Have you ever heard a Christian make a distinction
between Joy and Happiness? It usually goes something like this: “Happiness is temporary,
shallow, and worldly; but joy is deep, heavenly, and not based on
circumstances. Happiness is different than joy.” Alcorn spends chapter 5
attacking this as a modern distinction that has robbed Christians of happiness.
John Piper has made the same point, “If you have nice
little categories for ‘joy is what Christians have’ and ‘happiness is what the
world has,’ you can scrap those when you go to the Bible, because the Bible is
indiscriminate in its uses of the language of happiness and joy and contentment
and satisfaction.”
While I believe we need to be careful when we using a
multitude of Bible translations to prove a point (especially when paraphrases
are mixed in), I believe Alcorn does fairly make his point by giving us a sampling
of 19 verses from 7 English translations
that show that joy and happiness are virtually synonyms in scripture.
New International Version
For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness
and honor. (Esther 8:16)
May they be happy and joyful. (Psalm 68:3)
The fasts . . . will become joyful and glad
occasions and happy festivals for Judah. (Zechariah 8:19)
Holman Christian Standard Bible
The joy of the wicked has been brief and the happiness of
the godless has lasted only a moment. (Job 20:5)
Happy are the people who know the joyful shout… (Psalm
89:15)
I will turn their mourning into joy . . . and
bring happiness out of grief. (Jeremiah 31:13)
New Living Translation
Give your father and mother joy! May she who gave you
birth be happy. (Proverbs 23:25)
Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy
heart, for God approves of this! (Ecclesiastes 9:7).
Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation! And look! I will
create Jerusalem as a place of happiness. Her people will be a source of joy.
(Isaiah 65:18)
God’s Word Translation
You didn’t serve the LORD your God with a joyful and
happy heart when you had so much. (Deuteronomy 28:47)
The people ransomed by the LORD . . . will come
to Zion singing with joy. Everlasting happiness will be on their heads as a
crown. They will be glad and joyful. They will have no sorrow or grief. (Isaiah
35:10)
You don’t see [Christ] now, but you believe in him. You
are extremely happy with joy and praise. (1 Peter 1:8)
New English Translation
You, O LORD, have made me happy by your work. I will sing
for joy because of what you have done. (Psalm 92:4)
Rejoice in the LORD and be happy, you who are godly!
Shout for joy. (Psalm 32:11)
Then we will shout for joy and be happy all our
days! (Psalm 90:14)
New Century Version
Solomon sent the people home, full of joy. They were
happy because the LORD had been so good. (2 Chronicles 7:10)
[The believers] ate together in their homes, happy to
share their food with joyful hearts. (Acts 2:46)
…I will be happy and full of joy with all of you.
(Philippians 2:17)
Good News Translation
Hannah prayed: “The LORD has filled my heart with joy;
how happy I am because of what he has done!” (1 Samuel 2:1)
When they saw [the star], how happy [the wise men] were,
what joy was theirs! (Matthew 2:9-10)
These Venn diagrams are helpful:
Alcorn argues that the modern-day church has created an
artificial category distinction between joy and happiness (diagram 3) while biblically
the words are virtual synonymes (diagram 4) as are other words like cheerful,
joyful, glad, merry, and delighted (diagram 5).
Questions:
1. Have you made a distinction in your mind between joy
and happiness?
2. What difference does it make if that is an artificial
distinction?
Comments
It is not a sin to be happy, to seek to be happy, or to enjoy your life in Christ.
I don't see Mr. Alcorn arguing that Christians must be happy all the time because that is unscriptural. There were many times Jesus wasn't happy in the sense of always smiling and laughing. Yet, Jesus found his joy and happiness in doing the Father's will above all, and that is the heart that we as Christians are to chase after. I am beginning to learn from this book that happiness doesn't always mean being as comfortable and satisfied as possible at any given moment, but being completed and whole in glorifying Christ. This is why Paul is able to write about a peace that surpasses understanding while he writes from a Roman prison.
I am still debating about if joy and happiness are completely synonymous or if it helps to see some difference between the two. What do y'all think? Thanks :)
So while Alcorn's study does prove the point that the biblical writers used the words more synonymously than we do, the question still remains "does the Bible make a distinction between what we mean by our use of the terms joy and happiness today? If our definition of happiness conveys the idea of passing amusement and joy conveys the idea of a deep-grounded stability in out unchanging God, then I do think there is a distinction. For example, Solomon writes this:
Ecclesiastes 7:3-4 Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
Here I believe the words "laughter" and "mirth" convey a shallow type of happiness such as found at a night visiting a comedy club, but the word "glad" is a deeper joy even in the face of sorrow and sadness. Bottom line, I believe Alcorn rightly points us in the direction of seeing biblical joy and happiness as more synonymous than we do, yet there still is a legitimate distinction that can be made between frivolity and biblical joy-happiness.
Words are tricky things!