A few weeks ago I confessed in our Adult Sunday school class that I am not a Christian Hedonist. In response to that, a request was made for me to explain why, and I said that I would do so in an article. So, for better or for worse, here it is!

It is best to start by understanding what Christian Hedonism is. Many of you may know that this phrase was coined by Dr. John Piper. Brother Piper pastored at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis for 33 years, and is the founder of the ministry known as Desiring God. He has sought to explain Christian Hedonism most fully in his three books, Desiring God, The Pleasures of God, and Future Grace. Central to his teaching is the conviction that “The pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and virtue. That is, The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.”[¹] Therefore, Christians ought to be devoted to pursuing maximum joy, delight, happiness, and satisfaction in God; for only when they are most satisfied in God will He be most glorified in them.

I want to confess freely (and even joyfully) that I have been so helped and encouraged in my Christian walk by John Piper’s books, and I have no desire to condemn these works, nor to condemn brother John for writing them. On many (most?) points, I find myself agreeing with brother Piper’s convictions and analysis of Scripture. And, the more I read in the history of Reformed thinking, the more evidence I see that many Puritans and Reformers would as well. However, my main concern with Christian Hedonism is pastoral. If our understanding of the biblical call to be joyful in the Lord is not carefully governed by Scripture itself, we can lose a well-rounded, biblical perspective on what it means to live a life in which “God is most glorified in us.” Losing clarity in this area comes with a whole host of problems (legalism, lawlessness, presumption, unhealthy self-analysis and introspection, unrealistic expectations), and I don’t want that. I don’t want any of Christ’s sheep being hindered from enjoying a full, rich life of faith and assurance in the God of our salvation. But, in my opinion (and experience), ironically, Christian Hedonism can become a hindrance, rather than a help, in this pursuit.

I believe there are some potential problems with Christian Hedonism. I use potential for two reasons: 1) I know enough about myself by now to recognize that on any one of these issues, I could simply be misunderstanding what brother John is saying. I am not perfect in my ability to grasp concepts and ideas, and I may just need someone to come alongside and “explain to [me] the way of [Christian Hedonism] more accurately.” So I use potential to admit that my analysis could be wrong. 2) I am also using potential because on some points, I am not sure that the problem is a necessary result of Christian Hedonism, rather than something that might become an issue. With that in mind, so far, I have 5 potential problems with Christian Hedonism, and I am thinking through two others. This month, we will look at just one.

1. An Unhealthy Conflation of Faith and Joy:

Christian Hedonists conflate the concepts of faith and joy. This comes from Christian Hedonism’s teaching about what it means to have genuine faith in Christ. In chapter 2 of Desiring God, brother John seeks to explain this connection. Due to the shallow understanding of what it means to have “faith” in Christ that is so prominent in our day, brother John thinks it is better to speak in terms of treasuring Christ rather than believing in Christ. He believes using “different words” helps to “unpack what believe means” in a time like ours (pg. 55). As is argued in this chapter, joy is one of those words that “unpacks” what it means to believe.

As a pastor, I can understand and appreciate the concern expressed here. But I think it is dangerous to start using words interchangeably that are not used that way in the Bible. In my experience, this conflation of faith and joy has led many believers to be unnecessarily unsettled over whether or not they possess true faith. And it is not hard to understand why. If saving faith is defined as joy in the Lord, then joy automatically becomes the measure by which one discerns the presence of faith. So long as I am experiencing joy, that’s no problem. But, what about in those dark nights of the soul that the Lord will often shepherd His people through (Isaiah 50:10)? Is it really helpful or re-assuring in those moments to evaluate the reality of our faith based upon the presence of joy? I believe this is an unbiblical and unhealthy way to think about the nature of faith.

Now, I do acknowledge that in Scripture we often see joy and faith paired together (in fact, it is healthy to see them closely associated in our Christian experience, as we see in Philippians 1:25). However, we should not define faith as joy because the Bible does not do that.[²] Rather, the Bible presents joy as the result of growing and maturing in our faith. To give one example, we can look at Romans 15:13. Paul prays,

“Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 15:13

Not only do we see here a distinction between joy and faith, but we also see a priority of one over the other. Joy (alongside peace) is something Paul is praying for God to grant to the His people in greater abundance. However, he prays that God will do this as believers continue exercising faith in Christ! There is a logical priority here: one precedes the other.  One is the means (or cause?) of the other.[³] One is primary, the other is secondary. One is the root, and the other is the fruit. As believers increasingly exercise faith, Paul prays that God will increase their joy and peace as well. So according to this verse, greater experiences of joy in the Christian life are granted as believers continue to walk with God believingly. Therefore, the exercise of faith and the experience of joy are not the same thing. Yes, they are often complementary, but they are also distinct. Because of this, it does not seem to me that we should see joy as definitional of, or interchangeable with, faith.

We will return soon to consider some other thoughts about Christian Hedonism.

1. John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2003), 28.
2. One text Christian Hedonism uses to equate faith and joy is 2 Corinthians 1:24, “Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are standing firm” (emphasis added). Lenski offers a helpful comment: “The fact that the Corinthians are standing as regards the faith completes the thought that Paul and his assistants are co-workers with them in producing joy for them. Only with regard to those standing [in the faith] can they be co-workers in any sense, in particular also fellow producers of joy” (2 Corinthians, 865). In other words, standing firm in faith is a necessary prerequisite to experiencing increased joy. Yes, faith and joy are closely associated in this text. However, if faith is indeed a “prerequisite,” then faith is distinguishable from joy, which is my point.
3. Leon Morris in The Epistle to the Romans (The Pillar New Testament Commentary) writes about this verse in footnote 62, “ἐν τῷ πιστεύειν. For the construction see the note on 3:4. It is not common in the New Testament outside Luke; it occurs four times in Paul (M, III, p. 145, where the meaning here is seen as causal, “because you believe”). The words are viewed by Michel as a gloss (they are lacking in a small group of MSS headed by D F G), but Black dissents strongly: “so far from these words being a gloss … they recall the central theme of the Epistle. Faith is the way into the kingdom of joy and peace.”