“These things I have said to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.”

Jesus assures His disciples that He wants them to live lives filled with joy, and that if they keep what He has commanded they will be able to do so. This is not ‘happiness', which is transient and depends on things turning out well, but joy which flows from the soul in all kinds of circumstances even when things are not going well. He has previously promised them peace (John 14:27). Now He promises joy, and joy to the brim (‘filled full'). And both are found for them, as they are for us, by dwelling continually in Him in confident, prayerful trust and obedience to His will, for He is the source of that joy, and in Him they can know that all will finally be well. Peace and joy are part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22)

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