In his book The Seven Deadly Virtues, Gerald Mann tells of his first exposure to Christianity at a revival he attended as a teenager. He writes of a man who gave “a blow-by-blow account of his former life on the ‘wild side.’ Graphically, he portrayed scenes of gang fights, heroin sales, and sexual liaisons with wanton sirens. . . . Then he told us of how Jesus had reached into the midst of all that muck and plucked him out of it. I am certain he didn’t intend to, but he made it sound as if Jesus had spoiled a rather exciting life!”
Though Mann later became a Christian and a pastor, it was a long time before he returned to church. According to his perception, Christianity meant giving up what’s fun. You might end up in Heaven, but to get there you have to live a hellish present life of saying no to all pleasure!
This twisted perspective is widespread and has left not only unbelievers but also Christians thinking we have only two choices:
- Holiness: Improperly understood to mean being somber, rejecting the enjoyment of material things, and giving up the fun unbelievers experience. If we go to church and obey the rules, holiness may pay off in Heaven . . . someday. Christians who hold to this moral standard feel superior—a small compensation for their lack of happiness.
- Happiness: Improperly understood to mean going wherever and doing whatever we want. By saying no to righteous living—labeled as “legalism”—these Christians redefine grace to permit whatever they imagine will make them happy (including getting drunk, experimenting with drugs, and sleeping around). Others use their forgiven status as freedom to live as unbelievers do. They might call it Christian liberty and evangelism (though it’s not clear what Good News they’re offering, since they’re essentially no different than the world).
There’s a third category: Christians who feel guilty when they’re happy. They confess their sins and walk with God, but somehow they suspect their happiness dishonors Him. Those taught in church that it’s wrong to be happy will naturally not look to Jesus for happiness. However, make no mistake: they will look for it elsewhere.
Archibald Alexander was an American Presbyterian theologian and professor at Princeton Seminary. He said, “Holiness is pleasing to God, beneficial to men, and essential to the promotion of our own happiness” (emphasis added). Notice he didn’t say that desiring our own happiness is wrong but that if we’re to successfully promote our happiness, we must embrace holiness. Being holy is not only an end but a means to the end, which is our happiness.
C. S. Lewis wrote to an American friend, “How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing . . . it is irresistible. If even 10% of the world’s population had it, would not the whole world be converted and happy before a year’s end?”
Superficial holiness can never produce true happiness. True holiness always manifests itself in authentic happiness. Psalm 1:1 says, “Blessed [happy] is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.”
Matthew Henry commented, “When the psalmist undertakes to describe a blessed man, he describes a good man; for, after all, those only are happy, truly happy, that are holy, truly holy; . . . goodness and holiness are not only the way to happiness (Rev. 22:14), but happiness itself.”
The more we discover God’s ways and experience the goodness of His holiness, the less we try to find happiness apart from Him!
