher reason than your own delight, lest you become a religious epicure who destroys his own work. These directions all rest upon the conviction that God has made the believer capable of higher and larger delights by His Spirit.

Can a Christian be both unhappy and joyful at the same time?

This question was explored at length in the conference discussion. The consensus among the conferees and Dr. Lloyd-Jones was that there is an important distinction between happiness and joy. A Christian may be made unhappy by circumstances, by the state of the world, or by the remainders of sin within, and indeed ought to grieve over such things. Yet Christian joy, rooted in the unchanging nature and promises of God, runs deeper than outward circumstances and can coexist with genuine sorrow. The Apostle Paul described himself as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, and Peter spoke of believers who greatly rejoice even while being in heaviness through manifold temptations. Dr. Lloyd-Jones insisted that a Christian's reaction to the world around him is determined by his joy in the Lord, so that even in want, affliction, or sickness, the believer's relationship to Christ renders him independent of circumstances.

What is the relationship between the experience of spiritual desertion and the duty of joy?

The conference grappled honestly with the fact that even faithful Christians experience seasons of dryness, darkness, and apparent desertion by God—seasons in which the felt experience of joy is absent despite diligent use of the means of grace. The Puritans taught that such desertions may arise from sin, from God's sovereign purpose to teach the believer something deeper, or from psychological and physical factors. Yet the crucial point, as Dr. Lloyd-Jones emphasized, is that the believer in such a state is never content to remain there; he labors to get out of it, which itself is a sign of grace. Sibbes wrote that a Christian is either in a state of joy or should labor to be in it, and the Puritans regarded it as a wonderful mark of grace when a man continues in the duties of religion even without the felt enjoyment of them. The duty of joy stands as a permanent command regardless of fluctuating experience.