“Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory”
and full of glory
The second qualification of our joy is the phrase “full of glory.”
There are many ignoble and ordinary joys of men. For example, “The Yankees won the pennant!!” This kind of joy is fragile and hollow. It is like a bubble that breaks on its own accord. This is not the “glory” of this verse.
The phrase “full of glory” means glorified. This is not an ordinary joy but an extraordinary joy. This phrase should be translated “having received glory.” The Christian will receive glory from God when he enters into the full realization of who and what his Lord is and has done for him. Joy depends on believing what Christ provided for us. It does not rest on our external resources. This would be an obvious platitude were it not for the fact that 99% of Christians do not believe it!
PRINCIPLE:
The joy of the Christian receives glory when he orients to the Lord.
APPLICATION:
Christians can radiate with the glory of heaven. The believer is not yet glorified but his joy is if he enters into fellowship with the Lord by coming to grips with who and what Jesus is.
This is not the glory of clapping hands or some overt emotional activity but is the inner joy that comes from exposure to the glory of God in Christ. If we dislocate love for the Lord Jesus Christ then inner glory will leave us.
Glory is something we receive. We receive glory only in conjunction with joy in God. This is the glory of inner orientation to God no matter what circumstance may come our way. God gives glory to everyone who experiences joy in Him.
Glory is an overt word. When we come to grips with what Jesus has done for us then we enter into manifest glory. This is from inside out. As the result of believing who and what Jesus is, “Glory” does not mean to scream and holler and jump around. We can only experience glory by fellowship with what God has done for us in Christ.
A person in fellowship with the Lord is free from attitudinal sins. If we have a day when things are not going right, glory liberates us from attitude sins. Attitude sins produce misery. Envy, jealousy, bitterness, pride, vindictiveness all produced self-induced misery. All this bile will come to the surface at a time we least expect it. When we experience the glory of fellowship with the Lord, it will expel attitude sins.
