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Christian Hedonism Is About Genuine Love and True Obedience
Christian Hedonism Promotes Genuine Love for People
No one has ever felt unloved because he was told that the attainment of his joy would make another person happy. I have never been accused of selfishness when justifying a kindness on the basis that it delights me. On the contrary, loving acts are genuine to the degree that they are not done begrudgingly. And the good alternative to begrudgingly is not neutrally or dutifully but gladly. The authentic heart of love “loves kindness” (Mic. 6:8); it doesn’t just do kindness. Christian Hedonism forces this truth into consideration: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world” (1 John 5:2–4).
Read these sentences in reverse order and notice the logic. First, being born of God gives a power that conquers the world. This is given as the ground or basis (“for”) for the statement that the commandments of God are not burdensome. So being born of God gives a power that conquers our worldly aversion to the will of God. Now his commandments are not “burdensome” but are the desire and delight of our heart. This is the love of God: not just that we do his commandments but also that they are not burdensome.
Then in 1 John 5:2, the evidence of the genuineness of our love for the children of God is said to be the love of God. What does this teach us about our love for the children of God? Since love for God is doing his will gladly rather than with a sense of burden, and since love for God is the measure of the genuineness of our love for the children of God, therefore, our love for the children of God must also be done gladly rather than begrudgingly. Christian Hedonism stands squarely in the service of love for it presses us on to glad obedience.
Desiring God
John Piper
John Piper’s influential work on Christian Hedonism, Desiring God, challenges the belief that following Christ requires the sacrifice of pleasure. Rather, he teaches that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”
Jesus was big on giving to the needy. How did he motivate giving? He says, “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail” (Luke 12:33). In other words, stop craving two-bit possessions on earth when you can have endless treasures in heaven by giving alms! (Remember Hudson Taylor: “Giving up is inevitably receiving.”)
Or a bit differently but basically the same, he says, “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matt. 6:3–4). In other words, stop being motivated by the praises of men, and let the thought of God’s reward move you to love.
Yes, it is real love when our giving is motivated by the heavenly treasure. It is not exploitation because the loving almsgiver aims for his alms to rescue the beggar for that same reward. A Christian Hedonist is always aware that his own enjoyment of the Father’s reward will be even greater when shared with the ones he has drawn into the heavenly fellowship.
My point is this: if Jesus thought it wise to motivate acts of love with promises of reward (Matt. 6:4) and treasures in heaven (Luke 12:33), it accords with his teaching to say that Christian Hedonism promotes genuine love for people.
Consider another illustration. Hebrews 13:17 gives the following counsel to every local church: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” Now, if it is not profitable for pastors to do their oversight sadly instead of joyfully, then a pastor who does not seek to do his work with joy does not care for his flock. Not to pursue our joy in ministry is not to pursue the profit of our people. This is why Paul admonished those who do acts of mercy to do them “with cheerfulness” (Rom. 12:8) and why God loves a “cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). Begrudging service does not qualify as genuine love.
The pursuit of joy through mercy is what makes love real.
Christian Hedonism Glorifies God
And this is as it should be: “For from him and through him and to him are all things” (Rom. 11:36).
Does Christian Hedonism put man’s pleasure above God’s glory? No. It puts man’s pleasure in God’s glory. Our quest is not merely joy. It is joy in God. And there is no way for a creature to consciously manifest the infinite worth and beauty of God without delighting in him. It is better to say that we pursue our joy in God rather than simply saying that we pursue God. For one can pursue God in ways that do not honor him:
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts. (Isa. 1:11)
Our solemn assemblies may be a stench in God’s nose (Amos 5:21–24). It is possible to pursue God without glorifying God. If we want our quest to honor God, we must pursue him for the joy in fellowship with him.
The pursuit of joy through mercy is what makes love real.
Consider the Sabbath as an illustration of this. The Lord rebukes his people for seeking “their own” pleasure on his holy day. But what does he mean? He means that they are delighting in their business and not in the beauty of their God. He does not rebuke their hedonism. He rebukes the weakness of it. They have settled for secular interests and thus honored those above the Lord:
If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;
then you shall take delight in the Lord,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isa. 58:13–14)
Notice that calling the Sabbath a delight is parallel to calling the holy day of the Lord honorable. This simply means that you honor what you delight in, or you glorify what you enjoy. They were going their own ways and doing their own business. That was their pleasure, and that is what they honored.
The enjoyment and the glorification of God are one. His eternal purpose and our eternal pleasure unite. To magnify his name and multiply your joy is the reason I have written this, for the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever.
This article is adapted from Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist by John Piper.
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