12. The Responsibility of Joyful Hope
With true hope we are never stranded in the present … The title of this chapter may seem strange to you because "responsibility" and "joy" may appear to be very different concepts – almost opposites in some ways. This is because a responsibility is usually something we have to do, like it or not, whereas joy is something we want to have for sure.
But let's look at this more closely. We have already seen that joy and hope are related qualities: joy is really an outcome of – or even synonymous with – biblical hope, when hope is properly understood. So keep in mind that when we look at the concept of joy in the Bible, what we find is often directly relevant to hope. In that light, remember these tremendous words of encouragement from the apostle James:
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:2-4). Do you see the pattern in the qualities James mentions? Because perseverance is scripturally related to hope and works are often related with love (as we saw respectively in Chapter 1), when it says "faith … perseverance … work," this verse really covers the same range of qualities as faith, hope and love. This is why James can say that if we have these things, we will be "mature and complete, not lacking anything."
Going back to the beginning of the verse we see that James tells us we should (a responsibility) consider it all joy when we face trials. The thought is closely echoed in the first epistle of Peter: "In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials" (1 Peter 1:6).
The "trials of many kinds" James speaks about and the "all kinds of trials" Peter mentions include sickness, poverty, bereavement, persecution, and any kind of suffering that we may endure. But these many trials are balanced, James tells us, by "pure joy" or literally, in the Greek, "every kind of joy" – in other words, our many trials can be balanced by the many joys of the Christian life.
So James and Peter are not telling us that we have to feel happy even if we are experiencing trials, but that we have a responsibility to live through them with underlying joy because of the hope we have been given.
It's a radical approach to trials. Even if we do not feel the emotion of physical happiness in the here and now, we can – and should – have spiritual joy in the hope that reaches beyond the present. That is what Paul meant in writing to the Thessalonians:
"We remember … your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ … for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit … and you turned to God to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead" (1 Thessalonians 1:3, 6, 9-10). With true hope we are never stranded in the present. We can – and have a responsibility to – live with the future in mind that we know is there.
PART FOUR: