Hebrews 1:9

Hebrews 1:9 ESV
"You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God,
has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."

Billions of dollars (and every other kind of currency in the world) are spent every year for something you can only get without money: joy.

Money will buy happiness, there is no doubt about it: a day at Disneyland, or (far better) a month at the Boundary Waters can bring enormous happiness (for a time). Inevitably boredome, illness, cranky neighbors (and/or long lines) will cause the happiness to prove its character: happiness is based on happenings.

Now, John Piper has wisely commented that people like me make too much distinction between joy and happiness. My point is that one is a species of the other: joy is abiding, gives strength and endurance while happiness does the same but is much less abiding. His point is that without a measure of happiness one cannot be said to be joyful; happiness in circumstances is central to what it means to be joyfull.

This verse I think helps establish Piper's point, to a degree, but the 'oil of gladness BEYOND your companions' is the key point to me. Of course all this is said of the Son. But the love of righteousness and the hatred of wickedness is the recipe of gladness/happiness/joy for all of God's creatures (even more so for all of the Son's brothers.

And this corrosponding love/hatred doesn't COST; it doesn't cost money any way. And I recently heard a non-Christian say something I've said for years: it isn't a problem to know right from wrong, it is a problem to choose to do the right instead of the wrong. So, the point for us is to live in such a way that we look at the wrong we know with hatred and learn to embrace the good with love: then we will find that happiness (or joy) that you've been looking for all your life.

Praise You Father for happiness.
Praise You Son for making it available.
Prasie You Spirit for communicating it to our hearts.

Seeking joy with you,
Pastor Greg