Christian Hedonism.....Say What?

John Piper is a prominent pastor and Christian theologian. Piper coined the phrase “Christian Hedonism”. Now I know those are two words that never go together. However, John coined the phrase as it relates to our joy in God.

Piper notes that in the Westminster Catechism, the first question is: What is man's chief end? The answer is that man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Piper pondered this answer and wondered if it was biblical.

Piper then leads us to Philippians 1:20-21. It was here that Piper saw that God is most glorified, or Christ is most magnified when we are most satisfied in Him. “My eager expectation is that Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death, for . . .” that little word for is a clarifier: “for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”Paul anchors the magnification and glorification of Christ in the fact that through our faith and service, Christ is magnified in Paul's body in both life and death.

This made perfect sense to me. When I die, I am gaining because of Christ; I am entering eternal life; I am in the presence of God, and I will never be in need again. So, if it is my gain to die in Christ, and as a result, He is magnified by my death.

So, Let’s see if we can make sense of this. I know that am confident that Christ will be magnified in my dying, and the reason I have this expectation is that Christ will be shown to be gloried in my death because, in my dying, my experience will be to gain all things offered by Christ as my Savior; this occurs because I see Christ as being more satisfying to me than everything that life has to offer. This occurs because everyone knows my love for God is more important than anything in this world.

As such, this truth, that God is most glorified in us, or Christ is most magnified in us when we are most satisfied in Him, is not secondary. This is not tangential to the Christian life or peripheral to the book of Philippians. This is the epicenter; it is the heart of what it means to be a believer, what it means to “be in” Jesus Christ, and what it means to treasure and trust Jesus Christ. As Piper put it, “This is not icing on the cake of Christianity. This is at the heart of Christianity.”

Christian Hedonism means God is most glorified, and Christ is most magnified when we are most satisfied in Him. Live your life, every second of every day, satisfied in the love, grace, and mercies of Christ and professing that faith. When this is done, God is most glorified by this satisfaction.

Peace and Grace!

John Piper, What is Christian Hedonism, desiringgod.org, August 1, 2015