John Calvin Commentary Acts 13:52

"And the disciples were filled with joy with the Holy Spirit." — Acts 13:52 (ASV)

The disciples were filled with joy. This phrase can be explained in two ways. One interpretation is that they were filled with joy and the Spirit—by hypallage, meaning "joy of the Spirit," or (which is the same thing) "spiritual joy." This is because there is no quietness, peace, or joy of conscience unless it comes from the Spirit of God. In this respect, Paul says that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit (Romans 14:17). Alternatively, the word Spirit may itself include other virtues and gifts.

Yet I prefer this interpretation: that they were filled with joy because the grace of the Holy Spirit reigned in them. This grace alone makes us truly and perfectly glad, so that we are carried up above the whole world. For we must note Luke’s main point: that the faithful were so far from being troubled and shaken by those stumbling blocks, however great they were—with the reproach of their teachers, the unrest in the city, terrors and threats, and also with fear and dangers hanging over their heads—that with the loftiness of their faith they courageously despised the ostentation both of their vaunted holiness and of their power.

And certainly, if our faith is well grounded in God and thoroughly rooted in His word, and, finally, if it is well fortified with the aid of the Spirit as it ought to be, it will nourish spiritual peace and joy in our minds, even if the whole world is in an uproar.