Let me clear this out right here in the very beginning, to avoid misunderstanding or confusion later on – of course,
there are times when pleasures don’t glorify God. Whenever we delight in and give priority to
the world’s pleasures more than we do with God, then that is idolatry – a
sin. Also, there are such things as sinful
pleasures – pleasures that are explicitly not permitted by God to be enjoyed by
us (e.g. sex outside marriage).
But pleasure per se is not evil. In fact, it is something that God has invented, and everything that God invents
is good, which we should accept and be thankful for (1 Tim 4:4). Hence, pleasures are good.
Sex, food and drink, nature,
entertainment, music, pop culture, arts, companionship, rest, vacation and
travel, friendship, success, etc. We are
naturally designed to derive enjoyment from these things. We are meant to enjoy the pleasures of this
world. For this is God’s world, and the
world’s pleasures are God’s.
For me, there are four main reasons
why pleasures exist:
1.) The world’s pleasures are
God’s gifts to us, his children. Just as
human fathers give their children treats, God the Father also gives treats to his
children. By these, God has somewhat
shown a glimpse of his goodness and favor to his children, for his glory.
2.) So that we might have a concept
on what is pleasure. What it’s all about. What’s the feeling and experience.
3.) So that we will have a benchmark – a point of
comparison – when we eventually obtain a greater kind of pleasure. And that once we experience that greater kind
of pleasure, we would see how miniscule or irrelevant the world’s pleasures are
when compared to it.
4.) The world’s pleasures are
intended as appetizers. To make us
desire for greater pleasures than these.
For pleasures that are not of this world. For heavenly pleasures. For eternal pleasures. For pleasures that can only be exclusively found
in God alone.
The pleasures of this world are
not the ends. It is merely the means for
us to be led to the Ultimate Pleasure that is found in God. These world’s pleasures should ultimately
bring us to focus on God – for us to eventually derive our ultimate happiness
in Him and in Him alone. That even when
time comes that we won’t be able to experience the world’s pleasures anymore,
we won’t mind at all, because we now obtain our overflowing and unending
pleasure from our fellowship with God, who is the Author of pleasure.
Unfortunately, instead of letting
these pleasures lead us to God, we are okay with just settling with them. We prioritize them. We invest our happiness on them. Instead of seeking God (by the help of
these), we seek the pleasures of this world instead. They become our ends instead of our means
to find our Ultimate Pleasure. We are content
with settling with these lesser kinds of pleasures instead of moving on to the superior
kind! As C.S. Lewis beautifully articulated,
“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition
when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on
making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer
of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Now that we’ve established what the
world’s pleasures’ purpose is – to help us to eventually find our full delight in God – and have recognized the danger of enjoying them – that is, focusing our
delight on them that we forget about pursuing the greater pleasure found in God
– then, what should our approach be on dealing with pleasure? Should we start hating pleasure then? By no means! On the contrary, we should intensify our pursuit
for pleasure. And what I meant by “intensifying
our pursuit for pleasure” is for us to stop being too easily pleased with the worldly
pleasures but instead let us yearn for such pleasure that is found in God,
which is eternally satisfying and extremely delightful.
Moreover, it also doesn’t
necessarily mean we should totally stop enjoying the “lesser kind” of pleasures. As what was said earlier, they are God’s gifts
and they are meant to be enjoyed. As
long as they are not sinful and aren’t hindering us with our relationship with
God (but, rather, just the opposite, they are helping us to be closer to God), all
these pleasures will always be, as what the Bible says, “permissible” to us (1
Cor 6:12).
Nevertheless, though the Bible
tells us that these things are always “permissible”, it also tells us that not
all things are “helpful” (1 Cor 6:12).
No matter how “permissible” these pleasures are, they might not help us
in our dealing with matters of eternal significance, e.g. our pursuit of finding
our ultimate pleasure in God, and the risk of being distractions is always present
in them. It’s just an unfortunate proven
fact that the Devil can easily use pleasures to tempt us into idolatry and
sin. That’s why some Christians totally
abstain from some pleasures (e.g. alcoholic beverages, TV or movies). Now, total abstinence is not a requirement,
but it’s very much highly recommended. Absence
of worldly pleasures removes the risk of sinning through them. And absence of these things allows someone to completely put his full attention to God and draw delight from Him. Even for those who don’t choose to completely
abstain on some worldly pleasures, it is still strongly advisable to
periodically abstain from the pleasures of this world – to evaluate ourselves
if we sincerely delight in God more than these. That is why a concept such as “fasting”
exists.
The past paragraph made the whole
idea seemingly paradoxical, but that’s just how the way it actually is. The more we delight in God, the readier
we are to forfeit our God-given freedom of enjoying the (non-sinful) pleasures of
this world.
Furthermore – this is a cliché but
necessary to mention here nonetheless – according to the Bible, whether we eat
or drink or whatever we do, we should do it all for the glory of God (1 Cor
10:31). This maxim absolutely applies,
too, on whenever we enjoy the pleasures of this world. Thus, determining if a pleasure will glorify
God or not should be our foremost consideration when deciding whether we should
go on to undertake that pleasure or not, regardless of that pleasure being the “permissible”
kind.
Because whenever God is absent in
our dealing with the pleasures of this world – if we fail to seek His glory
above our enjoyment of these things – then it would surely lead to sinning. Thus, if we know that there’s a possibility
that the pleasure we are enjoying might lead us to sin or won’t glorify God at
all, and we don’t trust ourselves of having the necessary self-discipline to
stop enjoying that pleasure when it’s already likely that it will lead us to
sin, then it is still best to avoid or abstain from enjoying that pleasure
instead of risking the chance of sinning or failing in giving glory to God.
Lastly, as we are enjoying the
pleasures of this world, it’s imperative that we retain the positive things but
discard the negative things. Using our
understanding of what’s the ultimate purpose of pleasure is and our conviction
to keep the glory of God paramount as our filters, we will be able to do just
that. We will be able to watch a movie
or read a novel, enjoy the story, and just absorb the wisdom and morals that
can be derived from it but would be able discard the unhelpful aspects. We will be able to appreciate the beauty and/or
optimism of the music and lyrics, but won’t be influenced by the godless
lifestyle or philosophy of the musician.
When we witness a volcanic eruption, we will forget our terror but
instead see it as the manifestation of God’s splendor. We will be able to spot analogies or
illustrations that are relevant to our spirituality and relationship with God
when we come in contact with pop culture, and won’t notice those that don’t. And, thus, we can truly be able to
effectively use this world’s pleasures as what they were intended to be – our
first step towards an Ultimate Pleasure.
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