(upbeat music) - Welcome back to a new week on the Ask Pastor John podcast. A long time pastor and author, John Piper. Well, Pastor John, a listener named Lindsey from Memphis would like to call you to the witness stand. She asks this, "Dear Pastor John, "thank you for taking my question.

"I'm really curious. "Do you think John Calvin would have considered himself "to be a Christian hedonist as you define it?" - Oh, I would like to think he would. As I define it means I get to spend an afternoon with him. Right? - Yeah, of course. - I get to talk to him and we sit over the Bible for three or four hours.

And I haven't had time to do the research to know what the word hedonist meant in the 1500s. And so I might have a stumbling block there. I might not, I don't know. But if I said to him, "Now, Mr. Calvin, "there are people who wanna know if you agree with my view.

"And here's my view. "I think that it is right to pursue happiness, "to pursue joy, to pursue pleasure in Christ, in God, "because I think it helps us honor God. "And I think it helps us love people." You agree with that? I think he would pause and he would say, "Well, I can think of some verses "that go in that direction." Then he might ask me some questions about what I think about suffering and what I think about sacrifice and persecution and self-denial.

And I'd give you all my standard biblical answers to that. And my own conviction is I think he would say, "Yes, I don't know if I like your name, "but that's surely what I believe." And so I did have the time to look up some places where he says something that gives me hope that he might agree.

And so let me give you a couple of those. He says, "We must therefore constantly call "to our minds this truth, "that it can never be well with us, "except in so far as God is gracious to us, "so that the joy we derive from his paternal favor "towards us may surpass all the pleasures of the world." In another place, he says, "We have all a natural desire to pursue happiness.

"And the consequence is that false imaginations "carry us away in every direction. "But if we were honestly and firmly convinced "that our happiness is in heaven, "it would be easy for us to trample upon the world, "to despise earthly blessings "by the deceitfulness of attractions to the world "that the greater part of man are fascinated with, "and to rise toward heaven." Or here's another one, "Rejoice and leap for joy." This is his commentary on Matthew 5, 12.

"The meaning is a remedy is at hand." A remedy for being crushed under persecutions. "A remedy is at hand that we may not be overwhelmed "by unjust reproaches, "for as soon as we raise our minds to heaven, "we there behold vast grounds of joy, "which dispel sadness." And one other place, one of my favorite passages is Hebrews 10, 34, where the Christians are identifying with those in jail.

And when they do that, their goods get plundered.