Did C.S. Lewis Warn Against Christian Hedonism?
00:00:00.000 | Well, God's glory and our joy are interlinked together.
00:00:07.560 | C.S. Lewis saw it.
00:00:09.360 | But he also seemed to say that the penny would drop on this connection for most Christians
00:00:14.320 | on the other side of eternity.
00:00:16.240 | In other words, most Christians will not clearly comprehend Christian hedonism in this life,
00:00:22.000 | even though it's true.
00:00:23.520 | So would C.S. Lewis say there are laborers at DG are premature?
00:00:26.920 | It's a question from Daniel, "Dear Pastor John, thank you for your ministry.
00:00:31.520 | You've spoken in the past of the prosperity gospel as over realized eschatology, promised
00:00:37.400 | physical blessings being part of our inheritance in Christ, but incorrectly assumed to be for
00:00:43.000 | today, not the future life.
00:00:45.880 | I'd like to raise the same objection about Christian hedonism.
00:00:49.880 | Is it not the case that just as the prosperity gospel is an over realized physical materialistic
00:00:55.800 | eschatology, this attempt to find full satisfaction in God in this life also demonstrates over
00:01:00.960 | realized emotional psychological eschatology?"
00:01:05.880 | C.S. Lewis seems to make such a conclusion himself in the reflections on the Psalms in
00:01:10.080 | Speaking of Heaven.
00:01:11.080 | He writes, "The Scottish catechism says that man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy
00:01:16.560 | him forever.
00:01:18.480 | But we shall then know in heaven that these are the same thing.
00:01:24.120 | Fully to enjoy is to glorify."
00:01:27.960 | So what would you say to criticisms that Christian hedonism reaches prematurely for an over realized
00:01:33.760 | emotional or psychological eschatology not intended for our common life until eternity?
00:01:41.040 | Wow.
00:01:43.880 | This is a tremendously insightful and important question, and it gives me great encouragement,
00:01:53.040 | because it means that there are people out there who are thinking seriously and practically
00:02:03.800 | and biblically about Christian hedonism.
00:02:07.680 | So I have four responses to this concern, namely that Christian hedonism is calling
00:02:14.840 | for a full satisfaction in God and is thus guilty of an over realized eschatology that
00:02:25.000 | claims for the Christian life in this world what it can only have in the life to come.
00:02:30.560 | That's the charge, and I'm going to argue innocent.
00:02:34.920 | That's number one.
00:02:37.080 | It may be that some people represent Christian hedonism in an unrealistic way that claims
00:02:42.840 | too much for this life, and it may be that in my preaching I have overstated those experiences
00:02:48.780 | in a careless way.
00:02:50.280 | Sometimes, I don't know.
00:02:52.240 | I don't have a good memory like that.
00:02:54.320 | But I have spoken on this so often, I would not doubt that somewhere along the way I may
00:02:59.820 | have misspoken, even though I try very hard to choose my words carefully, both on APJ
00:03:09.520 | and in preaching and writing.
00:03:11.840 | So yes, it is possible to demand more of a Christian in this world emotionally and psychologically
00:03:18.840 | and spiritually than God has ordained to give, and thus define what it means to be a Christian
00:03:24.040 | in a way that rules some people out who should be in.
00:03:28.040 | It's certainly possible, and oh, do I want to avoid it.
00:03:33.040 | The reason we should avoid it is because 1 John 3, 1-2 says that we won't be complete
00:03:39.320 | until we see Jesus face to face.
00:03:42.040 | Paul says in Romans 7 and in Galatians 5 that the flesh and the spirit are at war with each
00:03:47.320 | other, often frustrating our desire to love Christ supremely and act consistently with
00:03:53.000 | that love.
00:03:54.000 | Philippians 4 says that Paul has learned the secret of contentment, implying there's
00:03:59.740 | been growth and a process of becoming more content along the way as he grows up into
00:04:06.180 | Christ rather than an instantaneous perfection of joy or pleasure or contentment at the front
00:04:12.800 | end of the Christian life.
00:04:14.480 | Paul tells us in Romans 8-13 to "put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, and those
00:04:20.880 | sinful deeds arise from" where?
00:04:23.760 | Sinful preferences in the heart where Christ does not have the place in our emotions that
00:04:28.960 | he ought to have?
00:04:30.880 | All of that is why I wrote a book entitled "When I Don't Desire God, How to Fight
00:04:38.200 | for Joy," and in that book there's a chapter called "When the Darkness Does Not Lift,"
00:04:48.680 | dealing with depression.
00:04:49.920 | So whatever others may do with Christian hedonism, I don't know how anyone could read that book
00:04:58.160 | about all of Christian life being a battle to get the joy we don't have and should have
00:05:03.920 | and think it's an over-realized eschatology.
00:05:07.200 | Response number two is to point to the central summary of Christian hedonism.
00:05:13.320 | God - here's what it's not.
00:05:15.120 | Let me misquote myself.
00:05:17.920 | It is not "God is fully" or "God is perfectly glorified in us when we are fully and perfectly
00:05:26.040 | satisfied in Him."
00:05:27.040 | I never say that.
00:05:28.160 | In a sense it's true, but it's going to happen in heaven, so I don't talk about it.
00:05:31.320 | It's not my point.
00:05:33.280 | Daniel points out, C.S. Lewis sees the same thing, and I want to say perhaps C.S. Lewis
00:05:38.240 | should have spoken with greater precision, at least the way Daniel quotes him, because
00:05:43.320 | what he says is, "Fully to enjoy is to glorify."
00:05:49.000 | Hmm.
00:05:52.360 | Probably he meant, "Fully to enjoy is to glorify fully."
00:05:58.940 | I doubt that C.S. Lewis meant - and I'm sure he didn't, in fact, given other things he
00:06:04.480 | says - I doubt that he meant the only glory God gets from our enjoyment of God is the
00:06:12.160 | glory He gets when our joy is total, complete, full, perfect.
00:06:17.440 | No!
00:06:18.440 | Lewis doesn't think that.
00:06:20.880 | Whatever Lewis meant, that's not what I mean in the summary of Christian hedonism.
00:06:26.760 | What I say is, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him," and I
00:06:33.280 | think that kind of wording pretty clearly implies that there is a gradation in levels
00:06:40.560 | of satisfaction and a gradation in levels of glorification, and the more you are satisfied
00:06:47.920 | in God, the more He is glorified in you, as when I say, for example, "This meal will be
00:06:55.100 | most enjoyed when you are most hungry."
00:06:58.300 | And what I mean is, the hungrier you are, the better it tastes.
00:07:03.700 | I don't have some absolute ideal of hunger in mind that will make the meal perfectly
00:07:10.180 | enjoyable.
00:07:11.460 | The point of summarizing Christian hedonism by saying, "God is most glorified in us when
00:07:15.900 | we are most satisfied in Him," is to communicate that pursuing satisfaction in God is absolutely
00:07:24.780 | essential to the Christian life that glorifies God.
00:07:28.500 | It's a way of communicating, "Never, never, never, never, never be indifferent to the
00:07:34.420 | stagnation of your heart toward Christ, because as your satisfaction in Him diminishes, your
00:07:43.140 | capacities to glorify Him in your heart diminish.
00:07:46.580 | And as your capacities to delight in Him and be satisfied in Him and rejoice in Him and
00:07:51.820 | treasure Him in your heart increase, the more you glorify Him in your heart."
00:07:58.140 | There is no unrealistic, absolute ideal of perfection or satisfaction expected in this
00:08:06.140 | life.
00:08:07.140 | That's not what I'm about.
00:08:08.140 | That's not what Christian hedonism says.
00:08:09.900 | That comes, that perfection, that perfect satisfaction comes when we see Christ face
00:08:16.540 | to face.
00:08:17.540 | But there is a radical, absolute, indispensable claim and call from God to us, "Don't be
00:08:26.980 | indifferent to your heart's satisfaction in God.
00:08:31.580 | God gets glory from your heart's joy in Him.
00:08:36.940 | Seek its increase.
00:08:38.740 | Always seek its increase, because He is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied
00:08:45.620 | in Him."
00:08:46.620 | Response number three.
00:08:48.500 | What Jesus Himself said is what I try to say.
00:08:52.940 | Jesus said, "Whoever loves mother or father more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever
00:08:57.580 | loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me."
00:09:00.580 | This is Jesus' way of saying, "If you are not most satisfied in Me compared to others,
00:09:07.360 | if your affections are not most attached to Me over against your children and parents,
00:09:13.940 | you're not Mine."
00:09:14.940 | And He said the same thing, in other words, in Luke 14:33.
00:09:19.820 | "Anyone of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple."
00:09:29.740 | Now we know that doesn't mean you have to be poverty-stricken.
00:09:33.380 | It means your heart has to be on Christ more than on anything else.
00:09:42.500 | And He said other things like this, "Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength,"
00:09:47.540 | and "Valuing the treasure hidden in a field so that you're willing to sell everything
00:09:51.580 | you have with joy."
00:09:52.580 | Now, in view of all the other things that Jesus said, I would add this to those radical
00:09:59.700 | sayings to protect ourselves against over-realized eschatology.
00:10:03.900 | I would add this.
00:10:05.300 | The heart of the Christian often slips from the position of superior delight in Jesus
00:10:11.900 | over family and things.
00:10:13.940 | It does.
00:10:15.180 | It slips.
00:10:16.740 | Those slippings which give rise to outward sins—that's where sins come from—are
00:10:23.500 | not necessarily evidences that we are not born again.
00:10:28.660 | Provision is made for repentance and forgiveness.
00:10:32.780 | But if our hearts settle in to a position where Christ is highly esteemed and cherished
00:10:42.460 | and loved, but only in second place, only in third place, that settling in will prove
00:10:52.900 | to be evidence we are not Christians.
00:10:57.460 | And that affection for Jesus may be very high.
00:10:59.700 | Here's my fourth response.
00:11:02.180 | I believe there is in the newest, most immature, conflicted, baby believer the seed of God's
00:11:11.900 | supreme value above all things.
00:11:16.300 | And he has tasted and enjoyed that, even if a new believer can't put that into words.
00:11:24.100 | And one mark of that new believer's ongoing reality as a Christian is the indestructible,
00:11:35.940 | though variable—here I'm choosing my words as carefully as I know how—the indestructible,
00:11:43.660 | though variable desire that this seed become a soul-encompassing tree.
00:11:54.540 | For those four reasons, I find Christian hedonism innocent of the charge of over-realized eschatology.
00:12:05.340 | So, I'm going to leave you with a couple of questions that I've been asking myself
00:12:12.340 | the past few weeks.
00:12:13.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:12:14.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:12:15.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:12:16.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:12:17.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:12:18.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:12:19.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:12:20.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:12:21.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:12:22.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:12:23.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:12:24.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:12:50.340 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:13:10.100 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.
00:13:17.100 | I'm going to start with a question that I've been asking myself.