The Camaraderie of Christian Hedonism
00:00:00.000 | Welcome back to a new week of episodes. We have some interesting questions on
00:00:09.040 | the table this week, and we begin with a question here from a listener named JT
00:00:12.840 | who asks, "Pastor John, do you ever plan to add a chapter to the book Desiring
00:00:17.100 | God, a chapter called The Camaraderie of Christian Hedonism?" It's a fair question
00:00:23.880 | because when I wrote Desiring God 28 years ago, I put in the preface these
00:00:27.760 | words, "The church that I love and serve has made my writing possible. The
00:00:35.280 | partnership that I enjoy with the elders and staff is priceless. There is a
00:00:39.920 | chapter yet to be completed. It is called The Camaraderie of Christian Hedonism.
00:00:46.360 | May the Spirit Himself continue to write it on the tablets of our hearts."
00:00:54.800 | So that's where this question is coming from. This person has read the preface,
00:00:58.200 | and it's 28 years ago that I wrote it, and I haven't written that chapter in
00:01:01.920 | writing. When I wrote those words in the preface, what I meant was that
00:01:09.120 | this chapter called The Camaraderie of Christian Hedonism, this chapter is a
00:01:15.240 | chapter I wanted to be writing by my life for the rest of my life in the
00:01:21.680 | fellowship of the church. That was the gist of that. The Camaraderie of
00:01:25.880 | Christian Hedonism is what I wanted my life to be, and I have been writing it. To
00:01:32.760 | this very day, I would say those same words about the church that I have
00:01:38.600 | served and now attend and still love deeply. In fact, I woke up this morning
00:01:45.080 | enjoying and praying for my church that I'm a part of, and the ministries like
00:01:53.640 | Desiring God and Bethlehem College and the seminary that have grown out of that
00:01:57.520 | church. My life is so rich with The Camaraderie of Christian Hedonism, and in
00:02:03.920 | that sense, I'm still writing it in prayer and fellowship. But the question
00:02:12.000 | still stands. Will I, should I write an actual paper-and-ink chapter called The
00:02:19.840 | Camaraderie of Christian Hedonism? And the answer is, I might. Here's one of the
00:02:25.800 | reasons I haven't felt an urgency to do it yet. It's because there is such a
00:02:34.040 | significant overlap between what that chapter would be and what is already
00:02:39.720 | there in the chapter on love and the chapter on prayer. Love, the labor of
00:02:46.880 | Christian hedonism, and prayer, the power of Christian hedonism. In the love
00:02:51.200 | chapter, I talk about how our joy in God is filled to the full when it overflows
00:02:59.080 | for others, or when it expands like a high-pressure weather zone to draw
00:03:05.640 | others into it. And that's the essence of The Camaraderie of Christian Hedonism.
00:03:10.800 | And in the prayer chapter, I deal with how the enjoyment of God's gifts relate
00:03:18.320 | to the enjoyment of God himself, and that's the essential issue that would
00:03:22.520 | have to be dealt with in that chapter. But if I were to write the chapter—and I
00:03:28.360 | might, because it's worthy, it's worthy—it could bear another saying, I think, that
00:03:34.000 | the texts from which I would work would be these. I'll just give you a few.
00:03:38.840 | Philippians 1:4, "In every prayer of mine for you all, I make my prayer with joy."
00:03:47.000 | Paul's just thrilled to pray for his comrades in arms at Philippi. Or
00:03:53.320 | Philippians 1:8, "God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of
00:03:59.640 | Christ Jesus." So Paul delights in the church at Philippi with the very delight
00:04:05.800 | of Christ. That's worth a chapter. 1 Thessalonians 2:8, "So being
00:04:12.200 | affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the
00:04:17.400 | gospel but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us." Or the
00:04:25.940 | same thing almost in Philippians 4, "Therefore my brothers whom I love and
00:04:31.640 | long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord." So he's
00:04:39.000 | calling them his joy and his crown. One more, 1 Thessalonians 2:19, "For what
00:04:45.920 | is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before the Lord Jesus at his coming? Is
00:04:52.880 | it not you? You are our glory and joy." So just in those few verses, there's enough
00:05:01.720 | to justify a chapter on the camaraderie of Christian hedonism. So it's clear to
00:05:08.460 | me that Paul felt no contradiction between having God as his supreme
00:05:14.340 | treasure and counting everything as lost compared to the supreme value of Jesus
00:05:19.980 | on the one hand, and on the other hand, saying that the church, the people of God,
00:05:25.940 | were his joy and crown and boast and glory. And surely the reason for this is
00:05:34.500 | that God raised up these people. God is filling these people with himself. God
00:05:40.620 | will keep these people and transform these people into the image of his Son,
00:05:45.820 | so these people will be a beautiful witness to the grace and the glory of
00:05:52.060 | God, and these people will never compete with Christ for his supreme worth,
00:05:56.980 | but will always signal that worth and embody that worth and help Paul and us
00:06:02.900 | know that worth more and more. So that'd be the gist of my chapter right there,
00:06:09.220 | and pray for me, and maybe the Lord will incline me to write "The Camaraderie of
00:06:16.620 | Christian Hedonism." Excellent. Thank you, Pastor John. And the book Desiring God is
00:06:21.220 | foundational for us at DesiringGod.org, of course, as you can imagine. And you can
00:06:26.660 | download and begin reading Desiring God right now, free of charge, by going to our
00:06:30.660 | website DesiringGod.org and click on the Books tab. There you will find it under
00:06:35.980 | its title, Desiring God. So we know a little bit about the most influential
00:06:40.260 | Calvinists in John Piper's ministry, men like Jonathan Edwards, but who have been
00:06:45.060 | the most influential Arminian writers? Hmm. I'll ask him tomorrow on the Ask
00:06:50.340 | Pastor John podcast. Thanks for listening.
00:06:53.980 | [BLANK_AUDIO]