Is God opposed to pleasure?
No — but it matters profoundly what kind of pleasure and where it leads. Scripture distinguishes sharply between pleasure rooted in self-will and pleasure that flows from God Himself. God is not an opponent of joy; He is its source.
Pleasure at God's Right Hand
The Psalms reveal that God Himself is the fountain of everlasting pleasure. L.M. Grant writes on Psalm 16:
L.M. Grant"The path of life" has led Him into fullness of joy in the presence of God, now at God's right hand enjoying pleasures forevermore (v. 11). Precious Lord!
Far from opposing pleasure, God holds out "pleasures forevermore" at His own right hand — an eternal delight for those who walk the path of life.
"The Pleasures of Sin" Are Only for a Season
Yet there is a pleasure Scripture warns against — the passing pleasures of sin. The example of Moses is telling. In a paper on his life, the writer notes:
The Word says that the "pleasures of sin," as real as they may seem, are only for a time; "but he that does the will of God abides for eternity" (1 John 2:17). Moses' renunciation and choice would later confer on him the authority necessary to ask others, especially his own people, to do the same in their measure.
Moses chose affliction with the people of God over the temporary enjoyments of Pharaoh's court — not because pleasure itself was evil, but because those pleasures were bound up with sin and would perish.
"He Who Loves Pleasure Will Be a Poor Man"
L.M. Grant draws a practical moral from Proverbs 21:17:
L.M. Grant"He who loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich" (v. 17). In fact, concerning the woman of this kind we are told, "She who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives" (1 Tim. 5:6). How much better to be a follower of the Lord Jesus who was "a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (Isa. 53:3). For His sorrow and grief was only temporary, with results of eternal joy. Indeed, in suffering with Him, we inherit eternal riches.
The contrast is not between joy and joylessness, but between temporary, self-centered pleasure that ends in poverty and suffering with Christ that issues in eternal joy.
God's "Good Pleasure" in His People
God not only has pleasure to give — He takes pleasure in His people. Hamilton Smith writes on Philippians 2:
Hamilton SmithIt is God that works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Not only does God enable us to do His pleasure but He can make us willing, so that to do His pleasure becomes our delight.
We are not surprised, when Jesus was here, that God opened the heavens to express His delight and good pleasure in His beloved Son; but that it is possible for such poor things as ourselves to be here for His pleasure is indeed a wonder and a triumph of grace.
God's own "good pleasure" is the spring of everything He does — and that pleasure rests upon His people when the lowly character of Christ is reproduced in their lives.
God's Feasts — His Own Delight
The very concept of "feasts" in Leviticus 23 shows a God who delights in fellowship with His redeemed. George Davison explains:
George DavisonHis feasts, seasons of a festive character when His people can gather round Him and minister to Him something for the delight of His heart of love. Now He seeks to touch our hearts with a word like this — "my set feasts." ... Not for ever seeking Him for what we can get, nor even praising Him for what we have got but to give to Him in praise and worship that which ever delights the heart of our God.
God is a God of feasts, not a God of mere prohibitions. He invites His people into shared joy.
The World's Pleasure vs. Christ
W. Kelly crystallizes the contrast:
W. KellySettled down in the earth as it is, men seek present pleasure, worldly honour, earthly advantages. What did this age give Christ? A manger when born, nowhere to lay His head, and a cross to die on. What does Christ give to him that believes? Eternal life, and everlasting redemption.
The world's pleasures are a dead end. Christ gave up every earthly comfort and received a cross; yet out of that cross flows eternal life and everlasting redemption — a joy beyond anything the world can offer.
Ecclesiastes: The Gift of God
Even the Preacher, who declared "all is vanity," acknowledged that simple enjoyment of life is a gift from God's own hand. W. Kelly quotes Ecclesiastes 5:
W. Kelly"Behold, that which I have seen to be good and to be comely is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labour, wherein he labours under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him: for this is his portion. Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God. For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answers him with the joy of his heart."
Even "under the sun," the capacity to enjoy God's gifts is itself a gift of God. He "answers him with the joy of his heart."
The Heart Too Great for the Object
J.N. Darby puts the whole question beautifully, contrasting Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon:
J.N. DarbyIn Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, "There is no good thing under the sun"; "All is vanity and vexation of spirit." Why so? To him, self was seeking its own satisfaction. Here, then, was no rest, no peace; it could not be otherwise. No human object could satisfy an immortal soul... Yet, when thinking of himself, it was all I, I, I... but in Canticles we see all his blessedness, because he speaks of Christ being all to him there. As it has been said, in Ecclesiastes the heart was too great for the object; in Canticles the object is too great for the heart. We want a largeness of capacity for the enjoyment of God Himself; a largeness of capacity which none but God can give and none but God can fill. Where that is, "life and peace" are.
This is the key. God is not opposed to pleasure — He is opposed to the tragic attempt to fill an immortal soul with things too small for it. The heart was too great for the object — that is the verdict on worldly pleasure. But when God Himself becomes the object, the heart can never exhaust Him. The problem was never that we wanted too much joy, but that we looked for it in the wrong place.
God is emphatically not opposed to pleasure. He is its Author, its Giver, and its fullest expression. He ordained feasts for the joy of His people; He "answers" the heart "with joy"; He works in believers "both to will and to do of His good pleasure." What God does oppose is the settling of the heart on passing, self-centered pleasures that leave the soul impoverished and cut off from Him. The pleasures of sin are "for a season"; the pleasures at God's right hand are forever. As Darby so memorably put it, the world's pleasures fail not because we desire too much, but because the objects are too small. When Christ Himself becomes the soul's delight, the object is at last too great for the heart, and only then do we find what we were made for: life and peace.