Galatians 5:22 · Doctrine · Joy
Joy in the Spirit
Paul names joy second in the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22, and in Romans 14:17 he counts joy in the Holy Spirit as part of the kingdom of God.
When persecution drove Paul and Barnabas out of Pisidian Antioch, Luke records that the disciples they left behind were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
- First taught
- Psalm 51:12 “Restore to me the joy of Your…”
- Fullest statement
- Galatians 5:22 “…of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,…”
Summary
Scripture teaches that the joy of believers is the work of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians 5:22 Paul names joy among the nine graces that grow from the Spirit, set over against the works of the flesh. Romans 14:17, written to a church divided over food, places joy in the Holy Spirit beside righteousness and peace in God's kingdom. Luke, John, Acts and Paul's letters show the same joy in Jesus, in the first disciples and in churches under persecution. Readers differ on whether the fruit is one or many, and on whether this joy is first a feeling or a settled disposition.
- Joy stands second in the fruit of the Spirit, after love and before peace, and the fruit is set against the acts of the flesh (Galatians 5:19 to 23).
- Paul uses the singular noun karpos, fruit, for all nine graces, and the plural erga for the deeds of the flesh.
- The kingdom of God is a matter of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and Paul says so to warn believers against destroying a brother over food (Romans 14:15 to 17).
- The Spirit's joy stood in suffering: the Thessalonians welcomed the message with the joy of the Holy Spirit, in spite of their great suffering (1 Thessalonians 1:6).
- Jesus Himself rejoiced in the Holy Spirit (Luke 10:21), and He taught His disciples so that His joy may be in them (John 15:11).
The Fruit of the Spirit and the Kingdom of God
Paul joins joy to the Holy Spirit in a list of the Spirit's fruit in Galatians and in a description of the kingdom of God in Romans.
Joy in the Spirit is the teaching that the joy of believers comes from the Holy Spirit who lives in them. It is one part of joy, the value Scripture commands of God's people, and it answers a question every reader of those commands meets: if joy is commanded, where does it come from? Paul's answer is that the Spirit produces it, and he calls it fruit.
Below, Galatians 5:22 and Romans 14:17 are read in their chapters, and the fruit of the Spirit is set beside the acts of the flesh. Joy and the Spirit are then followed through Luke, John, Acts and Paul's letters, with the Old Testament texts behind the promise. Last come the teachers who explained the doctrine and two questions on which readers differ: whether the fruit is one or many, and whether this joy is a feeling or a settled disposition.
Paul wrote the list to the churches of Galatia (Galatians 1:2), where believers were being pressed to be circumcised and to seek justification by the law (Galatians 5:2 to 4). Just before it he tells them to walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16) and says that those led by the Spirit are not under the law (Galatians 5:18).
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.This verse gives the reason behind Paul's warnings about food, and it names joy as one of three marks of God's kingdom.
In the Greek of Romans 14:17 the phrase en pneumati hagio, in the Holy Spirit, follows chara, joy, the last of the three nouns. The same noun names joy in Galatians 5:22.
The Acts of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit
Paul wrote the two lists one after the other, the fifteen acts first and the nine graces after them.
Paul calls the deeds of the flesh by a plural noun and the nine graces by a singular one, and he names the flesh as the source of the first list and the Spirit as the source of the second.
| The point | The acts of the flesh | The fruit of the Spirit |
|---|---|---|
| The noun Paul uses | erga, works, a plural noun; the Berean text renders it acts (Galatians 5:19) | karpos, fruit, a singular noun (Galatians 5:22) |
| The list in the Berean text | sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like (Galatians 5:19 to 21) | love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22 to 23) |
| How many are named | Fifteen, and the list ends with the words and the like | Nine, with joy the second |
| What Paul says of them | those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:21) | Against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:23) |
| How the believer stands toward them | Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24) | Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25) |
Joy and the Holy Spirit from Luke to Ephesians
Six passages show the joy the Spirit gives in Jesus, in the first disciples and in the churches Paul founded.
At that time Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight.Luke records that Jesus Himself rejoiced in the Holy Spirit after the seventy-two returned, so the joy the Spirit gives is first seen in Jesus.
Luke's verb is egalliasato, from agalliao, the Greek word for exulting joy, which he also uses of Mary in Luke 1:47.
I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.Jesus gives this purpose for His teaching on the vine and the branches, which bear fruit only by remaining in Him.
And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.Luke names joy and the Holy Spirit together as what filled the new disciples once their teachers had gone.
The verb eplērounto, were filled, is in the imperfect tense, which in Greek describes an action going on in the past.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord when you welcomed the message with the joy of the Holy Spirit, in spite of your great suffering.Paul calls the church's joy the joy of the Holy Spirit and sets it beside their great suffering, so the Spirit's joy could stand in hardship.
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.Paul ends his long argument on the strong and the weak with this prayer, and it names faith as the way joy is received.
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord,Paul shows the fullness of the Spirit in the singing of the gathered church.
James gives the same outlet for gladness when he tells the cheerful to sing praises (James 5:13).
Acts 13:52, 1 Thessalonians 1:6, Romans 15:13, Ephesians 5:18 to 19
Romans 14:17 in Its Chapter
Paul wrote the verse to a church divided over food and drink, and the verses around it say what joy in the Holy Spirit asks of believers.
Romans 14 opens with two kinds of believer: one has faith to eat all things, while another eats only vegetables (Romans 14:2). Paul forbids the first to belittle the second and the second to judge the first, because God has accepted each (Romans 14:3).
If your brother is distressed by what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother, for whom Christ died.This warning comes two verses before Romans 14:17, which gives the reason for it.
For whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. So then, let us pursue what leads to peace and to mutual edification.The two verses after Romans 14:17 turn its words into the church's practice.
Paul still treats food as a matter of love. In verses 20 to 21 he tells the believer who eats freely that it is better not to eat meat or drink wine than to cause a brother to stumble. In this chapter joy in the Holy Spirit is a joy the church keeps together, and a believer may give up his own freedom to keep it.
In his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), John Wesley glossed the kingdom of God here as "true religion". He glossed its righteousness as "The image of God stamped on the heart".
The Old Testament Behind the Promise
Psalm 51 and Isaiah 61 join the Spirit of God to joy, and Psalm 16 joins joy to God's presence, before the New Testament takes them up.
Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.This prayer for mercy sets the Holy Spirit and the joy of God's salvation side by side.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of our God’s vengeance, to comfort all who mourn, to console the mourners in Zion—to give them a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for a spirit of despair. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.Isaiah ties the anointing of the Spirit to the comfort of those who mourn.
Jesus read the opening of this passage in the synagogue at Nazareth and then said, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21).
You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.The psalm ends with the joy found in God's presence and the pleasures at His right hand.
On the day of Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit had come, Peter quoted Psalm 16:8 to 11 and applied it to the resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:25 to 31). He then said that Jesus, exalted to the right hand of God, "has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear" (Acts 2:33). Luke records that the believers then shared their meals "with gladness and sincerity of heart" (Acts 2:46).
Teachers on the Fruit and the Joy
Tertullian, John Chrysostom and Augustine, from the third century to the fifth, wrote of the joyful Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit and Christ's joy in His people.
Tertullian drew from the Spirit's joy a warning against coming to God in sadness. Chrysostom explained why Paul calls the graces fruit and the vices works. Augustine, preaching on John 15:11, explained Christ's joy in His people as His rejoicing over them.
died 220 · Tertullian
On Prayer
A sad spirit cannot meet the joyful Spirit in prayer
The quotation1 quotation
“For a defiled spirit cannot be acknowledged by a holy Spirit, nor a sad by a joyful, nor a lettered by a free.”
Tertullian · On Prayer · on Romans 14:17Patristic
died 407 · John Chrysostom
Homily on Galatians 5
Paul says fruit because good works need God's loving kindness as well as our diligence
The quotation1 quotation
“He says not, ‘the work of the Spirit,’ but, ‘the fruit of the Spirit.’ Is the soul, however, superfluous? the flesh and the Spirit are mentioned, but where is the soul? is he discoursing of beings without a soul? for if the things of the flesh be evil, and those of the Spirit good, the soul must be superfluous. By no means, for the mastery of the passions belongs to her, and concerns her; and being placed amid vice and virtue, if she has used the body fitly, she has wrought it to be spiritual, but if she separate from the Spirit and give herself up to evil desires, she makes herself more earthly. You observe throughout that his discourse does not relate to the substance of the flesh, but to the moral choice, which is or is not vicious. And why does he say, ‘the fruit of the Spirit?’ it is because evil works originate in ourselves alone, and therefore he calls them ‘works,’ but good works require not only our diligence but God's loving kindness. He places first the root of these good things, and then proceeds to recount them, in these words, ‘Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.’ For who would lay any command on him who hath all things within himself, and who hath love for the finished mistress of philosophy? As horses, who are docile and do every thing of their own accord, need not the lash, so neither does the soul, which by the Spirit hath attained to excellence, need the admonitions of the Law. Here too he completely and strikingly casts out the Law, not as bad, but as inferior to the philosophy given by the Spirit.”
John Chrysostom · Homily on Galatians 5 · on Galatians 5:22 to 23Patristic
died 430 · Augustine of Hippo
Tractates on John 83
Christ's joy in His people is the grace He gives them
The quotation1 quotation
“You have just heard, beloved, the Lord saying to His disciples, ‘These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be full.’ And what else is Christ's joy in us, save that He is pleased to rejoice over us? And what is this joy of ours which He says is to be made full, but our having fellowship with Him? On this account He had said to the blessed Peter, ‘If I wash thee not, thou shall have no part with me.’ His joy, therefore, in us is the grace He hath bestowed upon us: and that is also our joy. But over it He rejoiced even from eternity, when He chose us before the foundation of the world. Nor can we rightly say that His joy was not full; for God's joy was never at any time imperfect. But that joy of His was not in us: for we, in whom it could be, had as yet no existence; and even when our existence commenced, it began not to be in Him. But in Him it always was, who in the infallible truth of His own foreknowledge rejoiced that we should yet be His own. Accordingly, He had a joy over us that was already full, when He rejoiced in foreknowing and foreordaining us: and as little could there be any fear intermingling in that joy of His, lest there should be any possible failure in what He foreknew would be done by Himself. Nor, when He began to do what He foreknew that He would do, was there any increase to His joy as the expression of His blessedness; otherwise His making of us must have added to His blessedness. Be such a supposition, brethren, far from our thoughts; for the blessedness of God was neither less without us, nor became greater because of us. […]”
Augustine of Hippo · Tractates on John 83 · on John 15:11Patristic
Where Readers Differ
Readers differ on whether the fruit of the Spirit is one or many, and on whether the joy it names is a felt affection or a settled disposition.
One fruit with nine gracesCharles Spurgeon; John Chrysostom
This reading takes the singular noun of Galatians 5:22 as Paul's point: the Spirit bears one fruit, and the nine graces belong to it. Charles Spurgeon preached it in The Fruit of the Spirit: Joy (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, sermon 1582, 1881). He said that "the product of the Spirit of God is one", and that the fruit, "though it is but one, is threefold, no, it makes three times three". Chrysostom's contrast of works and fruit stands on the same side.
The objection: a singular noun can name a whole crop, so the grammar alone does not prove that Paul meant a single fruit.
Many fruits, twelve in the Latin textThomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologiae (I-II, question 70, article 3, English Dominican translation, 1920), speaks of "the twelve fruits enumerated by the Apostle" and answers the objection that "there is only one fruit".
The objection: the twelve come from the Latin Vulgate, which adds modesty, continence and chastity, while the Greek text, from which the Berean text is translated, names nine.
Joy as a settled disposition of the willThomas Aquinas; John Wesley
Aquinas taught in the Summa Theologiae (II-II, question 28, article 4) that joy is "an act, or effect, of charity: for which reason it is numbered among the Fruits (Galatians 5:22)". John Wesley's Journal for 24 May 1738 records what he was taught soon after his heart was warmed at Aldersgate Street. He learned that "peace and victory over sin are essential to faith in the Captain of our salvation". He also learned that God gives to some and withholds from others "the transports of joy that usually attend the beginning of it".
The objection: Psalm 16:11 speaks of being filled with joy and 1 Peter 1:8 of an inexpressible and glorious joy, words that describe a gladness the believer feels.
Joy as a felt affection of the heartJonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards took 1 Peter 1:8 as the text of Religious Affections (1746), where he taught that "True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections". In part 1, section 2 of that book he wrote, "The Scriptures speaks of holy joy, as a great part of true religion."
The objection: joy is commanded, and Habakkuk rejoices in the LORD with no harvest in the fields (Habakkuk 3:17 to 18), so the command stands when the feeling is weak.
On the second question both sides hold that joy is commanded and that its object is God. They differ on whether the command is kept when the feeling is absent.
Joy the Spirit Grows
Paul treats joy as a grace the Spirit grows in those who walk by Him, kept beside love and peace and shared in the church. Its pattern is Jesus, who rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and gave His joy to His disciples, and its strength is shown where the Thessalonians kept it, in suffering.
So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.Jesus promised His grieving disciples a joy that no one would take from them.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- The tagged Greek text of Galatians 5:19 and 5:22, Romans 14:17, Luke 10:21, Acts 13:52 and 1 Thessalonians 1:6, with Strong's numbers and morphology.
- STEP Bible, Translators Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, the brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922), entries g5479 and g21.
- John Chrysostom, Homily on Galatians 5.
- C. H. Spurgeon, The Fruit of the Spirit: Joy, Sermon No. 1582, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (1881), the Christian Classics Ethereal Library text.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on Romans 14:17.
- Tertullian, On Prayer.
- Augustine of Hippo, Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 83, on John 15:11.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II question 28, article 4, and I-II question 70, article 3, English Dominican translation, second edition (1920)
- John Wesley, The Journal of John Wesley, entry for 24 May 1738, abridged by Percy Livingstone Parker.
- Jonathan Edwards, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746), part 1, section 2.
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