The Supremacy of Christ and Joy in a Postmodern World by John Piper
The enjoyment of God above all else is the deepest way that God’s glory is reflected back to him.
The enjoyment of God terminates on God alone and is not performed as a means to anything else. It is the deepest reverberation in the heart of man of the value of God’s glory.
We can do good works as a means to many things. We can speak good words as a means to many things. We can think good thoughts as means to many things. But we cannot enjoy God as a means to anything. We don’t choose joy in God as an act for the sake of something beyond joy in God. That’s not the way joy works. You don’t enjoy your wife so that she will make your supper. You don’t enjoy playing ball with your son so that he will wash the car. You don’t enjoy a sunset so that you can become a poet. There are no so thats in the experience of joy.
It’s the very nature of joy to be a spontaneous response to something that you value. Joy comes to you. It rises spontaneously as witness to what you treasure. And therefore, it reveals more authentically than anything what your treasure is. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Joy is unique in its capacity to witness to what we treasure.
... there is much more to this if you follow the link ...
No comments:
Post a Comment