GOZO
Joy is what man longs for, and what he seeks; he finds it when he finds God, and only then. He retains this joy in proportion as he grows in the knowledge of God.
God is the author of true joy, as of all good gifts. He being perfectly good and above all evil. He is presented as finding his own joy in the repentance of the sinner who returns to seek him.
Since sin has entered, and man has thereby been alienated from God, his idea of joy is to become as happy as he can without God and away from Him (see the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15).
But the only result of such a course is disappointment and bitterness here below and eternal pain hereafter. However, when the light of God’s love, revealed in the gift and death of his Son, shines in the heart, it is immediately filled with “joy unspeakable and glorious” (1 Peter 1:8). ).
“The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). Likewise, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and other beautiful characteristics, and is produced in the heart of the believer by the Spirit to the glory of God (Gal. 5:22, 23).
The apostle desired for the Romans that the God of hope would fill them with all joy and peace in believing (Rom. 15:13). The Thessalonians had also received the word “in the midst of great tribulation, with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thes. 1:6).
Many more passages could be cited to show how joy is one of the chief characteristics of those who have been brought to the knowledge of God.
The only Man who ever had to be brought to this knowledge, for his delight had always been in God, as God’s was in Him, He who had been called “man of sorrows,” this perfect and blessed man had his own joy in communion with God in dependence on Him.
And He desires for His own in this world that His joy be theirs also (John 17:13).
True joy is not known in the world in its present state; But the day will come when pain, suffering, death, and all the tragic fruits of sin will be taken away, when God Himself will wipe away all tears, filling the universe with eternal, shadowless joy. This day is described in Rev. 21.