Natural Joy vs. Spiritual Joy (Rewritten)

In our previous post, we worked to clarify the difference between love and joy — a distinction that isn’t obvious at first, but is quite real and important. To deepen that discussion, it helps to introduce another meaningful distinction: the difference between natural joy and spiritual joy.

Just as spiritual joy should not be confused with love, neither should natural joy. In both cases, love and joy are genuinely distinct experiences. But beyond that shared distinction, there is another important point: spiritual (or gracious) joy differs from natural joy in several key ways. Exploring those differences will help shed more light on the nature of true spiritual experience.

The Difference Between Love and Joy (Rewritten)

From the way this topic is often discussed, it’s easy to get the impression that perfect love, according to the Gospel, is essentially the same thing as sanctification or holiness — and in truth, that understanding is largely correct. Scripture consistently treats those who are perfected in love as people who are accepted, sanctified, and holy. Even though such people still have weaknesses and make mistakes — and even though they must continually rely on Christ’s atonement for both present failings and past sins — they are nonetheless regarded in the New Testament as truly holy.

For that reason, anyone who is sincerely and unselfishly seeking perfect love can rightly be said to be seeking holiness.

That said, experience shows that there is a serious and subtle mistake that some people make along the way. Even when they genuinely desire sanctification and believe they are pursuing it properly, they sometimes confuse love with joy. Without fully realizing it, they end up chasing an intense, emotionally uplifting state rather than true love itself. This is likely what Lady Maxwell was pointing to when she said, 

“The Lord has taught me that it is by faith, and not joy, that I must live.”

On Loving Our Neighbor — and Ourselves (Rewritten)

We now turn to a topic that naturally follows from the previous post: love for our neighbor, and more broadly, love for all created beings. The central idea is this: if our love for God is pure, unselfish, and rightly placed above everything else, then every other form of love will fall into its proper place beneath it. 

When we love God in the highest and fullest sense, all other loves become secondary and take their direction from that primary love. In that case, we come to share God’s own way of loving. We begin to care about what God cares about. Our love flows along the same path as God's love. Whatever God values — whether great or small, material or spiritual — will matter to us in proportion to how well we perceive it and how capable we are of loving it.

Pure Love vs. Selfish Love (Rewritten).

Up to now, we tried to show that evangelical holiness is essentially the same thing as perfect love. 

Scripture makes this plain in the great commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself.” The moment a person begins to love, holiness begins. But holiness is complete only when love has fully overcome selfishness — when a person loves with the whole heart.

Faith, without question, comes before love. Whether we look at this biblically or psychologically, faith is the foundation and the necessary starting point. But even so, Scripture gives love the highest honor, calling it “the fulfillment of the law.” So the most important question we can ask — whether we truly belong to God and are genuinely holy — ultimately comes down to this: Are we perfected in love?

Living by Signs vs. Living by Faith (Rewritten)

Why looking for signs can quietly undermine faith

While we consider life of faith we need to clearly address a common tendency among Christians: the desire for signs, tokens, or special manifestations as a kind of foundation for peace with God and for holy living. This impulse shows up again and again. Sometimes it comes from lack of understanding. But more often, it grows out of something deeper and more troubling — the sin of unbelief.

However it begins, this habit of looking for signs is wrong in principle and harmful in its results.

A Testimony to a Life of Faith (Rewritten)

 Written originally by an anonymous clergyman in the early 1800's:

 

Let me speak plainly and personally about what God has done in my soul, and about the path my heart now follows toward God. I have settled on this: I will not chase after great things in this world. My aim is simply to know Christ — and Christ crucified.

I move best with a gentle wind. A high-spirited heart paired with full sails is dangerous, so I prepare myself for a quieter way of living. I don’t want much, and I actively pray against wanting much. My work — my calling — is my study. I ask for whatever genuinely serves that calling, and does not distract me from it. Beyond that, I want nothing more.

Reflections on the Life of Faith (Rewritten)

“The just shall live by faith.”

“The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God.”

These and similar passages point to a central truth: the Christian life is meant to be lived by faith, not by constant, visible certainty. It is a life shaped by trust rather than by open vision.

Faith itself takes many forms, each valuable in its proper place, and all connected — more or less closely — to the life of faith. But the particular kind of faith that most directly sustains this life is the one that makes God present in every moment and in every event. The absence of this kind of faith is a major source of spiritual weakness. Because of this lack, many people who genuinely believe in God, in Christ, and even in their own final salvation still make very little progress in holiness.

They tend to hold to a general, abstract faith — one that deals in broad ideas rather than specific realities. By doing so, they place God at a distance. In contrast, a faith that is concrete and particular brings God near. It makes Him present and personal in every concern of life and establishes a continuous, living relationship between God and the soul.