Biblical Definition Of Joy Vs Happiness

To be glad depending on the translation the bible uses the words happy and happiness about 30 times while joy and rejoice appear over 300 times.

Biblical definition of joy vs happiness. Historically great church theologians have not made a distinction between the two. A pleasurable or satisfying experience a definition of the word rejoice related to the word joy is to feel great delight. But god s joy was the one that came down from heaven as man though he was god to earth to give us life. You can see this in passages like matthew 5 12 romans 12 12 philippians 3 1 and 1 thessalonians 5 16.

By definition happiness is a response to happenstance contentment good luck prosperity or good fortune. But what does it mean to have joy in god. The world wants you to believe that happiness is to be pursued intently and vigorously. Throughout the bible god commands us to have joy in him.

God s joy comes unconditionally. The object of joy. That being said the caricature of putting on a happy face or the idea that we are to grin and bear it is not biblical. Examples of happiness vs joy.

You can be in a state of happiness one moment and then dread the next. Joy suggests a more complete ecstatic consuming passion than mere happiness. Happiness tends to include a notion of contentment and satisfaction along with perhaps feelings of joy. Winning a lottery brings happiness to a person.

Throughout the bible we see genuine expressions of sadness and honest explanations of deep and painful hardships. Joy suggests something more intense a strong feeling of gladness. The words are very similar. Antonyms of happiness and joy.

Giving birth to a child will bring joy to a person. They are sometimes used interchangeably in the bible. True joy seems to result in a measure of happiness. God s joy is a gift freely given not one duly earned.

A dictionary definition of happiness is a state of well being. One way to understand the difference between joy and happiness is to look at the opposites of the two feelings. The distinction we will make is not so much in the substance of happiness vs. The substance of joy but in the object of happiness vs.

Jesus made a way for us to experience his joy and gives it to. Happiness brings pleasure but joy brings true contentment to one s heart. Hopefully i have established the fact that happiness and joy is not the same thing at all. In short happiness can be described as an emotion while joy is more properly related to a state of one s being.

The term happiness tends to be broader than the term joy.