Is My Pleasure Commanded or Spontaneous?

Audio Transcript

Welcome again to the podcast. We’re on the subject of pleasure once more — specifically, is our pleasure commanded by God as an act of obedience? Or is our pleasure in God made genuine by being spontaneous? It’s a typical query posed to Christian Hedonists and an important query requested by Emily in the present day. “Pricey Pastor John and Tony, thanks a lot for this podcast! I’ve a query that comes from listening to 2 of your newer episodes. In them you said that pleasure shouldn’t be a selection however a sovereign present. To cite you, Pastor John: ‘Pleasure is a God-given, spontaneous expertise of the wonder, price, and greatness of God.’ Then within the subsequent episode, you mentioned that we’re commanded to rejoice by Jesus, Peter, and Paul, implying we now have some management over our rejoicing.” These are from APJ 1983 and APJ 1984. “Pastor John, are you able to clarify how this works, spontaneous pleasure and commanded pleasure?”

That is such an necessary subject as a result of not solely does it relate to pleasure, but it surely pertains to all of the behaviors and all the selections and all of the feelings of the Christian life. The paradox between an emotion being given by God and being commanded by God runs by way of the entire Bible.

And the explanation it does — the explanation it runs by way of the entire Bible — is as a result of it’s on the coronary heart of dwelling a life that glorifies God by relying on God in doing what he instructions us to do. When God instructions us to do issues, or consider issues, or determine issues, or really feel issues, he’s treating us as genuinely accountable ethical individuals in his picture, in contrast to all of the animals. He’s honoring us because the sort of beings in his picture who can understand issues, and take into consideration issues, and consider issues, after which really feel and act in accord with how we expect and consider.

However whereas he created us to be morally accountable individuals, he didn’t create us to be unbiased from him and his enabling energy. As a result of if we use our personal native powers to investigate the world, suppose it by way of, make choices, expertise feelings, carry out actions with out counting on him, we’re going to get the glory, not him. He didn’t make the world for us to realize unbiased glory. That’s not why he created the world. He created the world for us to dwell in such a method that he will get the glory and we get the assistance. We get the enjoyment; he will get the glory.

We Get Assist, He Will get Glory

So, right here’s the precept with a few texts. For instance, 1 Peter 4:11: “Whoever speaks, [let him speak] as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, [let him serve] as one who serves [now, this is key] by the energy that God provides.” So, as we serve in obedience to what he instructions, we depend on energy that’s not our personal. After which, why? He offers us the why: “. . . so that in every little thing God could also be glorified by way of Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion without end and ever.” That’s a completely elementary precept of dwelling the Christian life. We get the assistance; he will get the glory. We obey instructions by relying completely on his present.

“We get the assistance; God will get the glory. We obey instructions by relying completely on his present.”

One other technique to say it’s that the Christian life is supposed to be a lifetime of “[walking] by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16) or being “led by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:18). We battle in opposition to sin, Paul says, by placing to dying the deeds of the physique “by the Spirit” (Romans 8:13). All these phrases — “by the Spirit,” “by the Spirit,” “by the Spirit.” We do the motion however, Father, you give the energy. We do it in reliance upon your energy: “by the Spirit.”

So, the entire Christian life, not simply the emotion of pleasure, is constructed on this paradox of ethical accountability to do what God tells us to do, and but to do it within the energy that he provides. So, it’s actually a present. It’s actually a present from him, although our willpower is concerned.

Command and Reward

In all probability probably the most well-known phrases outdoors the Bible to seize this paradox had been spoken by St. Augustine. He prayed like this in Confessions guide 10. “Give what you command, O Lord, and command what you’ll.”

Now, listed below are a number of the concrete biblical illustrations of what he meant. Let’s simply take perception in Jesus. Command: “Imagine within the Lord Jesus, and you’ll be saved” (Acts 16:31). It’s a command. Reward: “It has been [given] to you that for the sake of Christ you must . . . consider in him” (Philippians 1:29).

Or take repentance. Command: “Repent, for the dominion of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). Reward: “The Lord’s servant should not be quarrelsome however type to everybody. . . . God could maybe grant them repentance resulting in a information of the reality” (2 Timothy 2:24–25). It’s a command; it’s a present.

Right here’s one other one — love. Love is a command: “A brand new commandment I give to you, that you simply love each other: simply as I’ve liked you” (John 13:34). But it surely’s a present: “the fruit of the Spirit is love” (Galatians 5:22).

So, Emily was precisely proper to cite me as saying, on the one hand, “Pleasure is a God-given, spontaneous expertise of the wonder, price, and greatness of God” — that’s true; it’s a present — however then saying, however, that we’re commanded to rejoice by James and Peter and Jesus and Paul, implying that we now have some management over our rejoicing (that’s, management over the pursuit of it and obedience to that command).

For instance, we’re commanded (returning now to the problem of pleasure), “Rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13) — a command. “Rejoice within the Lord all the time; once more I’ll say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4) — a command. “Delight your self within the Lord” (Psalm 37:4) — command. However however, pleasure is a present: “The fruit of the Spirit is . . . pleasure” (Galatians 5:22). Or Romans 15:13: “Could the God of hope fill you with all pleasure and peace in believing.”

Look and Pray

So, what can we do to dwell on this paradox of pleasure being a present and a command? To make it so simple as I can, right here’s what we do. We glance — that’s the important thing phrase — on the causes God has given us to rejoice; we take a look at them within the Bible. And second, we pray. Look and pray. Look and pray. Look and pray. We pray that God would open our eyes to see and really feel the worth of these causes the way in which God supposed them to be felt.

For instance, Paul says, “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). So, we take a look at it, we take a look at the hope, we ponder it, we give it some thought, after which we pray, “O God, open my eyes to see the price of the glory of your hope.” Or Jesus mentioned, “Rejoice and be glad, on your reward is nice in heaven” (Matthew 5:12). So, we examine that, and we glance, we ponder, we expect, we meditate on the reward in heaven. After which we pray, “O God, open my eyes to the price of the reward, so I really feel what I must really feel after I’m gazing at this superb reward. Make me comfortable the way in which Jesus commanded me to be comfortable, due to how stunning this reward is.” Or the psalmist says in Psalm 119:162, “I rejoice at your phrase like one who finds nice spoil.” So, we learn the phrase — we learn it, we meditate on it, and we pray and pray and pray, “God, open our eyes, that we could behold great issues in your phrase” (see Psalm 119:18).

Now, if that is new to any of our listeners, this type of paradox between dwelling with instructions and items like this, and also you’d prefer to probe extra deeply, I actually simplified issues by saying the secret is trying and the secret is praying. If you wish to learn an entire guide about it, I wrote an entire guide. It’s known as After I Don’t Want God, and you may learn it without spending a dime at desiringGod.org. So, as paradoxical because it sounds, it is a superb technique to dwell. “Give what you command, and command what you’ll.”