Over and over, the Bible speaks of the rewards of obedience (Luke 12:33 Hebrews 11:6), great gain (Philippians 3:8 1 Timothy 6:6), and joy (John 15:11 Nehemiah 8:10). Scripture commands us to find delight in God: “Delight yourself. If a husband gives his wife roses, and she asks why, she will not feel very honored if he answers, “It’s my duty.” But she will feel valued and honored when he answers, “Nothing makes me happier than you.” When someone says to a friend, “I enjoy being with you,” it is a statement expressing both pleasure and value. The more we enjoy something, the more we show it to be valuable. We glorify, or honor, what or whom we enjoy. To fulfill our calling to glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31 Colossians 3:17 Isaiah 43:6–7), we must value Him for who He is: the supreme treasure. God is not as glorified by mere duty as He is by delight. However, Christian hedonism not only teaches that God Himself is the most desirable, soul-satisfying treasure, but that our enjoying Him, being satisfied in Him, is essential in glorifying Him as He deserves. In the Bible God does not condemn people for seeking happiness but for seeking it in ways that ignore, neglect, or rebel against Him (Jeremiah 2:13). The problem is not that we seek pleasure the problem is that we seek pleasure apart from God. Underlying the truth of Christian hedonism is the idea that God has designed each of us with an innate desire to pursue happiness. Or to put it positively, in the words of Piper, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” Piper coined the term Christian hedonism as a provocative way to express a timeless truth: God is not glorified in us as He ought to be when He is not our greatest joy. Pleasure, in one sense, is a gauge of how much importance we place on what we value. After all, if “ hedonism” is the pursuit of pleasure, then how can it be Christian? But, as John Piper points out, pleasure per se is not anti-God. The term Christian hedonism may sound like an oxymoron at first.
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