May Your Joy Be Complete

“That your joy may be complete” – so wrote the apostle John in the first chapter of his first letter, verse 4. Is there such a thing as complete joy?

We wished one another happy Easter; that was more than a week ago. Are we still happy? How often do we use the word happy with a birthday, anniversary, graduation or other event, and both the speaker and the listener are well aware that the happiness is for the moment, for maybe a day.

But surely not fully complete. Is John whistling in the dark, writing something that he himself knows cannot be so? Could an apostle of the Lord try to fool us?

Do not be dismayed. In the previous sentence John wrote: “we are writing these things so that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ”.

Elmer Schiefer
Pastor, Family of Christ Lutheran Church
elmer@myglobalemail.com
573-529-0584