Joy is (not) always joy

Jesus himself said, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34).

While we look forward to a world restored, we know that today is not yet that world.

What will one day be a joy for many, will at the same time be a terrible anti-joy for so many more.

This matters, because it’s our job to spread that same joy.

The joy so many view as hostility.

Paul, knowing of this, called us to the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:11-21).

Put another way, the gospel is only ‘joy’ or good news to those who have given their lives over to it.

To the rest, the world at large, it’s bad news.

And so our job, the ministry of reconciliation, is to make friends with the world, so that they can see—really see—the good news after all.