Is Pleasure Wrong? (Part 3)

In my earlier post, I talked about how God is against fleshly or carnal pleasure, meaning that pleasure that is focused entirely on the self is wrong. But is all pleasure condemned by God?

First of all, we have to remind ourselves that God invented pleasure. He is the one who created us in a way so that we could experience enjoyments in life. The primary pleasure we should be focused on is pleasure in our relationship with our Creator.

The Westminster Catechism asks this... "What is the chief end of man?" The answer? "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever." In other words, we are to have pleasure in our relationship with God.

This is one of the first things that went out of kilter when Adam sinned. Our focus came off of God and onto ourselves. We are now self-focused, rather than GOD-focused.

Second, sin corrupted us so that we actually became enamoured with pleasing ourselves. Our motivations and passions tend to be toward what makes us happy for the moment.

Third, we tend to try to find ways to modify pleasure. What I mean is that, we are often only happy with a certain pleasure for a period of time, therefore, we try to find ways to enhance or modify it. We find ways to cause it grow toward the ultimate experience, but somehow, we are never quite able to achieve it.

In all of this, we are never able to achieve lasting pleasure.

So, the question remains, 'Is pleasure wrong'?

The thing we need to keep in focus is that God created our ability to enjoy pleasure. What we need to understand is that we need to have a relationship with God in order to know what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior.

Some behaviors are obviously wrong as displayed in this passage...

"The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal. 5:19-21).

Others are not so clear... "But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean" (Romans 14:14 - NIV).

Once again, in order to know and enjoy the pleasures that God has reserved for us with a clear conscience, we need to establish and enjoy a close relationship with Him every day, which is pleasure in itself.