- Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
- Written By Luke Gilkerson
- Categories: Lust - Fighting the Battle Back to Blog Home
Holy Pleasures Defeat Lust (thoughts from John Piper)
John Piper continues to wow me when it comes to explaining how true Christian faith defeats the slavery of pornography. This video is a marvelous excerpt explaining his reasoning behind this.
Piper’s ministry of “Christian hedonism” is this very thing: the stressing of delight over duty, of taking pleasure in God over mere performance. What Piper says here about defeating pornography is worth repeating:
“What will not fail, what will succeed over time is: ‘I am going to fight for a superior pleasure that severs the root of the lie that comes to me out of this monitor, that says I will be happier, I will experience more pleasure if I go there with this mouse than if I don’t go there.’ There has to be a superior pleasure, a triumph over lower pleasures by higher pleasures.”
This is something Piper mentions in his book Future Grace (chapter 27 is about “Faith in Future Grace vs. Lust”). The promises of the gospel impart to us new, greater promises than the lies of pornography. Real faith in Jesus is not just a one-time saving act. True faith continually believes in a God who rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). The great reward is, of course, an eternity with God Himself. And as we wait for Christ to return, we receive foretastes of our reward from the Holy Spirit in this life. It is this delight that expels the desire for porn.
True faith is a fighting faith, a faith that is ruthless for joy, not just the trinket pleasures of sin.
What do you think about this idea?
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For a Puritan treatment of this same idea, see sermon entitled “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection” by Scottish minister, Thomas Chalmers.
@Mark – I love that sermon. I quoted it heavily in another post: “How ‘Holy Lust’ Trumps Unholy Lust.” I loved when he said, “We know of no other way by which to keep the love of the world out of our heart, than to keep in our hearts the love of God.”
just reading your post about Piper is encouraging. i am fully agreed that Pleasure is not an option for us as men (and women) created in the image of God. Therefore, the question remains: what sorts of pleasures will we pursue?
If we fear our hearts and try to keep them on lockdown, denying that we are interested in pleasure, it will get corrupted and go underground (ie pornography).
If, however, we acknowledge that we are made to experience pleasures in a multiplicity of ways, we can then take that desire to God and have Him train our appetites.
thanks for posting,
james
I wrote a similar report about this subject but you did an improved job :)