In 2 Timothy 3 the apostle Paul  gives us a description of the times in which we live, the "last days,'' the days between the first and second coming of Christ. He ends the list of descriptive words with these words "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (v. 4). What an apt description of the twenty-first century! When you walk into Sam's Club or Costco the first thing you see is the big screen TVs. When you leave the stores like Target and Walmart, you find the latest releases on CD and DVD right next to the Hershey's bars. In this context it is crucial for Christians to reflect on the place of pleasure in our lives. We must ask ourselves: What are godly or innocent pleasures that we can and must pursue? What are guilty or sin-stained pleasures that we must put off? In the following articles we will seek to answer these questions. First we will look at what constitutes innocent pleasure and see how at times we twist and taint them. We will also look at guilty pleasures — how to identify them and how to fight against them. Our goal is to analyze the place of pleasure in our Christian lives and provide guidance to living as "lovers of God rather than lovers of pleasure."

Pleasure and the Christian⤒🔗

The pursuit of pleasure occupies the highest of priorities in our culture. Much of our time is spent trying to entertain ourselves with our big screen TVs, home entertainment systems, amusement parks, mega movie theaters, and snowmobiles. Many people live only for the weekends. Many only work so that they can have money to entertain themselves. As Christians we have not been unaffected by this excessive drive for entertainment.

In the climate in which we live it is absolutely essential that we reflect critically on the place of pleasure in our lives. Many Christians react to our culture by denying the legitimacy of entertainment. They say that we must focus only on the spiritual issues and do our duty. We must withdraw from this culture before we are polluted. This approach to our culture is problematic on at least two accounts.

First of all, it denies the radical reality of sin. Simplistically, this view teaches that sin is located in the entertainment culture, so if we avoid this culture we avoid sin. This is a denial of the radical nature of sin, which is always located in the human heart. Sin is not outside of us but inside. To withdraw from the world is not the same as dealing with sin. When the apostle John urges us to fight against the world, he points to the world in our hearts:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:15-17; cf. James 4:4

We must guard against the worldliness of our own hearts. This is not done by fleeing out of this world, but by crucifying the sinful nature and putting on the new man in Christ even in the area of entertainment.

The second problem with this approach is even more dangerous. To advocate withdrawal is a denial of God's original good creation. It is to attack the Creator himself when we withdraw. The psalmist reminds us in Psalm 24:1 "The earth is the LORD'S, and all its fullness." Everything in this world is from God; every good and perfect gift is from God. Recreation is a gift from God. It is a most wonderful gift that provides us so much pleasure and joy. It also is a great source of rest for so many who are overwhelmed by the burdens of life, allowing us to catch our breath in this restless world. We must not deny ourselves or others the legitimate pleasures in life that God has given because some people are prone to abuse these good gifts of God. This is the perennial human problem: we are creatures of extremes. We react to one extreme with another.

Since the approach of withdrawal is problematic, what should our approach to recreation be? Instead of falling for the defective approach that our culture pursues, we must examine what pleasure truly is and enter our culture with the bigger and brighter pleasures that God offers. We must be people who are truly able to have pleasure without being consumed by the pursuit of pleasure. Even in this area we must be light and salt in our culture.

What is Innocent Pleasure?←⤒🔗

Consider your own life for a moment. What are the truly innocent pleasures you delight in? Make a short list if you want. The innocent pleasures in your life can be gotten at by asking yourself the following questions: What gives me simple pleasure? What truly refreshes me? Where do I lay my cares down? What are the pleasures in my life that leave no lingering guilt? Innocent pleasures leave no tarnish, no blemish. They are truly blissful pleasures.

What are the kinds of things that are truly innocent? Here are a few things I have come up with: Watching a sunset or sunrise, enjoying a good breakfast, wrestling with my sons, visiting with a friend, drinking a warm cup of strong coffee, reading a good book, spending time with my wife, watching a good movie. Innocent pleasures are often unique to us. What is pleasurable for one is not necessarily pleasurable for another.

Innocent pleasures are often ordinary things in life that bring us a moment of joy as we simply delight ourselves in them. There are actually many occasions in our lives to enjoy such moments of pure, unstained pleasure. But one of the big problems with our culture in its excessive, restless search for entertainment is that it strips these moments of pure simple pleasure of their God-given joy, because they don't seem to measure up to the thrill-standard that we have set for ourselves. Today we are pressed to go for the thrill, and the thrill drains out of our lives all the small, innocent moments of pleasure that surround us at every moment.

Another enemy of innocent pleasures in our lives is our own tendency to use these innocent pleasures in ways that are not so innocent. We often turn them into escape hatches. We look to them to provide us an escape from the pressures of life. The typical pressures we want to escape are boredom or loneliness, stress or frustration, and the hurt and pain caused by others who treat us unfairly. What do we do? We become excessive TV and movie freaks; we begin to snack excessively; we seek emotional comfort from food or animals. The list goes on and on. Think about this: What are the situations in your life that drive you to seek an escape? How do you seek to escape them? What "innocent pleasures" do you look to for your comfort?

What is the problem with looking to these things to provide us with an escape from the stresses of life? The problem is that we are looking toward pleasures to provide us what God alone can provide. We are in this way exchanging the Creator for the creature. This is idolatry; it is to exchange the truth of God for the lie, and to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). When we look toward food to bring us emotional healing when we have been hurt or frustrated, we are exchanging the creature for what God alone can supply. When we make idols of innocent pleasures, we destroy those pleasures, because we are seeking from them far more than they can supply. It is no wonder they leave us so empty.

The antidote to this tendency of ours to inflate "innocent pleasures" is to come to God, the source of purest pleasure. The psalmist leads the way when he says: "In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (16:11). This is what we need to learn to say. We must learn to say with Asaph in Psalm 73:25-26:

Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

God is the greatest and purest pleasure our soul can delight and rest in. We must rest and delight ourselves in Him. When God is our biggest pleasure, then all the little pleasures fall into place as well. When our delight is in God, then we will also take true delight in the innocent pleasures in life, because then we will not look to these gifts to provide what is ultimately to be found only in the Giver of all pleasures. When God is on the pleasure-throne then all the other pleasures in life take their place, and we are able to enjoy them abundantly.

What are Guilty Pleasures?←⤒🔗

Guilty pleasures are those pleasures in life that leave us stained. After we have indulged in them, they leave us feeling dirty, guilty, or just empty. These pleasures never leave us without some discomfort, uneasiness and restlessness. They always leave a stain behind. Some of these guilty pleasures are easy to identify: lust, gluttony (overeating), and sloth (laziness). But there are more subtle ones. We spoke of our tendency to turn innocent pleasures into guilty ones when we begin to use them as escape hatches from the pressures in life. When we look to these pleasures to provide us with some kind of escape from the stresses, the pains, the lonely moments of life, we turn the innocent pleasures into guilty ones because we look to them to supply us with what God alone can supply. Think of recreational shopping for a moment. No longer do we shop because we need something; we are shopping merely for the fun of shopping. Shopping itself becomes the means by which we give meaning to our lives. Or take our tendency to snack between meals — eating for emotional comfort or merely for the sake of eating. Do you see the subtlety of such misuses of good things? Things that by themselves are perfectly good can become huge stumbling blocks in our lives.

So how can we spot the guilty pleasures in our lives? How do you know when something has crossed the line from an innocent pleasure to a guilty pleasure? When do you know that something that is innocent in and of itself, is used in an impure and unholy way by you? Here are five guidelines to assess the pleasures in your life and to see whether they have crossed over the line. It is a guilty pleasure . . .

1. When it is obviously wrong: Those things that God in his Word expressly condemns are obviously guilty pleasures. Lusting after a woman, delighting in pornography (Matthew 5:27-31), abusing alcohol or drugs (Luke 21:34; Ephesians 5:15-18), delighting in telling stories about others (1 Timothy 5:13), all of these and many more God explicitly forbids. Therefore, examine your lives.
   
   Do you take pleasure in some things that God has expressly forbidden?
    
2. When it controls you: When it has taken you captive. You obsess about it. It is constantly in your mind. You delight to dream about it. It consumes your time and seems to be irresistible. It has become an obsession. Lust obviously has this powerful influence on people. But shopping or anything else that seems to be constantly on your mind can also take you captive. It owns you!
   
   What are the things in your life that dominate your time, your thoughts, and your desires?
    
3. When you hide it from others: You will spot those guilty pleasures in your life by looking at those things you delight in secretly. You do them covertly so that no one can see you. It is those things you hide from your spouse or closest friends because you know that they are illegitimate pleasures. You feel ashamed and embarrassed to acknowledge that you take pleasure in them. But remember it is part of the powerful sway of these sinful pleasures in our lives to be hidden and unacknowledged. Because they are hidden, they can operate with freedom and power. For us to break free from these guilty pleasures we must begin by claiming them and acknowledging them to ourselves, to others, and above all to God!
   
   What are those pleasures in your life that you hide from those closest to you?
    
4. When it hinders your duty: When it steals away from the good things you should be doing, then you know you are dealing with a guilty pleasure. You neglect to do something good because you could not resist indulging your secret pleasures. It is a guilty pleasure when you persistently fail to do your homework or daily devotions because you would rather spend the time surfing the Internet, watching television, or               (you fill in the blank).
   
   What are the pleasures that hinder you most in doing good?
    
5. When it doesn't deliver what it promises: Sinful pleasures offer us great things. Pornography offers us the rush, the sexual titillation, without the messy emotional relationship that marriage brings. Recreational shopping promises to fill your life with meaning and purpose. You are empowered by all the decisions you have to make, and you are able to define yourself by what you buy. But the promises of sin are always deceiving. Sinful pleasures are unable to deliver what they promise. The sexual rush that pornography brings and the meaning and purpose that shopping brings leave us void and empty afterwards. It causes a great cloud of guilt to hang over our heads. An idolatrous pleasure by its very nature cannot deliver what it promises, because it promises something that only God can supply: true lasting joy and purpose in life. All that these pleasures can supply are pale imitations of God's gifts, and therefore they always leave us empty.
   
   So what are those things in your life that you expect will provide you with pleasure but instead always leave you feeling empty and disappointed?

Take these five guidelines and examine your life. Pray that the Lord will help you to search your heart to discover what guilty pleasures you hide in your heart. Ask the Lord to help you to deal with them.

How to Fight Against Guilty Pleasures←⤒🔗

In this broken, sin-cursed world we will never have peace. We long for peace. Often we settle for a false peace in our desire to avoid the struggle by indulging in sinful escapes. But this will not suffice. The Christian is always at war in this fallen world. This also applies to our pleasures. What strategy can we implement to fight against guilty pleasures and to put them away from us? There are essentially five things I want to highlight in this struggle:

1. Take a break: After you have identified a guilty pleasure in your life, take a deliberate break for one week. We begin with a short break, which, after initial success we will extend more and more. So take a short fast for a week to begin. Resist it. Cease to indulge in it for a time. See what happens. You will most likely encounter a fierce struggle. You will find yourself desiring, craving and wanting to indulge more and more. It is possible that you will become obsessed with what you have denied yourself. You will discover an almost overpowering desire for it. This is not unlike what an addict feels. These addictive cravings are present in every sinful human heart that looks to something in creation to provide what God alone can give. This experience is clear to see in major issues like gambling, pornography, alcohol, or drug abuse. But when you declare a fast from chocolate or snacking or video games, you will experience a similar struggle. This is a sign of an idolatrous pleasure! Begin by resisting. Do not let weariness overcome you; listen to the encouragement from Hebrews 12:4 (ESV): 

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

2. Understand your weakness: In this struggle notice when and why you are most likely to fail. Why do you seek such an escape hatch? Some of us indulge in guilty pleasures because we are bored. We have nothing to do, so we snack. Some of us do it because we want emotional support. We feel lonely, angry, and frustrated, so we indulge in food, shopping, or movies. Sometimes we indulge because we give ourselves a reward for doing something well or completing a task. You get the idea. What are the things, the patterns, and the emotions that trigger your desire for that guilty pleasure? What gives you "permission" to indulge? You will never be able to fight against these sinful pleasures in your life if you do not see the patterns that lead into it.

3. Understand the power of the cross over sin: When you have felt the intensity of the struggle and have seen your particular patterns that lead you into sin, it will become clear that you are not able to fight this fight by yourself. Our power and strength is insufficient for this war. What you need is to fight against these pleasures by the cross of Christ. You must understand the gospel and how it speaks to these pleasures in our lives. Listen to the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 6:5-11:

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul is saying that the Christian is united with Christ in his death and resurrection. So when Christ died, the believer died. When Christ was made alive, the believer was made alive. Here we have the central principle that helps us to fight guilty pleasures in our lives. We must understand that we have died to them. We are no longer enslaved to them because Christ died to sin, and in him we also died to sin. So now we must consider ourselves dead to this sin. We are alive also in righteousness to live for God. We have the power to break with these powerful sin-stained pleasures in our lives. In this struggle — and it will be a fierce struggle — we are totally dependent upon Jesus Christ. In two expressions in Galatians Paul set forth chat should be our battle cry: First, "have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (2:20) Second, "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (6:14). In both these statements Paul makes clear that his hope lies in Christ. In his death, the world is crucified to the believer and the believer to the world. The believer no longer lives in sin but through the life-giving power of Christ. So here we have the answer to those soul destroying pleasures.

4. Cultivate the superior pleasure in Christ: We must also begin to see the bigger picture. Since we are creatures made with a thirst and longing for the living God, our longing cannot be satisfied with anything in this creation. The more we seek to quench this thirst with something in creation, the more we thirst. The longing only intensifies because no creature can satisfy this God-longing of the human soul. This is why we must cultivate and encourage ourselves to see the superior soul-satisfying pleasure that is found in knowing Christ. Paul's attitude in Philippians 3 should become our own: "Yet indeed I also count all things as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ... that I may gain Christ and be found in Him ... that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection." (v.8-10). The following stanzas from the hymn by Johann Franck, "Jesus, Priceless Treasure,'' captures this supreme joy in Christ well (441 Psalter Hymnal):

Jesus, priceless treasure,
Source of purest pleasure,
Truest Friend to me:
Ah, how long I've panted
And my heart has fainted,
Thirsting, Lord, for Thee.
Thine I am, O spotless Lamb!
I will suffer
Naught to hide Thee,
Naught I ask beside Thee.
Hence with earthly treasure!
Thought art all my pleasure,
Jesus, all my choice.
Hence, thou empty glory!
Naught to me thy story,
Told with tempting voice.
Pain or loss or shame or cross
Shall not from my Savior move me,
Since He deigns to love me.
Hence, all fear and sadness
For the Lord of gladness,
Jesus, enters in.
Those who love the Father,
Though the storms may gather,
Still have peace within.
Yea, whate'er I here must bear,
Thou art still my purest pleasure,
Jesus, priceless treasure.

This is the kind of joy in Christ we must cultivate. It is a joy that is not dependent upon our mood or circumstances in life. It is a total soul-filled delight in Christ.

There is another reason why we must cultivate this kind of joy in Christ to replace our delight and joy in guilty pleasures. Sin-stained pleasures battle against our joy in Christ and diminish our boast in Christ. We cannot and will not find Christ to be sweet, lovely and glorious when we seek joy and delight in sinful pleasures. So here we see that we do not have the option; we must confront these pleasures. They war against our love for Christ. They divide our loyalty and so rob Christ. Do you see the urgency and the necessity of dealing with these things?

When we make Christ our true leaser and rejoice in him as our priceless treasure, then all the other earthly pleasures fall into the right place, and we can enjoy them for what they truly are: gifts from the hand of a loving Father for the enjoyment and pleasure of his children. When we enjoy the gifts of God as gifts, glorifying God by our enjoyment of them, they take their rightful place. Rejoicing in God as the ultimate pleasure does not destroy earthly pleasures; it purifies and sanctifies them so that we truly get to enjoy this world!

5. Give yourself to others: This might seem to be a side issue, yet this is of the utmost importance. Jesus summarized the law of God as love for God and love for our neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40). Seeking our truest pleasure in God does not mean isolation from others. This would be profoundly unbiblical. Giving ourselves to God and giving ourselves to our neighbor are not mutually exclusive actions; they go together. When we are united to Jesus Christ, he also unites us with his people, the members of his body. This has profound implications for breaking with guilty pleasures. Notice that most, if not all, illicit pleasures are self-indulgent, self-centered acts. We pursue them in isolation. So to break with them it is important that we not only know them and break with them through the cross, replacing them with the superior joys of Christ, but it also requires that we give ourselves to serve others who need our help.

When we get involved with others, it will help us to find pure, innocent pleasure and fulfillment in the company of others, or it will help us find meaning in helping those in need, giving them pleasure. In contrast to the sin-stained pleasures that leave us empty, miserable, and guilty, these pleasures are truly meaningful, pure, and fulfilling. They bring us true joy and contentment. Being an active member in the local church is not killing pleasure but one of the means by which God gives pleasure to his people as they serve and give themselves to others.

And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35

Here we have set before us a strategy to fight against guilty pleasures in our lives. Each of us has a duty to fight against sinful, idolatrous pleasure. In this culture that is so bent on pleasure, we must stand strong in the gospel of Christ. May God help us to continue this struggle to treasure him as our exceeding joy (Psalm 43:4). The following words of John Newton's hymn, "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken" (402, Psalter Hymnal), are a final reminder of the superior joys Christians have:

Savior, if of Zion's city
I, through grace, a member am,
Let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in Thy Name.
Fading is the worldling's pleasure,
All His boasted pomp and show,
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion's children know.