My Joy Comes from Your Being Joyful:

My Joy Comes from Your Being Joyful

“Surely you all know that my joy comes from your being joyful.”
2 Corinthians 2:3 NLT

One mark of true friendship and love is the ability for us to rejoice in and alongside the joy of another person. When something truly remarkable happens to a friend, can I rejoice with them when they are rejoicing? Can I share in their joy and add to their joy by rejoicing with them?

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians, he wanted to express his heart of love for them. He had previously had to express some tough love for them because of their waywardness, yet he wanted them to know that while the letter he had written had been painful for them to read, and had caused him much affliction and anguish of heart to write, he had done so in order that they would know the love he had for them (2:4). He embraced the calling to be one who works for the joy of other believers (2 Cor. 1:24), and in light of that calling, his joy became intertwined with theirs. When they were struggling, whether with sin or with sorrow, he too felt those burdens (2 Cor. 11:29). But, likewise, he told them, “Surely you all know that my joy comes from your being joyful” (2 Cor. 2:3). In our friendships it may seem like a no-brainer that when our friends are downcast or heartbroken with some struggle, we weep with them. But in the same way, when they are abundantly blessed, while we struggle; when they get the promotion, while we are stuck in the same job; while they seem to get their heart’s desire, while we seem to get a stream of “no’s” from the Lord, can we genuinely rejoice and share in their joy with them?

This kind of friendship requires genuine love and selflessness. Friendship may often start with mutual interests or common factors, but it grows into a genuine love for one another through many shared experiences and conversations. Genuine love desires the best for the other person. It willingly lays down one’s life for another, if necessary. Sincere love ought to be the mark of Christian friendships, and that fervent love from the heart motivates friends to increase the joy of the other by rejoicing with them in the good that God has brought to them (1 Peter 1:22). This kind of love, however, builds upon the laying aside of self-interest and putting another ahead of ourselves. I must be able to say that my joy for you is greater than my disappointment for myself when those feelings may come. Selflessness in a friendship will put to death those feelings of envy and jealousy so that true rejoicing can abound. In friendships, friends ought to be able to, without hesitation, call or text with joyous news and have their joy increased because another is rejoicing with them. 

I thank God for my friends and family who rejoice along with me. May we all be able to say like Paul to our dear friends, “Surely you all know that my joy comes from your being joyful.” Let’s increase one another’s joy by rejoicing along with them and giving them a safe place to speak of the goodness of the Lord.     
 
Photo credit to andreswd

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