What? you may ask, a "Christian Hedonist"?
The term was coined by John Piper, pastor of the Bethlehem Baptist Church. It sounds like a stark contradiction, doesn't it? If the term "Christian Hedonist" makes you squirm, believe me, I understand. But don't check out on me just yet. I'm not a heretic (really!). Nor am I abdicating another prosperity-obsessed theology built on twisting the Bible or proof texting (pulling verses of Scripture from their proper context in order to make the Bible say what I want it to say) in order to sanctify greed or lust. I am simply stating an ancient, orthodox, Biblical truth in a fresh way.
"All men seek happiness," so said Blaise Pascal. "This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves." I believe that Pascal was right. And, along with Pascal, I am convinced, after a careful study of the Scriptures, that God purposefully designed us, all of us, to pursue our own happiness.
Does seeking your own happiness sound self-centered? Haven't we been taught that we, as Christians, are supposed to be seeking God, not our own pleasure? To answer this question we need to understand a crucial truth about pleasure-seeking (hedonism): we value most what we delight in most. Pleasure is not, nor ever has been, God's competitor, idols are. Pleasure is simply a gauge that measures how valuable someone or something is to us. Pleasure is the standard that we use to measure what we treasure.
In fact, you already know this intuitively. For instance, if a friend says to you, "I really enjoy being with you," you wouldn't accuse him of being self-centered. Why? Because your friend's delight in you is the evidence that you have great value in his heart. In fact, you'd be dishonored if he didn't experience any pleasure in your friendship. The same is true of God. If God is the source of our greatest delight then God is our most precious treasure; which makes us radically God-centered and not self-centered. And if we treasure God most, we glorify Him most.
Does the Bible really teach this? Yes. Nowhere in the Bible, from Genesis to Maps, does God ever condemn anyone, anywhere for longing or working to be happy. Instead, people are condemned for forsaking God and seeking their happiness elsewhere (Jeremiah 2:13).
This is the essence of sin. The Bible actually commands us to delight in the Lord (Psalm 37:4).
Jesus teaches us to love God more than money because our heart is where our treasure is (Matt. 6:21).
Paul wants us to believe that gaining Christ is worth the loss of everything else (Phil 3:8).
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Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ (Phi 3:8)
The author of Hebrews exhorts us to endure suffering, like Jesus, for the joy set before us (Heb. 12: 1-2).
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Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1-2)
Examine the Scriptures and you'll see this over and over again.
Christian Hedonism is not a contradiction after all. It is desiring the vast, ocean-deep pleasures of God more than the mud-puddle pleasures of wealth, power or lust. We're Christian Hedonists (voluntary, whole- hearted lovers of God) because we radically believe Psalm 16:11, "You show me the path of life; in Your Presence there is fullness of joy, in Your right hand are pleasures for evermore."
Join us in this pursuit of satisfaction in God, because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
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