Recap of September 21 Class

Chapter Two/Lesson Three encouraged some lively discussion yesterday in class and I thought a recap of what we talked about would be useful to everyone (with a couple of extra thoughts from me). We all agreed that this was a challenging chapter.

The Pursuit of Happiness
This chapter specifically focused on the concept of happiness and the glory of God. What is happiness? All men and women seek after it. As Christians, we sometimes think that searching after personal happiness is selfish, or self-centered. Piper gives us the example of Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century American preacher who in his twenties wrote down some resolutions for his life, one of those being "to obtain for myself as much happiness...as I possibly can." (Page 29) Edwards was a committed man of God, and yet he saw the pursuit of happiness as a main focus of his life. Are those contradictory? What does this mean to us?

What does Scripture say?
Piper directs us to Scripture to find the answer about the pursuit of happiness. Again he reiterates that reading of scripture requires an objective perspective. We need to study scripture to determine what the Bible author was trying to tell the people he was writing to (scholars call this exegesis) and then find the meaning for us today (what scholars call hermeneutics). (Study guide: Question 13) If we turn to scripture we find that God is knowable through the life, ministry and death of Jesus Christ, and how important it is to use Christ's name when we speak of God.

Both Edwards and Piper come to the conclusion from scripture that God made the universe and all of its beauty for his own glory. Men and women find and enjoy amazing beauty in creation, such as the massive size of the Grand Canyon or the majesty of a mountain range like the Alps. No one visits these natural wonders and spends the entire time looking in a mirror. They spend the time marveling at the natural beauty and finding pleasure in it. God has created the beauty of the natural world for his glory. We find happiness in that natural beauty. You can almost write it out as a mathematical equation:

God + his creation = His Glory
God + his creation = Our happiness
God's Glory = Our happiness

We also discussed the painting gallery example on page 37 as describing this concept very well.

How do we define love?
The final element in this chapter is an explanation of God's love. How does the world define love? How does the Bible define love? The Bible defines it this way: love is doing what is best for someone. All the parents in the room knew this definition of love very well. To love God is to magnify him. But why does an all-powerful God need to be glorified? Isn't that egocentric? (Study guide: Question 7)

It would be egocentric for anyone but God to be loved in this way, especially considering the Biblical definition of love. Loving God and glorifying him is doing what is best for us. For many of us agreed with Piper's example on page 37: "No child complains 'I am being used' when his father delights to make the child happy with his own presence."

Whew! Thanks for reading and see you next Sunday, or sooner!

Susan