*The following is an excerpt from A Life of Joy: Learning Christian Contentment, published by Free Grace Press, 2026. Pick up your copy here: https://freegracepress.com/products/a-life-of-joy
Christian Contentment Is Ultimately Centered On a Life of Joy
Jesus used the word “joy” in John 15:11 to describe His state of obeying God the Father and submitting to Him in all of life. He said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” The word translated “joy” there is the Greek word chará, and it means, “gladness, state of rejoicing, happiness.”[1] The idea conveyed is a state of gladness, rooted in a relationship to God. We are in a state of always rejoicing in God; Paul, in his first epistle to the Thessalonians, states this explicitly when he writes, “Rejoice always” (1 Thessalonians 5:16). Paul uses this word frequently in relation to the Christian life. One theological dictionary outlines it like this:
For Paul chará is the joy of faith (Phil. 1:25) and a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). God’s kingdom is joy (Rom. 14:17). Joy and hope are related (Rom. 12:12). Its opposite is affliction (cf. Rom. 5:1 ff.). Joy actualizes freedom and takes shape in fellowship (12:15). Paul wants to come with joy (15:32). Joy is reciprocal (Phil. 2:28–29). Joy is in God (1 Th. 3:9) or in the Lord (Phil. 3:1). In the relation between Paul and the church, joy is eschatological; the church will be his joy (1 Th. 2:19). The mood of Philippians is one of joy (1:4). This is joy at the preaching of Christ (1:18). It is future joy experienced as joy in the present. As the joy of faith it includes a readiness for martyrdom (1:25). This joy maintains itself in face of affliction (2 Cor. 7:4ff.). Paul himself, like the Lord, is an example in this regard (1 Th. 1:6). Paul’s apostolic authority works for the joy of the church (2 Cor. 1:24). He rejoices in his own weakness when it means the church’s strength (13:9).[2]
Gladness, as depicted by Jesus and Paul in the New Testament, is found in our God, and specifically as we live our lives by His Word, submitted to Christ in all manner of life. This is what brings us gladness as a Christian, even in hardships and difficulties. Yet this joyful submission to God in all of life only comes forth from a certain type of heart. Said another way, the plant of contentment grows only in a certain type of soil: the soil of humility.
Humility Is the Soil for the Plant of Contentment
Paul outlines in Philippians 2:3-11 what humility is and then shows how it was exemplified in the life and death of the Lord Jesus. He writes:
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:3-11).
Notice here that humility is not self-degradation. It is self-forgetfulness. It is the mind, will, and affections being absorbed in the glory of God, seeking to do good to those made in God’s image. It is looking to others’ interests, with Christ as our example. He did not count equality with God the Father a thing to be grasped, yet emptied Himself of His glory (not His deity) and sought to save the people of God. He lived for the glory of His Father, upholding His righteousness, serving to save sinners like you and me. He lived for the glory of God and our good.
Humility is an internal posture that is focused on God’s glory and others’ good. It is a selfless, not a selfish, posture. Such a posture is vital in order for true contentment to grow in a Christian. If all we ever think about is ourselves, how things in our lives are going, and we don’t think about knowing God, serving God, and serving others (particularly the church), then we will miss out on treasuring God and giving our lives in joyful submission to Him as we serve.
Humility is the rich soil in which the plant of contentment grows well. Augustine is attributed as saying, “Should you ask me what is the first thing in religion; I should reply that the first, second, and third thing therein is humility.” Augustine recognizes that humility is the soil in which the good works of the Christian faith grows well, one of those fruits being the joyful submission to God in all things. Richard Baxter writes:
The very design of the gospel is to abase us, and the work of grace is begun and carried on in humiliation. Humility is not a mere ornament of a Christian, but an essential part of the new creature. It is a contradiction in terms—to be a Christian, and not humble. All who will be Christians must be Christ’s disciples, and “come to him to learn”; and the lesson which he teaches then, is, to “be meek and lowly.”[3]
A life captured by the gospel of grace will produce humility, which will in turn help us to joyfully submit to God whom we love and focus on in all of life. Humility and contentment are irrevocably connected and flow out of a life that has been the recipient of God’s work of grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We will look at humility more in the chapter on hindrances, as it is the antithesis of pride which is one of the greatest hindrances to contentment. For the Christian, contentment must be learned and nurtured. Paul grew in this area, continually getting better at submitting to God and delighting in Him. His zeal to enjoy Christ grew rather than waned, and Paul’s example serves as an exhortation for you and me.
There is something connected to being able to joyfully submit to God in all of life, a posture of the heart that a Christian must have increasingly—something seen so beautifully in the Lord Jesus. That posture is humility. Now, how exactly can we grow in Christian contentment? The next chapter will tackle how we can grow in these things.
[1] James Swanson, in Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997).
[2] G. Kittel, G. Friedrich, and G. W. Bromiley, in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), 1300.
[3] Richard Baxter, “Ministerial Pride – by Richard Baxter (1615-1691),” A Puritan’s Mind: https://www.apuritansmind.com/pastors-study/ministerial-pride-by-richard-baxter-1615-1691/ (March 11, 2026).
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