STALKING JOY

I'm right on schedule for my once every several months post on John Piper's book, When I Don't Desire God. LOL! Sorry about this. Chapter 3 is entitled The Call to Fight for Joy in God - Taking God's Demand for Delight Seriously. And he starts with a pretty serious statement ~

"Physical tastes like hot fudge vs. caramel are morally neutral. It's not right or wrong to like the one over the other. But having a spiritual taste for the glory of Christ is not morally neutral. Not to have it is evil and deadly. Not to see and savor Christ is an insult to the beauty and worth of his character. Preferring anything above Christ is the very essence of sin. It must be fought."

First of all, who else talks like this? This is why I love Piper. He sets his face like flint toward the goal of glorifying Christ and enjoying Him forever. He says things so plainly and yet so powerfully that you just have to sit back and say, "Whoa!"

Piper uses Jeremiah 2:13 to stress the serious nature of God's demand, yes demand, to delight ourselves in Him. It says, "My people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Yes, God says it is evil to seek soul fulfillment in things other than Himself. Piper says, "Esteeming God less than anything is the essence of evil."

Piper goes on to make the case that the reason why we need to fight for this kind of joy in God is because our eternal destiny depends on it. This kind of joy in God is the essence of loving Him. And it is the essence of real salvation. It's not enough to know the right doctrines or do good deeds. I will quote Piper again to clarify what he means because this is important.

"Loving Jesus, not just 'deciding' for him or 'being committed to him' or affirming all the right doctrines about him, is the mark of a true child of God. Jesus said, 'If God were your Father, you would love me' (John 8:42). Yes, I am assuming that loving Jesus includes the taste of joy in his personhood. I reject the notion that love for Christ is identical to mental or physical acts done in obedience to his Word. When Jesus said, 'If you love me, you will keep my commandments' (John 14:15), he was describing the effect of love, not the essence of love. First there is love, then there is the effect - obedience.

"Surely, then, this is worth fighting for. It may feel strange at first, but when we see what is at stake, no battle will seem more important. Loving Christ involves delight in his Person."

Do you need to understand all this to be saved? No, I don't think so. But what Piper is saying, I think, is that a true child of God will grow in their sanctification to a point where they, in Piper's words, "see and savor Christ above all things."

I'm going to stop here because there is sooo much in this chapter to discuss. What are your thoughts? Are these things new to you? I'll continue the review of chapter 3 in a couple days.