CHRISTIAN HEDONISM

CHRISTIAN HEDONISM

Friday, July 08, 2016

Matthew 6:9-10 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. [Lk.11:2]

John 13:13-17 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

he·don·ism   /ˈhidnˌɪzəm/  [heed-n-iz-uhm] –noun (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hedonism)

1. the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the highest good.

2. devotion to pleasure as a way of life: The later Roman emperors were notorious for their hedonism.

  The “pursuit of happiness” is not found in God’s Word. "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" as an “unalienable right” is one of the most notable phrases in the United States Declaration of Independence. It is an influential sentence in the history of the USA and beyond. It bears on political speech (promises), social programs, foreign policies . . . and populace hedonism.

  Is there anything wrong with wanting to be happy?

  No, and yes, depending on our personal present and eternal life-view; very much decided by kingdom mindedness or not.

  No, in reading His Word I don’t see where God wants us to be unhappy, this evident from Eden on. There is unhappy circumstance and event, but all due to resultant consequence of original and ongoing sin; our and others natural rejection of His plainly stated way. (Jn.14:6)

  Yes, in that reading His Word, I don’t see pursuit of happiness as list topper motive. Serving the King of kings is to be our list topper.

  Several verses immediately come to mind.

  Solomon, after many years of study on and practice of the pursuit of happiness, concluded “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good, or whether evil.” (Eccl.12:13-14)

  The words of Jesus to His disciples, “Do not lay up treasures on earth for yourselves, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up treasures in Heaven for yourselves, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye. Therefore if your eye is sound, your whole body shall be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, Do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Behold the birds of the air; for they sow not, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them; are you not much better than they are? Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin, but I say to you that even Solomon in his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Therefore if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much rather clothe you, little-faiths? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed? For the nations seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow shall be anxious for its own things. Sufficient to the day is the evil of it. (Mt.6:1-33)

  Beware treasuring the pursuit of happiness! 

EBB4