My task in our series on the core values of Bethlehem College and Seminary is to unfold the core value of Christian Hedonism, which in turn will reveal that the motto of our school, “Education in Serious Joy,” is not cute but crucial.

But let’s begin where Jonathan Parnell left off last week. The core value of Bethlehem College and Seminary that Jonathan was unfolding for us was prayerful dependence. He came to the end by exulting in the fact that Jesus actually taught us how to pray. And he focused on the Lord’s Prayer. So let’s begin there.

Our Foremost Request

Matthew 6:9–10 says,

Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed [hagiasthētō] be your name.
Your kingdom come [elthetō],
your will be done [genēthētō],
     on earth as it is in heaven.”

These first three lines of the Lord’s Prayer are not acclamations; they are imperatives — third-person imperatives: hagiasthētō, elthetō, and genēthētō. But we don’t have third-person imperatives in English. Which is quite a challenge for Bible translators because the New Testament has 234 of them. Three of them are right here in the first three lines of the Lord’s Prayer.

I grew up thinking the first three lines of the Lord’s Prayer were praise, and the last four were petitions: “Give us daily bread. Forgive our debts. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil.” But in fact, all seven lines are petitions. They are all imperatives addressed humbly but boldly to God. The first three are third-person imperatives.

Most third-person imperatives in the New Testament are translated into English by the word let, as in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Or here in the Lord’s Prayer, it would be, “Father, let your name be hallowed. Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done.” Using let is about as good as we can do in English. But it is risky because the word let in English usually means allow or permit, which is not what the third-person imperative means. We’re not praying, “Father, permit your name to be hallowed.”

What then are we saying? We are addressing the Father: “Our Father in heaven . . .” And we indirectly urge him to do something, urging him by an imperatival statement about his name, his kingdom, and his will. And the statement roughly is this: “Your name is to be hallowed. Your kingdom is to come. Your will is to be done.” The imperatival sense is that this is to be. This ought to be. It is right that it happen. It is fitting that it happen. And since we are saying this to God, the implication is this: “Step in, Father. Make it be.” So, the third-person imperative accomplishes two things: first, it draws out the rightness and fitness and the ultimate propriety of God’s name being hallowed; and second, it lays that before our Father with the implicit urging: “Make it happen.”

So, when I pray the Lord’s Prayer, I always think, even if I don’t use the words, “Father cause your name to be hallowed. Cause your kingdom to come. Cause your will to be done.” These are petitions, urgings, not acclamations. Which then immediately implies that the very first thing, the primary thing, Jesus says we should pursue from God is that God cause the name of God to be hallowed. That is the first and ultimate goal of the Lord’s Prayer — the hallowing of God’s name by the omnipotent initiative of God.

God’s Name Set Apart

And what is “hallowing”? The word is hagiazō — to sanctify, to regard as holy, to treat as holy, or to reverence as holy. And the basic meaning of holy is set apart. Set apart the name, not because it is worthless, but because it is infinitely precious in its beauty and greatness and worth. God is holy in that he is in a class by himself. He is one of a kind — like the rarest and most valuable diamond behind bulletproof glass in a special room at the museum with guards standing by. The point is that God is so great, beautiful, valuable, pure, and transcendent that humans ought to stand in awe of God. Isaiah 29:23 says, “When [Jacob] sees his children, the work of my hands . . . they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.”

So, the petition, “Cause your name to be hallowed [sanctified],” means, “Cause your name — your reputation, your very self — to be revered, feared, honored, valued, glorified, praised, exalted, and treasured. Do that, Father. Do it in me, in this school, in the TCT churches, in the whole Christian movement, in the world.” That’s the way I pray the Lord’s Prayer. We plead with God to exalt God, to make much of God. We ask God to glorify God.

Soil of God-Centeredness

So, the very first, and primary, petition of the Lord’s Prayer is to urge God to make much of God — to urge God to be about the purpose of glorifying God in this world.

And if you are saying, “I thought you were going to unfold Christian Hedonism,” here’s the connection: this is where Christian Hedonism was born. It was born from the God-centeredness of God. It was born from the discovery in the Lord’s Prayer and hundreds of other places that God’s ultimate purpose in all things is that God be glorified. Christian Hedonism began with the radical, jarring, pride-smashing reality that God is passionate, above all things, for God, not me. “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name” (Ezekiel 36:22). “The heavens are telling the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). Why? Because God made the heavens to do that. He made everything — he does everything — to reveal his glory, his greatness, his beauty, and his worth.

Christian Hedonism grew up in the soil of the God-centeredness of God. Isaiah 43:6–7 says, “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.” God created you for the glory of God. And of the Son it says, “All things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). The Son of God created all things for the Son of God — to make much of the Son of God.

God is fiery jealous for the glory of his name. “Behold, I have . . . tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 48:10–11). And Paul shows us in Ephesians 1:6, 11–12, that God chose and predestined us “to the praise of the glory of his grace” and that God works all things according to the counsel of his will “to the praise of his glory.” He seals us with the Holy Spirit “to the praise of his glory.” And 72 times in the prophet Ezekiel, over and over, he says, “that they may know that I am Yahweh” — the “I Am,” the God who absolutely is. Romans 11:36 says, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever.”

At your age, I entered a God-besotted world, a God-entranced world, a world where man was dethroned. “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales. . . . All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.” (Isaiah 40:15, 17). That statement does not undermine the love of God for the nations; it makes it amazing.

Not to Us, O Lord

The burning question for me became, How can I join God in his ultimate purpose — namely, to glorify his own name? How can I act and speak and think and feel in such a way as to make much of God? “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Join God in making much of God in all your acting, speaking, thinking, and feeling. But how? That was and is the burning question.

I don’t want to be like king Herod. Acts 12:23 says, “Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.” I want to march under the flag of Psalm 115:1, which says, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory!” “Hallowed be your name in my life, in our school.” How?

The biblical answer of Christian Hedonism can be discovered by posing to yourself a sequence of questions. Suppose you are ushered into the presence of God with the profound awareness that now is the time, above all times, when he must be honored, hallowed, and glorified in your life. What shall you do?

I will bow to him. Yes, that is good. I will communicate with my body that he is honored. I will bend low. But suppose, as you bow, there is on your face a concealed sneer. Others don’t see it. God does. And he knows this outward action of the body is not an honor to him, but a charade.

“The message of Christian Hedonism is not that you are permitted to pursue your joy in God, but that you must.”

Then suppose that you go beyond the outward act of your body, and you resolve to say with your voice, “God, you are great and beautiful and worthy.” Yes, that is good. I will communicate with my voice that he is honored. But suppose, as you speak, the thoughts in your mind are otherwise: “He is not great, he is not beautiful, and he is not worthy.” Others don’t see your thoughts. But God does. And he knows these worshipful words of yours are not an honor to him, but a pretense. He is not honored. His name is not hallowed. He is not glorified in you.

Then suppose you go beyond the physical charade and the vocal pretense, and you actually think rightly: “God is great, God is beautiful, and God is worthy.” Yes, that is good. I will communicate with my thoughts that he is honored, glorified, and hallowed. But what if, as you are thinking rightly, your heart objects and whispers quietly, “Yes but I don’t like it. This greatness and beauty and worth do not make me happy. It irks me. I prefer a different kind of greatness and beauty and worth.” Others don’t see your heart objecting. But God does. And he knows that these right thoughts of yours (“God is great, God is beautiful, and God is worthy”) are not an honor to him, but a begrudged obligation. He is not honored. His name is not hallowed. He is not glorified in you — by your right actions, your right words, and your right thoughts.

Something decisive (crucial!) is missing from this worship in the presence of God. What we do with our bodies is not decisive. What we say with our voice is not decisive. What we think with our minds is not decisive. Jesus describes what is missing and what is decisive for glorifying God: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me” (Matthew 15:8). The heart is decisive. What does that mean?

The Heart Honors What It Enjoys

Here are two actions of the heart in Matthew.

Jesus said to the lawyer, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). And be sure to “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. . . . For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:20–21). The heart is the organ of treasuring — the organ of feeling value and worth, the organ of cherishing beauty, the organ of exultation at the greatness of God. And in that way, the heart is decisive in glorifying God. In its feeling the worth of God, treasuring the value of God, cherishing the beauty of God, exulting in the greatness of God, and loving God as God, the heart is decisive.

So, when we stand in the presence of God, yes, we will bow with our bodies, we will speak words of praise with our voices, and we will think true thoughts about God’s greatness and beauty and worth. And in that moment, our hearts will not be far away. We will feel, brothers and sisters, the worth of God, cherish his beauty, and exult in his greatness. We will enjoy God. And that is decisive! Enjoying God as God transforms right thinking, and right speaking, and right acting into worship. God is not rightly glorified until he is rightly enjoyed. The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever.

Which means God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

That is the lynchpin, the cornerstone, of Christian Hedonism. Because, if that sentence is reality — if the enjoyment of God is the decisive element in magnifying the worth of God — then the pursuit of our fullest and longest pleasure (pleasure in God) becomes the driving force of our lives.

Hedonism is a life devoted to the pursuit of pleasure. Christian hedonism is a life devoted to the pursuit of pleasure in all that God is for us in Christ. Psalm 16:11 is the flag we follow. It reads, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

If God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied him, the pursuit of that satisfaction is an absolute obligation laid on us by God’s passion for God. The message of Christian Hedonism is not that you are permitted to pursue your joy in God, but that you must. Delight becomes your duty. The essence of Christian Hedonism is not first that you delight in your duties, but that delight is your duty. Being satisfied in God becomes the pursuit and power of your life — the aim and the energy of your life.

The Relentless Pursuit of Joy in God

So, consider with me seven biblical arguments in support of the duty of pursuing our greatest and longest pleasure — in God. Consider the biblical call to the vocation of Christian Hedonism.

First, the pursuit of joy in God is not a suggestion in the Bible; it is a command, over and over again. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” (Psalm 32:11). “Serve the Lord with gladness” (Psalm 100:2). “Delight yourself in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4). Since glorifying God in all we do is commanded, therefore joy in God, which glorifies God, is commanded.

Second, to quote Jeremy Taylor, God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy. “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart . . . therefore you shall serve your enemies” (Deuteronomy 28:47–48). We are commanded to pursue our joy in God and warned what will happen if we don’t.

Third, the essence of evil is to abandon delight in God and pursue it elsewhere. Jeremiah 2:12–13 says,

Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
     be shocked, be utterly desolate,
     declares the Lord,
for 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.

God offers himself as all-satisfying, and we do not find him satisfying but replace him with emptiness and call it pleasure. That means we must pursue satisfaction in God, lest we be defined by C.S. Lewis’s indictment:

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (The Weight of Glory, 26)

The vocation of every Christian is to pursue better pleasures.

Fourth, the meaning of conversion to Christ is the God-given awakening of delight in the value of God. Matthew 13:44 says,

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then from his joy [apo tēs charas] he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Conversion is the heartfelt discovery that God is more satisfying than all earthly gain. The steadfast love of the Lord is “better than life” (Psalm 63:3).

Fifth, there is no true love for people that does not flow from joy in God. To forsake the pursuit of that joy is to forsake the path of love. The grace of God was experienced by the Macedonians, and this was the result. Paul says, “In a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity” (2 Corinthians 8:2). Love is the overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others, even if it costs us our lives.

Sixth, that leads to the paradoxical discovery that Jesus’s demand for self-denial is a demand to pursue our joy in him, not short-lived self-indulgence.

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mark 8:34–35)

This is a command for you to save your life by losing it. This is pure Christian Hedonism. He says, “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” So save it! And enter into the joy of your Master. Jonathan Edwards put it like this:

Whoever has tried self-denial can give in his testimony that they never experience greater pleasure and joys than after great acts of self-denial. Self-denial destroys the very root and foundation of sorrow, and is nothing else but the lancing of a grievous and painful sore that effects a cure and brings abundance of health as a recompense for the pain of the operation.

Seventh, it is our Christian duty to pursue our joy in God because pursuing Christlikeness is our duty (1 Corinthians 11:1), and Christ endured the cross “for the joy that was set before him” (Hebrews 12:2). Christ’s death on the cross was the greatest act of love that was ever performed, and it was performed by a Christian Hedonist. Christ knew that in his Father’s presence was fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. And he knew that is what we would find when he brought us there at the cost of his life. “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18) — in whose presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

The center of Christianity is the gospel. The center of the gospel is the cross of Christ. And that cross was endured by Christ in the pursuit of joy in God, both for himself and for us.

One United Purpose

In summary, then, the foundation of Christian Hedonism is the reality that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. And the vocation of Christian Hedonism is the lifelong enjoyment and pursuit of that satisfaction in him. God’s passion for his glory and our passion to be happy are not at odds. In fact, when they arrive at their final perfection in the age to come, they will be not two but one passion.

By describing your experience here at Bethlehem College and Seminary as an “education in serious joy,” we aim to help you find and fulfill that vocation. One of our flawed heroes, whom we love, and from whom we learned our Christian Hedonism, is Jonathan Edwards. So, I am going to let him have the last word:

[God] infinitely values his own glory, consisting in the knowledge of himself, love to himself, . . . and joy in himself. . . . And it is because he values himself, that he delights in the knowledge, and love, and joy of the creature, as being himself the object of this knowledge, love and complacence. . . [Thus] God’s respect to the creature’s good, and his respect to himself, is not a divided respect; but both are united in one, as the happiness of the creature aimed at, is happiness in union with himself.