Five Statements That Summarize Christian Hedonism

John Piper writes:
- The longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful.
- We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy, as though it were a bad impulse. Instead we should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction.
- The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God.
- The happiness we find in God reaches its consummation when it expands to meet the needs of others in the manifold ways of love.
- To the extent we try to abandon the pursuit of our own pleasure, we fail to honor God and love people. Or, to put it positively: the pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and virtue.
Excerpted from the Desiring God Seminar, Part 1.