The Happy Christian

If you asked anyone whether it was better to be happy or sad/grumpy, most people if not all would say “happy.” Should we, then, pursue happiness as our goal? How do we know if we truly are happy? What does it mean or look like to be happy? Can we be happy all the time?

As followers of Christ, the first place we should look for answers to these questions is the Bible. Here, we will find in places such as Psalm 1 and the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 that God says we can be happy.

Some of your translations of the Bible will use this word as “blessed.” It has its origins in the Old Testament in verses such as Deuteronomy 33:29, Job 5:17, Psalm 1:1, and Proverbs 8:32. What we should take care to notice is that we are not exhorted to pursue happiness as we understand it today. In each of these verses, happiness is linked or tied to something else. We know this because the verses say something like, “Happy is the one who …” The one who what? What is it that makes a person happy? 

• Happy are the people who are saved by the Lord (Deuternomy 33:29)

• Happy is the one whom God reproves (Job 5:17)

• Happy is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful (Psalm 1:1)

• Happy is the one who keeps the Lord’s ways (Proverbs 8:32)

We see in the Old Testament that happiness is directly tied to our relationship and our status with the Lord. We are not, then, to pursue happiness in order to be happy. Rather, we are to order our lives in such a way to find favor with the Lord, and the result will be happiness.

There is a problem here, though, because this implies we will always be happy. Some could take this to mean we will never experience anything that would jeopardize our happiness – job losses, sickness, family crisis, marital discord, and the list could continue.

One of the reasons for this possible misunderstanding is our definition of “happy.” Our modern dictionary uses words such as “delighted,” “contented,” and “fortunate” to help us understand what happy means. 

“I am delighted you came to my party!”

“I am content with the outcome.”

“I am fortunate to have received this gift.”

Yet these attempts to define “happy” do not bring us to fully understand the Biblical use of “happy.” William Barclay in his commentary on the Beatitudes writes that the word is literally an exclamation which means, “O the blessedness of …” His commentary is a mirror image of the Hebrew Lexicon definition of the word used in Psalm 1:1. William Barclay goes on to write, “That is most important, for it means the beatitudes are not pious hopes of what shall be; they are not glowing but nebulous prophecies of some future bliss; they are congratulations on what is… [I]t will find its fulness and its consummation in the presence of God; but for all that it is a present reality to be enjoyed here and now. The beatitudes in effect say, ‘O the bliss of being a follower of Christ! O the joy of following Christ! O the sheer happiness of knowing Jesus Christ as Master, Savior and Lord.’ The very form of the beatitudes is the statement of the joyous thrill and the radiant gladness of the Christian life.”

William Barclay continues by writing that the word used in the Beatitudes “describes that joy which has its secret within itself, that joy which is serene and untouchable, and self-contained, that joy which is completely independent of all the chances and changes of life. The English word happiness gives its own case away. It contains the root hap which means chance. Human happiness is something which is dependent on the chances and changes of life, something life may give and which life may also destroy. The Christian blessedness is completely untouchable and unassailable. ‘No one,’ said Jesus, ‘will take your joy from you’ (John 16:22). The beatitudes speak of that joy which seeks us through our pain, that joy which sorrow and loss and pain and grief are powerless to touch, that joy which shines through tears and which nothing in life or death can take away.”

Are you this happy? Do you know a happiness which transcends all good and evil in the world?

O the bliss of following Christ! O the bliss of those who find favor with the Lord! This is the happiness of which the Bible speaks. Bliss!

Our modern dictionaries demonstrate the difference in approaching this topic through bliss rather than happiness. Bliss is defined to mean utter joy, contentment, heaven and – get this – the cause of great joy and happiness.

You got it, our happiness is not found in anything other than Jesus Christ, and we are not just happy people, we are blissful people. Jesus is the cause for our bliss!

Now, how do we achieve this bliss? The Old Testament set the stage for it, but Jesus Christ helps us understand it much better in Matthew 5:3-11: 

O the bliss of the poor in spirit. Why? Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

O the bliss of those who mourn. Why? They shall be comforted.

O the bliss of those who are gentle. Why? They shall inherit the earth.

O the bliss of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Why? They shall be satisfied.

O the bliss of the merciful. Why? They shall receive mercy.

O the bliss of the pure in heart. Why? They shall see God.

O the bliss of the peacemaker. Why? They shall be called the sons of God.

O the bliss of those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Why? Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

O the bliss you shall have when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.

One more entry that deserves consideration appears in Matthew 11:6 where Jesus says, “O the bliss of the one who does not take offense at Me.”

We are blissful because 

• we look forward to heaven
• we shall be comforted by the Holy Spirit
• we shall inherit all that is the Lord’s (including the earth)
• we shall be satisfied (deep satisfaction is something many people long for today but have not obtained)
• we have received God’s mercy
• we shall see God and are God’s children, heirs to all that is His and adopted into His family through Jesus Christ by whom we have our salvation.

We cannot isolate one of these and say that we shall experience bliss. If we did, we would run the risk of omitting the important exhortations of hungering and thirsting after righteousness and desiring a pure heart. That would lead us necessarily to claiming that our bliss originates from our works or that by works we could achieve some state of bliss. This may be true, but it will be temporary.

We also cannot isolate any one of these because then we omit the cause of our bliss. In each instance, we are not told that the characteristic itself makes us happy; rather, we are told that our cause for bliss rests in the Lord and what we obtain from the Lord when we become like Him.

Do you want to be happy? Do you want to be really happy? To achieve Biblical blessedness and bliss we must look at the complete list provided by Christ, and the first place to start is by seeking righteousness and purity of heart. Only then can we be truly happy … and full of bliss.