Biblical joy, chara (Strong's 5479), is the second fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22, right after love. It is hard to define precisely, so it is best understood by what it is not: it is neither happiness nor pleasure, which people chase after and produce for themselves. Solomon tried to find meaning through building, music, drink, and sex in Ecclesiastes 2 and concluded that laughter is madness, and Proverbs shows fools laughing on the road to destruction. Laughter can even spring from evil, such as mocking another's suffering. Chara shares a root with grace, so joy is something God gives rather than something people manufacture. It is a God-given sense of satisfaction and well-being that all is well despite life's difficulties. Three points define it. First, it is a calm cheerfulness, a positive, hope-filled attitude, not roaring laughter. Second, it does not spring from anything earthly, so its presence does not depend on material things. Third, it is inseparable from godly love and arises from a relationship with God and being in His presence. The quality of that relationship determines whether a believer has the joy to endure the difficulties of living God's way in a troubled world as Christ's return approaches. Paul could be sorrowful yet always rejoicing, and Peter speaks of unspeakable joy. With God's help, believers can keep their cheerful confidence and overcome what He permits.

Chara, the Greek noun for joy used 51 times in the New Testament, means gladness, cheerfulness, or calm delight. It is not the temporary high of wine, nor forced, contrived positive-mental-attitude cheerfulness, nor a gloating or ecstatic emotion. Through Acts 13:52 the word describes a simple emotion of gladness over something that has happened, but afterward half of its remaining occurrences tie joy to trials, suffering, and persecution, as a maturing church faced harder problems. Joy is the second fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) and is a character trait tempered by fire. James 1:2-4 says to count trials as joy because the testing (dokimion, proving, as of genuine coinage) of faith produces patience and purges impurity so that believers become perfect and complete. Joy does not deny pain; tears, anger, and doubt are normal, but carnal thoughts must be evicted so that trials bear fruit rather than self-pity. Joy comes mainly after the trial, not before or during it. Christ endured the cross for the joy that followed His suffering (Hebrews 12:2), and Hebrews 12:11 says discipline yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness afterward. This joy is a cheerful peace, an awareness of having survived and grown, with deeper thankfulness, appreciation of ordinary life, and sympathy for others. Believers can be glad that God chooses them for the trials that make them more like Him.

Joy, chara, is the first characteristic of the church that Jesus names in His prayer of John 17:13, "that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves." The New Testament is a book of joy: the verb chairein occurs 72 times and the noun chara 60 times, often as a greeting, though in Christian use it carries far more meaning than among pagans, as in the angel's "good tidings of great joy" and Paul's "Rejoice in the Lord always." Christians often lack this joy, yielding to gloom and discouragement under trial. Christ's prayer supplies the remedies. First, joy rests on sound doctrine, meaning a practical knowledge of God's character and commandments, and on trust in His Word. Joy comes from settling the mind on God and His purposes, not from material things, which give only temporary happiness. Circumstances are external, but Christ is within. Second, joy comes through fellowship, both vertical with the Father, which sustained Jesus Himself, and horizontal with other believers; the two go together, as in 1 John 1:3-4, so isolation diminishes joy. Third, joy requires righteous living, since sin breaks fellowship with God. The kingdom is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit," and God fills the faithful with joy and peace as they trust Him.