Nose Prints On The Glass - 1 Peter 1:6 Series

1 Peter 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Introduction: Bible Babble?

What are we to Make of the Commands to Rejoice in Suffering?

Our culture has coined the phrase “psychobabble” to describe psychological lingo that does not have any actual meaning. And anyone who knows me knows how much I dislike psychobabble. But there is another kind of babbling that I hate even more – religio-babble. Psychobabble uses psychological terms that are devoid of meaning to say nothing while pretending to say something. Religio-babble does the same thing with Bible words. We could even call it biblio-babble. You go through some painful ordeal, and someone says to you, “Just cling to the Cross,” and you say, “What does that mean exactly?” and they do not have an answer – that is biblio-babble. If they say, “Just trust God,” and they do not know what “trust God” means – that is biblio-babble. Now, if you do know what those things mean then they might be some of the most profound and helpful things you will ever say. But any time you are using words and you do not know what they mean – you are babbling. You are not communicating anything.

When we tell people to rejoice in the midst of their suffering, is that Bible babble? Peter does say that in verse 6 - we greatly rejoice even though we are grieved. But what does that mean?

Let me ask you another question: What kind of effect does it have on your emotions when you read things like that in the Bible? When the Bible says that Christians greatly rejoice in our suffering, does that make you feel happy? Or does it make you feel even less joyful than you were to begin with, because now not only are you sad because of your suffering, but on top of that you feel guilty for not having joy?

Why does God command us to be joyful in our suffering? And how can we possibly obey that command?

Unfelt Joy?

Some people have suggested maybe it is talking about some kind of spiritualized joy that has nothing to do with your emotions. They say maybe it is a kind of joy where you do not actually feel emotionally happy – it is more of a decision of the will. The only problem I see with that view is the fact that it is absolute nonsense. What on earth is joy that you can’t feel? It is absolutely nothing. Joy IS a feeling, and there are no feelings that you cannot feel. If you don’t feel happy, then you are not happy. The idea of having joy but not feeling happy, or having fear of God but not feeling afraid, having hope but not feeling encouraged, having reverence but not feeling awe, trusting but not feeling confident, love that you cannot feel but that is only a decision– all of those are nothing but efforts to pacify a guilty conscience when God commands love and joy and peace and fear and faith, and you do not have them. God commands those feelings, and someone says, “I don’t have that feeling, and I don’t know how to get it. I can’t just decide to have it, therefore God can’t require it of me, therefore He must be talking about something other than a feeling.”

No!

That is horrible logic and it is dead wrong. And it is incredibly damaging, because it turns the language of Scripture into Bible babble. And I despise that kind of thinking because it trains people to read the Bible in a way that is disconnected from real life. Christianity becomes this theoretical, detached religion of mere words that do not have any actual connection with real life. And once you start reading the Bible that way, you might as well not read it at all.

When God speaks, He speaks about reality. And when He talks about joy, He means real joy that feels joyful. Happiness, delight, enjoyment, gladness – feeling good.

Rejoicing while Grieving

Grief is Appropriate

So what are we to make of passages like this that talk about joy in the midst of suffering? In fact, not only joy in the midst of suffering, but joy in the midst of grief!