It seems every single human being who has ever walked the
face of this planet has been in pursuit of one ultimate goal: happiness.
Certainly we all have different visions of how we will achieve
this end-goal: living in America, moving up the corporate ladder, stockpiling
millions of dollars, living in a mansion, spending time with family, selling
everything, or gaining self-identity. All these visions may be different; some
are even at odds with one another. But the end-goal is the same: to achieve
lasting happiness.
How Could These Pursuits Be in Opposition to One Another?
A couple years ago, I drew the conclusion that one of the
major issues amongst Christians is that we are too busy pursuing happiness
instead of pursuing God. What I meant by this conclusion was that the pursuit
of happiness and the pursuit of God were on two opposite ends of the spectrum.
Therefore, you could only have one of the two: God or happiness.
As I studied this subject a bit more, I realized I wasn’t
the first person to have arrived at this conclusion. People all throughout
history have arrived at similar conclusions, but none more obvious and
influential than Immanuel Kant. Although Kant had no appreciation for
Christianity, he was very interested in the philosophy of morals and ethics. He
drew the conclusion that the most moral act a person could perform was one in
which he not only intended to receive no benefit, but actually received no
benefit.[1]
According to many Christian theologians, to pursue God is to
pursue the highest form of morality. If we apply Kant’s philosophy of ethics to
the pursuit of God, we draw the conclusion that when we pursue God, we are not
permitted to receive benefit from this pursuit, lest it diminish the moral value
of this pursuit. In this way of thinking, the pursuit of God and the pursuit of
happiness stand in opposition to one another.
This belief is rampant among American Christians. They work
really hard to do what they do, simply because it is their duty as Christians,
without expecting to receive any benefit, whether physical or spiritual, from
their actions.
Is this what the Bible, the authoritative book of
Christianity, says, or have today’s Christians unknowingly confused Kantian
ethics with biblical ethics?
How Could These Pursuits Be One in the Same?
A Bible verse that stands out as appearing to agree with
Kantian ethics is this one from the Gospel of Luke, “But love your enemies, and
do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return…”[2]
Another one is, “[Love] is not self-seeking…”[3] If
all we had to work with was these two partial Bible verses, we’d have to agree
with Kant that the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of God are on opposite ends
of the spectrum.
But what happens when we read the entire Bible? Would we
draw the same conclusion? If the pursuit of God and the pursuit of happiness
are opposites, then how do we explain this verse? “You make known to me the
path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are
pleasures forever more.”[4] According
to David, the writer of this Psalm, we will experience everlasting pleasure in
the presence of God. Pleasure is a benefit, is it not? If God demands the
highest morality, and the highest morality can only be achieved by receiving no
benefit, then something is seriously wrong with the picture this verse paints
for us.
Or how about these verses which Jesus spoke: “Truly I say to
you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or
children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times
more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”[5]
Jesus promised his disciples great rewards for following him. Again, this
sounds drastically different than Kantian ethics.
Or what about this final example: “If I give away all I
have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain
nothing.”[6] It
appears that Paul, the writer of this verse, is saying that the reason he would
be willing to give away all he has and deliver up his body to be burned is
because of a benefit he might gain from it. Essentially what he’s saying is, “What’s
the point in doing all those things if I don’t gain something from it?” Paul
was expecting to receive benefit from his actions.
Over and over throughout the Bible, God promises great
rewards to his people. Even in the verse I quoted earlier from Luke 6, the
verse ends by promising reward for loving our enemies, doing good, and lending,
expecting nothing in return.[7]
According to the Bible, the pursuit of God and the pursuit
of happiness are not on opposite ends of the spectrum. Actually, the Bible
tells us that the greatest happiness we can ever find will be found in our
pursuit of God, not because he gives us a bunch of stuff to make us happy, but
because he gives us himself.
Is the Pursuit of Happiness the Same as the Pursuit of God?
Before I wrap up, I want to answer this final question because
of a common misunderstanding I’ve observed when discussing this topic: Is the
pursuit of happiness the same as the pursuit of God?
When we think of achieving happiness, typically we picture
having lots of money, lots of nice stuff, a successful career, and a healthy
family. I’ve seen people who have all that stuff, yet they’re still not happy.
And I’ve seen people with none of that stuff, yet they’re happy. All of these
things are not really necessary in order to find happiness, nor is gaining great
amounts of those things going to guarantee happiness.
It seems that the more we have, the more we want. Enough is
never enough. With every milestone we hit, we experience a brief period of
happiness, but then it quickly fades as we began setting our sights towards the
next major milestone. No matter how much money we have, how many toys we have,
how successful of a career we have, or how healthy of a family we have, we will
never be completely happy with all that stuff. We will always feel unfulfilled.
This feeling of unfulfillment is what philosophers Blaise
Pascal and C.S. Lewis called a void. They both agreed that this void could only
be filled by an infinite and immutable object.[8]
The only infinite and immutable object which exists is God, the creator,
sustainer, and sovereign ruler of the universe.
Do you want to experience everlasting happiness? Pursue God.
Your pursuit of happiness will be achieved in your pursuit of God.
I’ll warn you up front that when you pursue God, you’re
initially probably not going to like the ways he works in your life. He’ll
probably take away some, and maybe even all, of the things in which you currently
seek happiness. But I can tell you both from my experience and from the
experience of countless others that losing these things is going to be the best
thing that ever happened to you because it will allow you to experience a much greater
level of happiness than the happiness you currently find in all your stuff. The
happiness we’ll receive from gaining God far surpasses the happiness we’ll
receive from anyone or anything else in this life.[9]
[1] Ayn
Rand, For the Intellectual (New York:
Signet, 1961), 32.
[2]
Luke 6:35 (ESV).
[3] 1
Corinthians 13:5 (NIV).
[4]
Psalms 16:11 (ESV).
[5]
Luke 18:29-30 (ESV).
[6] 1
Corinthians 13:3 (ESV).
[7] “But
love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your
reward will be great.” – Luke 6:35 (ESV)
[8] Blaise
Pascal, Pascal’s Pensees, trans. W.
F. Trotter (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1958), 113, thought #425.
[9] Much
of my thinking on this topic was inspired by John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, rev. ed.
(Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2011).
