Joy vs. Happiness

If you look up “happiness” and “joy” in the dictionary, there’s not much difference. Indeed, in my dictionary, one of the definitions of “happy” includes “joy,” and one of the definitions of “joy” includes “happy.”

So is there a difference between “happiness” and “joy”? I believe there is. Let’s look first at “happiness.”

The story of Jonah is an excellent example of happiness. God sent Jonah to Nineveh to warn the Assyrians about God’s displeasure at their wickedness. When they repented, Jonah got angry at God for being so lenient. But he didn’t immediately leave Nineveh. Instead, he built himself a shelter to wait and see if God might destroy Nineveh after all. God then caused a plant to grow beside him to provide some nice, cool shade. And that made Jonah happy.

Then God killed the plant. And as the heat bore down on poor Jonah, his  happiness vanished. He wanted to die.

Jonah’s happiness depended entirely on his circumstances. When he was cool and comfortable, he was happy. When he was hot and miserable, his happiness disappeared.

We see the same thing in chapter 3 of Lamentations, where the author describes his many woes (which are probably symbolic of Jerusalem’s sufferings at the hands of the Babylonians): he is starving; his teeth and his bones are broken; he faces many hardships; the Lord won’t listen to his prayers; people mock him and laugh at him; he is afraid and can find no peace. As a result, Lamentations 3:17 says: “I have forgotten happiness.”

Happiness is a feeling. It is dependent on circumstances. If things are going well for you, you feel happy. But if things go badly, your happiness can vanish like a puff of smoke in a hurricane.

Now what about joy? Well, many times the Bible does seem to use joy in this same sense. But then there are verses such as Hebrews 10:32-34:

But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through insults and distress, and partly by becoming companions with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and lasting possession.

The author’s audience suffered reproaches, tribulations, seizure of property—and they accepted it all “joyfully”! This is joy despite circumstances.

James 1:2-4 is similar:

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

According to James, trials are to be considered a source of joy!

Paul and Silas provided one of my favorite examples of joy. When they went to Philippi, they were arrested, stripped, beaten, and thrown into prison with their feet in stocks, even though they had done no wrong. Nothing about those circumstances would make a person “happy.” Yet we find Paul and Silas praying and singing hymns of praise to God at midnight![1]

That is joy!

“Joy” in this sense is not a feeling, and it doesn’t depend on circumstances. This “joy” comes from knowing God, walking in His ways, loving Him and being loved by Him. We can be joyful when we are doing God’s will in the world—loving God and loving others—even if our personal circumstances are not what we wish they would be. We can be joyful because God has forgiven us, and has promised to give us eternal life. We can be joyful because we are God’s children, and He loves His children.

That is the kind of joy Paul spoke about when he listed it as a “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-23:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Like the other kinds of “fruit,” joy is not a feeling—it is a choice. We can choose to be joyful, just as we can choose to be kind or good or faithful. Of course, because we are not yet perfect, we may sometimes lose our patience or self-control, we can fail to act with love, and we can forget to be gentle.

And sometimes we can neglect to be joyful.

Yet God always stands ready to restore our joy. We just need to remember to count our many blessings—and then choose joy.

[1]. See Acts 16:22-25.