by Rick
Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg
My friend
Andy Lindgren put a good quote from John Piper on Facebook recently. It read "God
does not forbid sexual sin because he's a killjoy, but because he opposes what
kills joy."
I thought
that was an excellent quote and it got me to thinking of how I believe God
feels about sin in general. He hates it. The reason God hates sin is because of
the pain it brings into people's lives. A good definition for sin could be
"that which destroys those whom God loves".
I
find it surprising and perplexing when people seem to think (as John Piper’s
quote clearly implies) that God calls anything sin that would bring us joy.
This makes God out to be just that—a killjoy. And nothing could be farther from
the truth. As Piper’s full quote makes clear, God merely “opposes what kills
joy.”
God
created us so that laughter is some of the world’s best medicine. That’s an old
saying, but it is also a clear teaching of scripture as we can see from
Proverbs (17:22) where we read “A merry heart does good like medicine, but a
broken spirit dries up the bones.”
“The
joy of the Lord is my strength.” we are told in the book of Nehemiah (8:10).
When Nehemiah the governor asked Ezra the priest to read the book of the law
the people were so deeply moved that they wept as they worshiped the Lord. But
Nehemiah said to them “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some
to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not
grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Why
would God create us to respond so naturally to joy that laughter becomes our
best heart medicine and his joy is the source of superhuman strength if he is
not the God of good times, laughter and joy? He doesn’t want to ruin our days
by calling fun things sin, he wants to extend our joy by protecting us from
those behaviors, attitudes and outlooks that destroy our lives and cause us so
much pain. God’s hatred of sin comes out of his love for mankind. He created us
to be the recipients of his unconditional love and he wants us to experience
the good things of life, rather than those things that will at best brings us
pain and at its worst, totally destroy us.
As
John Piper said, “God does not forbid
sexual [or any] sin because he's a killjoy, but because he opposes what kills
joy."
God finds joy when he sees his
human creation experience his joy in every area of our lives and he is the source of our joy. When we find him, we find the joy of the Lord!
Thanks for the reminder
Andy!
I’m Rick Blumenberg and
that’s My View from Tanner Creek.
