After my book Happiness was released, I did an interview with Faithlife about some of the book’s main themes. The interviewer, Daniel DeBartolo, did a wonderful job asking thoughtful questions. Below the video, you can read an edited transcript:
Daniel DeBartolo: We're here with Randy Alcorn, author of Heaven and Happiness. Randy, is there a difference between joy and happiness, and why does that even matter?
Randy: In the end, there is very little difference between joy, happiness, gladness, and merriment. These words are synonyms; they are overlapping circles and essentially the same thing. If I were to say, “It’s bright outside. It’s a sunny day. The sky is blue. There's not a cloud in the sky,” have I said four different things? No, I've said one thing in four different ways. They're slightly different enough to broaden your view, but I'm not contrasting them with each other.
The same thing is true with the Hebrew words for happiness and joy and gladness, as well as the Greek words that are used in Scripture. If you look them up in lexicons or dictionaries, you’ll find that the word translated “joy” in the lexicon will say “a state of happiness; gladness.” The word translated “happy” is defined as “joyful.”
Daniel: So really, it's a choice by translators to take a word in the Greek or Hebrew language, and use different words in English to convey the sense of that original word. Does it change the meaning of Bible passages that we read in English if it's translated joy or happiness?
Randy: It shouldn't, but it does. For example, the Greek word chara is typically translated “joy.” The verb form of it, chairo, is used in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” It could easily be translated as, “Be glad in the Lord always, and again I say be glad” or “Be happy in the Lord always, and again I say be happy.”
People will say things like, “Joy is the spiritual thing, and happiness is this worldly thing.” To prove that isn’t factual, one of the things I do in the book is cite a passage in Mark where the Pharisees rejoice, and it uses that same word chairo that’s used for “rejoice in the Lord always.” These Pharisees are rejoicing because Judas has agreed to betray Jesus, and they paid him his 30 pieces of silver. Except it’s not translated “rejoice”; it says, “they were glad,” so no one realizes this is the same word for rejoicing. But if joy is only a spiritual thing, were the Pharisees being spiritual when they rejoiced that Judas was betraying Jesus? Of course not! The point is, unbelievers who oppose God’s purposes can rejoice, just as believers can and should be happy in Christ in the appropriate sense.
Daniel: In your book, you talk about the fact that God is happy. Often times, especially perhaps with non-Christians or people who don't know much about the Bible, they have this view of God as being angry or full of wrath. How can we as Christians reconcile that God is happy and good and righteous, and because of that righteousness, pours out His wrath on the unrighteous? How can we reconcile those concepts as we live life and read the Bible?
Randy: That's a really important question. We need to be careful not to draw lines that fail to recognize paradox. There are so many things in life, and so many things in the Bible, that are simultaneously true. Paul talked about being sorrowful yet always rejoicing. How is that possible?
As soon as people hear someone like me say that Jesus was happy, they say, “But no, He's the man of sorrows. He was not happy.” Well, “man of sorrows” is a phrase that is used in Isaiah 53 related to the redemptive work of Messiah on the cross. He was pierced for our iniquities, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. They say, “But Jesus wept.” Sure, He wept, but that phrase “man of sorrows” is used in particular about a day of His life that started in Gethsemane with His agony, and then goes to the next day on the cross and the six hours of horrible suffering greater than anyone has ever known. But it's not right to think of Jesus as day to day being a man full of sorrow.
How do we know this? There are a number of ways. In the first message in the early church recorded in Acts 2, Peter quoted from Psalm 16 referring to the Messiah’s happiness, joy, or gladness, depending on what translation you use.
Hebrews 1 quotes Psalm 45 and says of the Messiah that He was anointed with the oil of gladness beyond His companions. Who are those companions? Most interpreters say that's not just the Apostles, the people He hung out with on Earth, but His fellow human beings. If so, Hebrews 1 and Psalm 45, which we now know is referring to Jesus, are calling Him the happiest person who has ever lived.
Think of the children who came to Jesus (Mark 9:36-37, Mark 10:16, Luke 18:15). Children don't come to unhappy people! They're not drawn to them.
When Jesus talked about the prodigal son, He described the father who celebrates and rejoices and kills the fatted calf. He says to the older son, “We had to celebrate and make merry.” This is a picture of God the Father’s heart.
There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God whenever a sinner repents. God the Father is pleased and delighted with His Son. He said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I'm well pleased.” Luke 10 also tells us Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. There's so much joy in God!
We need to understand that sin is a temporary condition, and God is unhappy with sin, but endless eons before the world was created, in eternity past, there was no sin and God was always happy. In the ages to come, when sin is dealt with once and for all, forever God will always be happy. Even now, our God of sovereignty and grace remains happy in Himself and pleased with His people. Yes, He is displeased with sin, and He does have anger and wrath. He will judge evil, yet all of that is congruent with the reality of His happiness.
