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Love: The Labor of Christian Hedonism | John Piper · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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This is our deep dive where we take some of the more
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challenging theological ideas and try to find the biblical
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framework that holds them all together.
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Giving you a bit of a shortcut so you can be well informed on
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these topics. And today we are jumping into
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one of the most, I think, counterintuitive concepts out
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there, and one that is, frankly pretty controversial.
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Yeah, we're talking about Christian hedonism.
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It just sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn't
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it? The word hedonism brings up all
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these ideas of, you know, self indulgence, worldly pleasure,
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just vice. Right.
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And yet the core argument that we're going to be looking at
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today from the sources we have is pretty startling.
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It is. The idea is that the pursuit of
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maximum, lasting joy in God isn't just, you know, something
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you're allowed to do as a Christian.
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It's not optional, no. It's something you are commanded
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to do. It's mandatory.
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Mandatory pleasure. I mean, that's a phrase that is
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designed to make you stop and think.
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This whole way of looking at things just flips our usual
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assumptions about sacrifice and, you know, stoic duty completely
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on their head. And the main claim we have to
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get our heads around is this. That genuine, selfless love for
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other people is by its very nature defined as the overflow
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of joy that you find in God. So our mission for this deep
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dive, it's pretty straightforward.
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We need to unpack this argument. We've got to see how this
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pursuit of joy is supposedly essential for glorifying God and
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at the same time for loving our neighbor.
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And maybe the biggest piece of it all, we have to try and
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reconcile this constant quest for pleasure with the realities
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of self denial, of sacrifice and suffering.
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Which are also mandatory parts of the Christian life.
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They absolutely are. It's good to say right up front
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this isn't some new radical idea that come out of nowhere.
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The concept grounds itself directly in a very classical,
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catechized understanding of why we're here.
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Absolutely. The starting point is the
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established truth about the chief end of man.
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From the Westminster Catechism. The very first question What is
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the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy Him
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forever. And the argument is that those
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are not 2 separate activities. It's not glorify God comma and
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also enjoy him. It's that the enjoyment is the
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glorification. It's the method.
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The way you glorify Him is by enjoying Him, and if you follow
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that logic, then failing to enjoy God is actually failing to
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glorify Him. Which makes seeking that
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enjoyment a non negotiable duty. It does.
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So let's start there. Let's start at the top on what
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our sources are calling the vertical axis.
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This is our relationship with God.
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Yeah, this is where this idea of Christian hedonism really gets
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defined. OK, so the premise is simple,
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but it's also absolute. It's that God is glorified most
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when we are most satisfied in him.
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OK, Therefore, pursuing pleasure in God, what are calling
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vertical Christian hedonism is a requirement for proper worship.
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It demands a lot more than just, you know, grudgingly agreeing
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with doctrine or some intellectual affirmation.
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So you have to come to God not just because you feel you
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should, but because you actually want to.
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It's a pursuit that's rooted in a biblical command, a command to
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delight. Right.
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Think of Psalm 37.4. Delight yourself in the Lord and
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He will give you the desires of your heart.
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And that's a command. That's not a suggestion.
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It's not, you know. If you feel like it, try
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delighting. No, it's an imperative.
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And if we dig into why that delight is mandatory, we see it
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ties directly into who God is, His nature.
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OK, how so? We'll look at Psalm 16.11.
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It says that in His presence there is fullness of joy.
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At His right hand are pleasures forevermore.
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The source of all joy and. Pleasure.
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Ultimate source. So to glorify God's all
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sufficiency, when you worship, you have to come to Him for
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those pleasures. You have to be seeking that joy.
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So if you just approach God like he's a duty or, I don't know, a
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cosmic taskmaster. You're basically denying,
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without saying it, that he is the source of real, lasting and
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exhaustible joy. You're communicating something
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untrue about him by your very posture.
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So, OK, true worship means we have to seek His presence
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because we know that the reward of His presence is better than
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anything else we could possibly get.
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Yes, and this idea leads straight to a rejection of a
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concept that, you know, you hear praised a lot in secular ethics.
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The sources call it disinterested benevolence toward
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God. Disinterested benevolence.
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That sounds so noble. It does, right?
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But it's a critical point we need to slow down on.
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Philosophical tradition often holds this up as the purest kind
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of love, loving someone without wanting anything in return.
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No reward, no benefit for yourself.
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None. But when you try to apply that
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to God, our sources actually label this approach as
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theological evil. OK, evil is a very strong word
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to attach to something that on the surface sounds so pious and
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selfless. What's the error there?
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What's the specific problem that gets it that label?
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The error is all about what that attitude communicates about
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God's worth and about our own standing before him.
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Disinterested benevolence, you know, offering God something
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without desiring him in return, without seeking the reward of
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his fellowship. It belittles God's absolute all
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sufficient glory. The second you say I serve God
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but I don't want the reward of His presence, you are implying
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that His presence is not sufficient reward.
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OK, I see that you're saying something is better or that you
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don't need what he offers. Right.
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And that puts you to the self in a really impossible and, well,
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arrogant position. It does, doesn't it?
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It really does. CS Lewis is cited on this point
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and he just nails how absurd this is.
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He suggests it would be a bold and silly creature that came
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before its creator with the boast.
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I'm no beggar. I love you disinterestedly.
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A silly creature, Yeah. If we go before the creator of
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the universe, who is the source of all that is good, and we say
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we don't crave the ultimate good, which is Him.
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We're not being selfless, we're being insulting to His Majesty.
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We're basically saying you're not that great.
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So if we claim to serve God, but we refuse to thirst for the
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reward of His fellowship, of His presence, we're acting as if
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we're the generous ones. Yes, like we are the benefactors
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and we're supplying some kind of deficiency in God.
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Instead of recognizing him as the infinite, all sufficient
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wellspring of all happiness. So that's not piety, it's a
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subtle form of self exaltation. It is.
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You're worshipping yourself as the giver instead of thirsting
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after the giver. So the only way to truly glorify
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God is to show through our desires and our actions that He
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is our supreme treasure, that He is our greatest pleasure.
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He's the ultimate reward. And that's why delighting in him
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is mandatory. It's the only posture that
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correctly reflects his supreme worth.
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How's the argument? The push on this a little more
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It's not like God himself operates on some principle of
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reluctant duty. The sources we're looking at
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confirm that delight is a part of God's own nature.
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That's right, you can see it in Jeremiah 9.24.
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God himself says he delights to love and finds delight in
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practicing steadfast love, justice, and righteousness.
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So delight isn't just a side effect of what God does, it's
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woven into his character, into his activity.
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It seems to be so. If God's actions flow from his
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own internal delight, if he seeks his own perfect happiness
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and the happiness and holiness of his people, then our vertical
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pursuit of joy in Him is really just us mirroring his own
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glorious character. And that perfectly sets the
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stage for the next move. The horizontal move if delight
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is what drives the relationship. It has to define the horizontal
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one too. It does.
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After establishing that joy in God is mandatory for glorifying
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Him, we now have to look at how this joy then mandates our
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relationships with other people. And this is the big leap.
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This is what gives us that central definition of love in
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Christian hedonism. And that definition is potent.
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It's love is the overflow of joy in God that gladly meets the
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needs of others. That is a fundamental reversal
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of the common idea that love needs the absence of joy for it
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to be pure. It really is.
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Think of it this way. If joy in God is your high
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pressure spiritual system, then love is the result of that
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pressure expanding outward into the low pressure zones of human
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need. So the pursuit of lasting
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pleasure, then, is an essential motive for every genuine good
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deed. That's what the sources claim,
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and they'd go step further and say if you successfully
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abandoned your pursuit of joy, you will find yourself unable to
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truly love people or please God. We need some concrete evidence
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for this definition. The sources bring up a really
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powerful and again counterintuitive example, the
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Macedonian Christians in 2nd Corinthians 8.
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This might be the single greatest biblical illustration
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of this idea in action. The Macedonians, they weren't
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well off, Paul says. They were in extreme poverty.
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A situation that usually shuts down charitable giving.
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Of course. But their response was the
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complete opposite, he says. Their abundance of joy in God's
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grace overflowed in a wealth of generosity.
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That's the key observation, isn't it?
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Their joy was not a result of their material situation.
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Not at all. It was based entirely on their
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spiritual wealth, their satisfaction in God, and the
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experience of His grace. In one sense they had nothing.
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In another, they had everything. And their giving was eager.
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It wasn't reluctant. No.
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Paul goes into detail about their motivation.
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He says they bugged us with much urging for the favor of
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participation in the support of the Saints.
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Think about that language. They begged for the favor.
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They weren't feeling obligated. They found so much pleasure and
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joy in the potential act of giving that they were pleading
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for the chance to do it. So they're self denial, Paul
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says. They gave beyond their ability.
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It was not some joyless duty. It was the joyful extension of
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their relationship with God. This really makes their poverty
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almost beside the point when it comes to the mechanism of their
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love. The thing that fueled the
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mechanism was the joy. Proving that joy in God is the
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wellspring of real generosity. And this leads us straight into
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what the sources call the cheerful giver imperative.
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Yes, and this leaves no room for any kind of reluctant duty in
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Christian service. This.
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Was Second Corinthians 9.7. God loves a cheerful giver.
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This Scripture confirms that God is concerned with the manner and
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the motive of the offering. It's not just about the physical
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act of meeting the need. If that's all it was, then a
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grudging, resentful gift would be just as pleasing to God as a
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joyous 1. But the text says otherwise.
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The quality of the giving is tied to the internal disposition
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of the heart. And the cheer that's required
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here is defined theologically, not just, you know,
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psychologically. Right.
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It's not just being in a happy mood that day.
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It's defined as the overflow of joy in the grace of God.
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It's your satisfaction in the giver that then spills over onto
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the person you're giving to. So if you perform these
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benevolent actions, but you do them reluctantly, you are
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actively refusing to seek the very joy that pleases God.
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The implication of that is pretty big.
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Pursuing joy in your giving becomes a clear Christian duty,
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and being indifferent to your own cheerfulness and doing good
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deeds is being indifferent to what pleases God Himself.
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Which means if you show up to an act of service, let's say you're
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helping a neighbor move, or you're volunteering somewhere,
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and you feel resentful the whole time, or miserable, or you're
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pouting about it. That action might meet an
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external need, but it's not what the Bible calls a labor of love.
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The sources suggest that would be more like the labor of
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legalism. Yes, an attempt to earn favor or
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check a box rather than to express satisfaction in the
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giver. True love requires that internal
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disposition of joy in God to authorize the outward action
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and. If we're being honest with
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ourselves, our service often falls short right there.
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We try to create joy through the action instead of acting out of
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the joy we already have in God. It's a complete reversal of the
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flow. OK, so this is the moment where
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I think we hit the strongest objections.
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If Christian hedonism mandates that we pursue joy, how do we
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handle the very clear biblical calls for self denial, for
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sacrifice, for suffering? This is the central challenge.
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You have to look at First Corinthians 13.5 where Paul says
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that love does not seek its own. How can love seek its own joy if
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Paul seems to forbid it right there?
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And this objection is the big one.
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So the clarification has to be just as central.
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Paul appears to forbid seeking your own benefit.
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But we have to distinguish between the kind of good that
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we're seeking, OK? For this, the sources turn to
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Jonathan Edwards, who provides a really crucial distinction.
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So what does Edward say about seeking its own?
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Edwards clarify that what Paul is forbidding is seeking your
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own private, confined good. A good that begins and ends only
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with you. Yes, something selfish and
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narrow. But Paul is not forbidding
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seeking your happiness in the common good, in the joy of other
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people. So the truly benevolent person
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isn't disinterested in happiness, they've just enlarged
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the sphere of their self-interest.
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They find their own happiness is tied up in the happiness of
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others. That's a great way to put it,
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Edwards says. The loving person's self has
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been enlarged as to take them, as it were, into himself.
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So when the person you love is happy.
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The loving person feels it. He partakes with them and is
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happy in their happiness. The joy you're seeking isn't a
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selfish pleasure that's detached from the person you love.
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It is joy in their good. Your satisfaction depends on
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them flourishing. This interpretation gets a lot
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stronger when you look just a few verses earlier, 1st
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Corinthians 13, where Paul gives that warning.
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In verse three he says that without love, even if he
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sacrifices everything, I gain nothing.
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Yes, he uses the loss of game as a clear motivator.
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And if longing for gain, a proper kind of reward, ruined
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the moral value of love, then Paul would be using some very
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bad pedagogy here by warning us about the consequence of losing
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it. He's appealing to our desire for
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game. He is.
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The sources argue that there is a legitimate gain that we should
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be motivated by, and that's the satisfaction you get from the
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act of love itself or the good that's accomplished through it.
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This gain isn't something external like a paycheck.
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It's intrinsic. It's the blessedness of the
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loving act. And we also can't look at love
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as just some mechanical action. Paul makes it very clear in
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First Corinthians 13 that love involves feelings and
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affections. It's more than deeds.
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The whole list of Love's attributes confirms this.
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Love is not jealous, it is not easily provoked.
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It rejoices in the truth and hoax all things.
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Those are all feelings, dispositions, internal states.
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They are. The sources are pretty
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definitive on this. If you do not feel things like
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joy and the truth and hope, you are not loving.
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An action you do without those right motives and affections is
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not true love, even if it's the biggest sacrifice possible, like
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burning your own body at the stake.
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So joy is integral, even when the action is costly.
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And this moves us to the second big objection, the joyful
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endurance of suffering. How does this idea handle real
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sacrifice and pain? The qualification here is not
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that we should enjoy the pain itself.
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That would be masochism. The argument is that the pain is
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the necessary pathway to a superior lasting joy.
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The sources say that the gain outweighs the pain.
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And they also say that a rare and wonderful species of joy can
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only flourish in the rainy atmosphere of suffering.
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Right. So self denial is just a
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strategic move. It's a strategy to maximize your
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ultimate pleasure. Let's look at the biblical
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evidence for this, for this kind of rational, strategic approach
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to suffering, starting with Moses in Hebrews 11.
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Moses's choice to leave the luxury of Pharaoh's house is
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presented not as some selfless leap of faith without any
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expectation of reward. It's shown as a calculated
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choice for greater happiness. It is Hebrews 11 says he chose
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rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the
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fleeting pleasures of sin. And why?
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Why did he choose mistreatment? Because he looked to the reward,
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and he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than
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the treasures of Egypt. He was a Christian hedonist.
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His self denial was fueled by his delight in the promised
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lasting reward. He chose the greater wealth.
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He chose the maximum joy that went way beyond his immediate
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material comfort. The calculation.
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Was simple, it was temporary pleasure now leads to temporary
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suffering. Later.
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The temporary suffering now leads to eternal pleasure.
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He chose the greatest possible gain for himself.
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And the early Christians in the the book of Hebrews followed
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this exact same logic. It's detailed in Hebrews 10.
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Yes, they endured a hard struggle with sufferings, and
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yet the text says they joyfully accepted the plundering of their
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property. Which just defies all worldly
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logic. How can you be joyful when
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people are stealing everything you own?
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The sources confirm it was possible because they knew they
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had a better possession and an abiding one in heaven.
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Their material losses were trivial compared to the
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certainty of their spiritual eternal gain.
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So their willingness to suffer for Christ and for their
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fallible believers was the overflow of a joy that no
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person, no economic disaster could steal from them.
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They were again choosing the way of lasting gain.
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This brings us to the ultimate proof, the ultimate act of love,
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Jesus Christ. If disinterested, joyless love
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were possible or required, surely Christ on the Cross would
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be the prime example. You would think so, yet Hebrews
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12.2 says that the greatest act of love in history was sustained
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for the joy that was set before him.
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The crucifixion, the moment of maximum cosmic love and agony,
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was a Hudanistic act in the best sense of that word.
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It was the joy set before him, His exaltation, His vindication,
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and the supreme joy of seeing his people redeemed and brought
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to glory, that was the mechanism that allowed him to scorn the
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shame and endure the physical pain.
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To abandon the cross would have meant abandoning the Father's
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will and abandoning. Us a failure so horrible to the
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son that he chose death instead. But let's bring in the challenge
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here, especially when we think about the human experience of
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suffering. What about Gethsemane?
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The text says. He was sweating, great drops of
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blood shrinking from the cup. Doesn't that tremendous anguish
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argue against the idea that Joy sustained the action?
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That is a necessary and legitimate challenge, and the
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sources are very careful to distinguish between anguish,
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pain and suffering on one hand. And the absence of joy on the
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other. Yes, Cathemini was not fun.
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He was fully human. He was shrinking from the
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horrific physical and spiritual pain that was ahead of him, and
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yet the sources argue that a deeper, profoundly good feeling
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sustained him even in that moment.
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What was that sustaining force? What was that good feeling?
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It was the perfect and certain knowledge that his action was
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pleasing to his father and that the reward to come would
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outweigh all the pain. His desire to do the Father's
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perfect will was like cherish food to him, as he said
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elsewhere. So to choose an alternative path
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would have been to choose spiritual starvation.
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Absolutely. The hope of future joy, the
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satisfaction of completing our redemption, was the deep,
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constant current that enabled him to ride that terrible wave
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of anguish. That reframes the nature of
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Christian anguish. Then it suggests that our own
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suffering is the conflict between our natural human desire
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to avoid pain. And the greater spiritual desire
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to seize the greatest joy which is offered in obedience.
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And this holds true even in human service.
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That seems, on the surface, harsh and dreadful.
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There's a quote from the activist Dorothy Day, who once
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said that love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing.
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And the sources agree that love involves harsh labor.
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But they maintain that even inside that labor, a joyful
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exhilaration exists. How can dread and exhilaration
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exist at the same time? They compare it to an extreme
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physical challenge. Like a mountain climber, they
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experience physical misery, the cold, the fatigue, the pain.
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And yet their soul can experience exhilaration from
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conquering the challenge in Christian service.
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The exhilaration comes from conquering the precipices of
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unloved in our own lives and in society.
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It's the delight in feeling God's grace defeat your own
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internal pride and selfishness. And that is a greater
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satisfaction than overcoming any external mountain.
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So even our deepest sorrow has to be rooted in a frustrated
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joy, according to this argument. Yes, think of Paul writing to
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the Corinthians out of much affliction and anguish of heart,
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and with many tears. The sources explained this by
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saying that the weeping of compassion is the weeping of joy
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impeded in the extension of itself to another.
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So we sorrow because we want the full, unrestrained joy of the
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person we love, and that joy is currently blocked by their
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suffering or their sin. Right.
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Sorrow itself becomes an expression of a frustrated
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delight, a delight that's always seeking to expand the joy of
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God's grace to other people. So now that we've established
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that joy and gain are mandatory motives, we have to make sure we
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haven't just redefined Christian service as some kind of
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mercenary affair. We need to get clear on the
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nature of the reward itself. This is where CS Lewis's
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distinction is just indispensable.
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He differentiates between what he calls a mercenary reward and
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a proper gain. A mercenary reward is something
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external to the ACT. Yes, something extraneous.
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His example is marrying a person for their money.
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The money, the reward, is detached from the act of
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marriage itself. OK, so a proper reward then is
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organically related to the ACT? Precisely.
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Lewis used the example of a general who seeks victory.
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Victory is the general's reward, but it's not extraneous.
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It's the natural culmination of the military campaign.
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The reward is the activity itself in consummation.
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This distinction is what safeguards the moral integrity
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of this whole idea. We can apply this to Paul's
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instruction to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20.35.
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We can. He tells them to remember the
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words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said it is more blessed
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to give than to receive. He charges them to remember the
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blessing, to remember the intrinsic happiness or
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satisfaction that comes from giving.
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And if remembering that or seeking that benefit corrupted
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the act of giving, then Paul would be giving really damaging
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ethical advice. But because the blessing is the
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act in its consummation, it's proper to pursue it.
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The reward isn't detached, it's organically related to the act
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of love. So what is it then?
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What is the ultimate non mercenary reward that the
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Christian hedonist is pursuing? The ultimate reward is to become
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what we were designed to be in the 1st place.
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It's to be conformed to the image of His Son.
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As Romans 8.29 says, the reward is holiness itself.
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It's sharing Christ's moral qualities and delighting
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supremely in the Excellency of God.
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This gives the whole act of loving a kind of moral
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consistency. It means the acts of love we do
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are not just chores we have to get through to get some external
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payment at the end. Not at all.
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The very actions we perform, the acts of patience, of kindness,
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of self-control, are delightful in measure because they have
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about them the aroma of this final reward.
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So the command to love and the reward of becoming like the one
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who loves are. They're essentially one piece of
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fabric. They're woven together.
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We see this unity in Christ's own commands about benevolence.
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You can see it in the command to love your enemies.
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Luke 6.35 gives the clearest illustration of this the
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alignment of motive and outcome. The reward for loving your
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enemies and doing good, he says, is to be sons of the Most High,
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for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
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So the reward is likeness to God's character.
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Yes, when you love your enemy, you are doing an act of becoming
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like God, whose kindness extends even to the ungrateful.
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The act itself aligns you with the character of the reward.
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You are rewarded by receiving more of the very thing you just
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acted out. Let's shift our focus a bit from
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the theological foundation to the practical, internal, you
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know, psychological reality of this approach.
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How does this mandate for joy actually translate into the
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outward labor of love? The sources suggest this whole
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process begins with a miracle. A miracle.
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The miracle is the very first step of salvation that a fallen
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Sinner would even begin to delight in God's moral beauty,
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not just in his gifts or His promises, but in Him, in His
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Holiness and perfection. And this initial delight creates
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what the source is called an insatiable desire.
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An insatiable desire not just to behold God's holiness, but to be
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holy as God is holy. The internal longing to be pure
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becomes inseparable from the longing to see purity.
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And that desire then pushes a person into action.
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They want the internal experience of that spiritual
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purity. We know that genuinely loving
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acts are contrary to our fallen, self-centered human nature,
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right? So when a truly loving act
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happens, it's a witness to an extraordinary strength at work.
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And the Christian hedonist is drawn to the experience of that
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strength. They seek to feel God's grace
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conquering their internal pride and selfishness.
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And that satisfaction in seeing grace win inside you is the core
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psychological reward. It is.
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I think we often miss that internal victory because we're
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so focused on external achievements.
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That makes sense. We do.
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The sources really indict our worldliness here.
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They note that we often feel more exhilaration when we
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conquer an external mountain of granite using our own strength.
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Then when we conquer the internal mountain of pride or
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resentment through God's strength.
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And the internal victory is actually the greater, sweeter,
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more satisfying accomplishment. The Christian and hedonist
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becomes, in a sense, addicted to the experience of that power.
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OK, let's tie this back to the external act of love using what
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the sources call the joy doubled principle.
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Yeah, how does this internal high pressure joy flow outward?
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So you start with the believers high pressure zone of joy in
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God's grace. That's the internal state.
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OK. Then they encounter a low
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pressure zone of need. This could be someone who is
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spiritually or physically destitute, someone without hope.
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And that pressure difference creates a kind of spiritual
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vacuum. And a draft called Love is
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created. It draws the high pressure joy
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toward the low pressure need. This mechanism ensures that love
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is never an act of depletion for the giver, it's always an act of
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overflow and expansion. And the joy gets multiplied.
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It gets doubled. How?
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The joy is doubled when the believer is instrumental in
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helping another person find their own joy in God.
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The Christian hedonist finds huge satisfaction in witnessing
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the display of God's grace at work in someone else.
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Whether that's relief from poverty or even more, the joy of
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their conversion and repentance. Absolutely.
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When Paul talks about his converts as his glory and joy,
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he's living this principle out. He isn't just happy for them,
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His own joy is intrinsically tied to their joy and their
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salvation. This means your love is never
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disinterested in the final outcome for the person you
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serve. You serve them because you're
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seeking a compounding of your own joy.
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And that joy is tied to them finding their satisfaction in
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God. So when your satisfaction is
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dependent on the flourishing and the good of the other person,
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your love becomes inherently interested in their highest
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good. Yours and theirs align perfectly
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in God. This makes the psychological
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labor of Christian hedonism the ultimate self-interest.
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But because the object of that interest is God, it results in
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the purest form of selfless benevolence toward others.
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It does. It removes the possibility of,
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you know, Stoic martyrdom as a motive.
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It demands an authentic internal delight.
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It forces the Christian to deal with a condition of their heart
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before they can even think about their external duties.
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If you don't have the joy of God, you simply cannot love.
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That's the conclusion. So we started this deep dive
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with their controversial thesis of Christian hedonism, that the
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mandatory pursuit of maximum lasting joy in God is the
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necessary condition for true love.
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We've defined love not as some stoic duty, but as the joyful,
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intentional overflow of satisfaction in God that meets
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the needs of other people. We've seen that this entire
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framework is rooted in the chief end of man.
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It's confirmed by the biblical command to delight in the Lord,
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and it's anchored by God's own delightful and satisfied nature.
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And we reconciled that apparent contradiction between joy and
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sacrifice by viewing self denial well, not as abandoning
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pleasure, but as a strategic choice for a superior, lasting
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joy, a joy found in Christlikeness and in the good
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of others. And maybe most pointedly, we
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have understood the indictment that Christian hedonism makes
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against our worldliness, that the thing hindering our love for
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others is not that we are too self pleasing.
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But that we are far too easily pleased by temporary fleeting
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pleasures, by comfort and immediate gratification.
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True love demands a holy hunger for the eternal dividends of joy
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that come from the number of loving others through God's
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grace. So we'll leave you with this
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final provocative thought drawn directly from the source
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material. God's own desire is for the
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compounded joy that comes from having others share the very joy
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He has in herself. If God Himself pursues joy in
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the happiness and holiness of His people, what does that
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realization mean for how you approach every act of service
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you do, and how does it change how you pray for the necessary
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joy and light in your own benevolent actions?
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A good question to sit with. Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive into Reformed thinking.
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We hope this idea of mandatory joy will change the way you read
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your Bible. Until next time.