By James Pruch
August 17, 2007
Hedonism usually has a negative connotation. It ususally brings up thoughts of drugs, sex, and other fleshly pleasures. Rarely, people think, should this world enter the language of Christendom. According to Scripture, it is certainly not anything new.
For Christians who call themselves “Christian Hedonists” it brings about meditations of God’s glory, our satisfaction, and complete joy in Jesus. Simply, this phrase means that as Christians, we seek pleasure in God so we can glorify him. John Piper said, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”
I want to be more satisfied in Jesus than anything else.
In my battle against sin–lust, greed, selfishness, pride, contempt, negative attitudes–I have discovered that the act itself is never where the problem starts. It’s always with my heart. We all have a heart disease called sin and nothing can deep root it out except God’s grace. My problem is not “doing wrong things.” It’s always with what I am satisfied with. I have been convicted in the past few months to be pursuing complete and utter joy in God for his glory and my satisfaction.
This is called Christian Hedonism and in this upcoming series of posts, I want to reflect on a few choice verses and application to our lives in how we interact with God and what it means to glorify him. For this first post, as an introduction, I want to build a base around Psalm 16:11–a verse with deeply cherished words and one that is slowly becoming a reality to me:
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
The Psalmist says that in God’s presence, he experiences full joy. Not a half joy. Not a superficial joy. Not a joy that is going to end after sleeping. David experiences the fullness of joy in God: the all-powerful, ever-present, world-creating, truth-bearing, grace-providing God of the universe. God has given us so many pleasures to enjoy on earth. We have food, exercise, learning, sex, fellowship, sports, television, and so on. It is not wrong to enjoy those things–even to a great degree! However, if we ever enjoy any one of those things a single ounce more than our Creator and Savior, it becomes sin.
When we enjoy God, our pleasure is found in him. We enjoy those other things and say, “God is completely good and holy for blessing me with this. He is the ground for my joy–not the food, drink, etc.” We enjoy these things because we enjoy God. It is not “We enjoy God because we enjoy these things.”
In the last part of the verse, David says, “At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” The pleasures that I mentioned above are temporal. Believe me, I am not perfect and I fall down and crash into the concrete when I am more satisfied with those things than with God. I am learning how to delight in my Savior.
Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.” Truly, we will never be satisfied with what we experience on earth until we are fully satisfied with God. When we are satisfied with God, we will be content with what we experience on earth. When we find rest in Christ as our all-satisfying, completely-supreme treasure, the pleasures of this world will seem like mud-pies, as C.S. Lewis says.
When God’s glory is our joy, we will find true pleasure in this life. The only problem is that in this life, we will never experience true joy at its fullest. Lewis said it best:
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
God has put eternity in the hearts of men. Eternity never ends, it never fades, it never ceases. We long for never ending joys and pleasures here and this is why men strive after vain things that will never be eternally satisfying. In Romans 6:21, Paul wrote, “But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.” As a Christian, I do things that I think will be fulfilling. After I have done it, I know that it is shameful and empty. Whatever sin I chose, it will ultimately result in death and nothing else. Pleasures that are not grounded in God are worthless and sinful. So is with anything else that does not come from complete satisfaction in God.
God’s pleasures never end. They are more desirable than anything in this world. I want to make Christ my cherished treasure. I want him to be my obsession, my only satisfaction.
Let us pursue joy in Christ for his glory above anything else in this world.
