Christian Hedonism
— Seeking our own pleasure
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- Andrew Fountain — July 18, 2010
- Which has more value? :
- My wife trips over and cuts her hand and I bathe it and bandage it
- I see a destitute old man on the street with a cut hand, and I bathe and bandage it for him
- Actually one is not necessarily more valuable to God than the other!
- So what’s the problem?
- If you say that bandaging my wife’s hand is less valuable because I get pleasure from it—
- I enjoy helping someone I love
- Then you have been infected with the ideas of Immanuel Kant
Kant (1724-1804)
- The Problem:
- There is a common idea that if I get any pleasure out of doing something, then it takes some of the value away
- This idea is very pervasive, but very wrong
- A motive is only “pure” if there is no self-interest at all?
- You end up trying to live a miserable existence where you enjoy nothing
- Another question:
- Which kind of praise does God value most?
- When we don’t really want to worship, but grit our teeth and force ourselves to sing anyway
- When are filled with a desire to praise him, and singing out of a joyful heart
- We know we should praise God even when we don’t feel like it, but I’m sure we would all agree that there is no special value in not enjoying praising God.
Kant (1724-1804)
- An action is moral, said Kant, only if one has no desire to perform it,
- but performs it out of a sense of duty
- and derives no benefit from it of any sort,
- neither material nor spiritual.
- A benefit destroys the moral value of an action. ✱
A Man who has made it his lif’s mission to counter this faulty philosophy is John Piper:
John Piper
John Piper
- Our main priority in this life is to seek our own pleasure
- But true pleasure only comes in God
- Jonathan Edwards: “Resolved, To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can,
- with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.”
What Does The Bible Say?
- The problem is not seeking pleasure, but where we seek the pleasure
- The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field (Matt 13:44)
- Jesus told us to leave all and follow him, but then promised we would get back 100 times more than we lost. (Mark 10:28f)
- When you are persecuted or spoken against, “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven” (12)
- Jesus spoke all the time of the rewards of following him
Why this is so important
- It is impossible to motivate someone to do something where there is no reward
- If we try and live a Christian life just because it is “right” we will fail
- “keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame” (Heb 12:2)
- “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great” (Luke 6:35)
- “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matt 16:25)
Delayed Rewards
- But the reward is not usually instant
- There is a famous experiment that takes the form of a game played with children
- They gave the child a marshmallow and allowed them to chose between eating it now, or waiting a few minutes and having two.
- The children who waited ususally went on to do better in life than those who couldn’t wait
John Piper’s Teaching
- But don’t we exist to bring glory to God?
- John Piper has a very good answer to this:
- The best way of bringing glory to God is to enjoy him
- “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him”
My Take
- So what is my take on John Piper and “Christian Hedonism”
- Fundamentally he is right and Kant is wrong
- He has done the Christian world a huge service by pointing out this error
- But my only concern is that the approach is philosophical rather than Biblical
- Although what he says is right, it’s not usually the way the Bible puts it
- Pleasure is not the only motivation given.
- This idea can be a lens through which all of Scripture has to be viewed
in some places it is very much there
Matthew 5
- “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
- “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
- “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
- “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
- “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
- “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
- “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
- “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
- “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely on account of me.
- Rejoice and be glad because your reward is great in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way.
But in other places the motivation is more complex
My concern is that we hear what the Scripture is saying afresh in each passage, without having a grid that we bring to it that will force it into a particular pattern.
What God wants
- For us to love him, and everything to flow from that
- There is a danger of separating pleasure from relationship
- (Piper is aware of this and I don’t think he is unbalanced)
- The Holy Spirit is key to us receiving joy I told him my experience last week
- I really do think we need to pray for more of an experience of joy