Paradoxical Joy.

How is it possible for Christians to be joyful when the Bible repeatedly tells us to count others as more significant than ourselves and to not seek our own desires?

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” -Philippians 2:3

“Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.” -1 Corinthians 10:24

Mark 12:31, Galatians 5:14, Luke 10:27, James 2:8, etc.

In 1 Corinthians 13:5, Paul literally says “Love does not seek its own way.”

So, then, how are we to be happy?

The answer is that love seeks its own joy in the joy of others. It’s not about not seeking your own happiness, it’s about not seeking your own happiness in things that can’t make you truly happy anyways.

Piper puts it like this in Let The Nations Be Glad, “Paul did not mean to condemn every possible way of seeking your own. He had in mind the selfish attitude that finds its happiness not in helping others but in using others or ignoring others for personal gain. He did not have in mind the attitude that seeks its own joy precisely in doing good to others.”

When we seek our own joy in things of this world- materialism, consumerism, accumulation of stuff, money, food, sexual immorality, the list goes on- we are actually seeking it in things that are guaranteed to not bring lasting joy anyways.

Paul actually does want us to seek our own. But he knows that the only way we can be successful in seeking our own is to seek it in the good of others.