Is Joy in Jesus a Christian Obligation? - John Piper
- Andy McIlvain
- 18 hours ago
- 14 min read
Video from Desiring God
Is Joy in Jesus a Christian Obligation? - John Piper
"Let’s cut straight to the biblical reality that I am dealing with in these messages. I hope you will look with me at Psalm 16:11. David writes,
You [God] make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Seven observations from this text:
There is a path that leads to joy in the presence of God. It’s called “the path of life.”
God is the one who makes known this path. He directs us to it. He points us on the way.
This path leads to fullness of joy in God’s presence. Not 99 percent joy and 1 percent frustration: 100 percent joy.
This path leads to pleasures at God’s right hand forevermore, not for a mere eighty years or eighty million years.
This promise of full, eternal joy belongs to those who are in Christ, because 2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “All the promises of God find their Yes in him” — in Jesus. That includes the promise of Psalm 16:11. Every time I say “joy in God,” you can think “joy in Jesus,” because Jesus is God.
This full and lasting joy is found only in God’s presence. God is not saying, “My presence is one among many places where you can find joy that is full and forever.” No. God himself is the one reality that makes us glad — fully and forever.
Following this God-appointed path is, therefore, our duty — not just a possibility or option but an obligation. As C.S. Lewis wrote to Sheldon Vanauken, “It is a Christian duty, as you know, for everyone to be as happy as he can” (A Severe Mercy, 189). God has shown us this path. God directs us to it. He calls it the path of life. He is not treating this path as a matter of indifference. He is telling us, “Get on the path!” This is an implicit command: “Take the path to full and lasting pleasure!”
Optional or Essential?
Why would I give the last 55 years of my life to pressing home this message, this obligation? Why would Desiring God flourish for 30 years focusing on this message? Maybe it’s just a thinly disguised version of prosperity preaching. Maybe it’s just a bit of clever pop psychology that fits into the sinful craving of every human heart. Maybe it’s nice, even true, but marginal — not essential, not crucial.
No, that’s not why I care about your pursuit of joy in Jesus above all things. Here are four reasons that I care about this.
First, it has everything to do with suffering. If you’re a Christian, you will suffer.
“Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
“All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
We are “fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17).
We will not suffer as we ought if we are not finding our supreme satisfaction in God. The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life (Psalm 63:3).
Second, the pursuit of satisfaction in Jesus has everything to do with whether you will be able to love other people. The aim of Paul’s charge was love that comes from a good conscience and pure heart and sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5). The one who loves others as he loves himself has fulfilled the whole law (Romans 13:8). What is love but to be willing to lay down your life for the deepest and longest satisfaction of another person — namely, that person’s supreme joy in Jesus? (And we can’t share what we don’t have.)
Third, the satisfaction of your soul has everything to do with the glory of God. And the glory of God is the greatest reality in the universe. God simply will not be glorified in our lives if we find something else more satisfying than he is. Jesus is glorified above all when he is desired above all. That’s why he said, “Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37).
“Conversion to Christ means the awakening — the coming into being — of a superior pleasure in the King of kings.”
Fourth, the satisfaction of your soul in Jesus has everything to do with your own ultimate identity. Who are you? What were you made for? Are you threatened by artificial intelligence, because you think your most defining essence as a human being is the power of reason — thinking, intelligence? Or speech, language? Suddenly, a machine can think and speak better than you can. Is that threatening? It doesn’t have to be. Because that is not the essence of who you are. The spiritual capacity of your soul to see and savor the glory of Jesus is the essence of who you are. No machine will ever duplicate the spiritual reality of the soul’s enjoyment of God.
So, these talks are not about the prosperity gospel. They are not a bit of pop psychology. They’re not a way to avoid suffering. This issue is not marginal. These talks are an attempt to hear what God has to say about (1) the path of suffering, (2) the path of love, (3) the path of glorifying God, and (4) the path of authentic human existence.
What I want to do this evening is take Psalm 16:11 (“In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore”) and give you six biblical reasons why this is the vocation, the calling, the duty or obligation, of every Christian, and why it is not mere optional icing on the cake of Christianity but is utterly essential to being a Christian.
Reason 1: God’s Command
It is our duty to pursue full and eternal satisfaction in God because there are biblical commands to pursue our joy in God. Not suggestions, not options — commands.
Delight yourself in the Lord. (Psalm 37:4)
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones;
and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart. (Psalm 32:11 NASB)
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;
for You will judge the peoples with uprightness
and guide the nations on the earth. (Psalm 67:4 NASB)
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing! (Psalm 100:1–2)
Objection #1: I was on a panel once where one of the participants objected, “Pastor John, I don’t think you should tell people to pursue joy, but to pursue obedience.”
My response was this: “That’s like saying, ‘Pastor John, don’t tell people to pursue apples; tell them to pursue fruit.’ Because apples are one kind of fruit. And joy is one kind of obedience. Of course I should tell people to pursue obedience. And I do — the hardest kind. The kind you can’t perform by a mere act of will.”
This leads to objection #2: We don’t have immediate control over our emotions or affections. When I was a junior in college, in a class on apologetics, we read Situation Ethics by Joseph Fletcher, which argued that love cannot be a feeling because it is commanded, and the feelings can’t be commanded.
My response to this is that God commands the emotions over and over in the Bible.
Desires are commanded: “Like newborn babies, [desire] the pure milk of the word” (1 Peter 2:2 NASB).
Contentment is commanded: “Be content with what you have” (Hebrews 13:5). Contentment is an emotion; it is commanded.
Hope is commanded: “Hope in God” (Psalm 42:5).
Fear is commanded: “Fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell” (Luke 12:5 NASB; see Romans 11:20).
Zeal is commanded: “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord” (Romans 12:11).
Gratitude is commanded: “Be thankful” (Colossians 3:15).
It is not surprising or unusual that joy in God’s presence and pleasures at God’s right hand are commanded. God has the right to command anything it is right for us to do, whether we have the moral ability to do it or not. And biblical Christians have always believed that in our fallen, sinful condition, we are spiritually dead and do not have the moral ability to please God. “The mind [of] the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7–8). This is why St. Augustine prayed, “Give what you command and command what you will!” (Confessions 10.29).
So, we must be converted. We must be born again. We must be profoundly changed. That leads to the second reason we should pursue our full and lasting joy in God.
Reason 2: Conversion
It is our duty to pursue full and eternal satisfaction in God because the meaning of conversion is the awakening — the coming into being — of a superior pleasure in God.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then [from] his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44)
This is a description of what happens when a person encounters and is changed by the presence of the kingdom of God — that is, the presence of Jesus, the King. It is like finding a treasure that is so valuable, and so satisfying, that it takes all the other pleasures in life and makes them less compelling than our supreme pleasure in the King. That’s the point of his selling everything he has to buy the field where the treasure is. The treasure has become more precious, more satisfying than everything else in his life.
“No true disciple will throw away eternal joy in God for a mere eighty years of worldly self-indulgence.”
And don’t miss the little phrase “from his joy.” “And [from] his joy he goes and sells all that he has.” This is not a burden. He is happily giving up his house and car and fields and books and computers. This is simply a stunning way to show that conversion to Christ means the awakening — the coming into being — of a superior pleasure in the King of kings. That’s what it means to become a Christian.
Reason 3: Self-Denial
It is our duty to pursue full and eternal pleasure in God because Jesus’s teaching about self-denial is based on this pursuit, rather than contradicting it.
I know this sounds backward. How can Jesus’s teaching that we should deny ourselves actually teach that we should indulge ourselves — in God? But that is exactly what I think Jesus teaches. All Christian self-denial is for the sake of ultimate, eternal satisfaction in God. In fact, I would argue that the effort to deny yourself God as your supreme pleasure is idolatry and blasphemy. God offers himself to us as the infinitely valuable, infinitely beautiful, supreme treasure of the universe for our full and everlasting enjoyment. And if we turn that offer away, saying, “I must deny myself that full and everlasting enjoyment in you, God,” we are idolaters, blasphemers. Listen to Jesus:
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Mark 8:34)
So, make no mistake about it: There is real self-denial. There is a real cross, real suffering to endure for Jesus, a real death to die. The old John Piper must be crucified. I must daily count myself dead with Christ. There is real self-denial. Christianity is costly. But! How does Jesus argue in the next verse to motivate us to live this way?
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mark 8:35)
What’s his argument? Don’t try to save your life by turning from the service of Jesus. Why? Because if you do, you will lose your life — forever. Why should we be willing to lose our lives now on earth in the service of Jesus? Because if we do, we save them — forever. So, what does Jesus’s argument assume?
It assumes that no true disciple will throw away eternal joy in God for a mere eighty years of worldly self-indulgence. Disciples are not idiots. Jesus is assuming that a true disciple wants joy in God forever — more than we want all this world. And if pursuing eternal joy in God costs us everything here, we will deny ourselves everything here. That’s how the argument works!
So, the third reason that it is our duty to pursue full and eternal satisfaction in God is that Jesus’s teaching about self-denial is based on this pursuit, rather than contradicting it.
Reason 4: True Evil
It is our duty to pursue full and eternal satisfaction in God because to find that supreme satisfaction anywhere else is the essence of evil.
Listen to God’s words in Jeremiah 2:12–13:
Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
What are the two evils that the people have committed? (1) “They have forsaken me, the [all-satisfying] fountain of living waters,” and (2) they have dug out “cisterns [water containers] for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
I am arguing that this is the very essence of all evil in the world. This is what is most evil about all evil: tasting God, assessing God, sampling God, and finding him bad-tasting, unworthy, undesirable. And not only that, but to degrade God even further, we try to replace him with a hole in the ground that offers no refreshment. Evil is preferring anything more than God. Evil is finding God less satisfying than other satisfactions in your life — exchanging the glory of God for images, substitutes, as Paul says in Romans 1:23.
Therefore, it is our duty to reverse that and to pursue full and everlasting satisfaction in God over all else.
Reason 5: Real Love
It is our duty to pursue full and eternal pleasure in God because we cannot love people here and now if we try to abandon this pursuit.
If we are indifferent to God as our supreme satisfaction, we will not be able to love people as the Bible defines love. Consider 2 Corinthians 8:1–2. Paul is taking up an offering for the poor in Jerusalem, and he is motivating the Corinthian believers to be generous in their giving by telling them how the Macedonian Christians were generous. (And he calls this love in verse 8.)
We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
Where did this “wealth of generosity” among the Macedonians come from? Paul says it was the overflow of joy. “Their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.” Joy in what? Not in prosperity. They were giving out of “extreme poverty.” Not in peace and comfort. They were giving out of “a severe test of affliction.” So, this is not an example of the prosperity gospel that has spread around the world.
Their joy was not in things. It was in God. Verse 1 says, “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.” They were rejoicing in the grace of God! Their sins were forgiven. They were accepted with God. His wrath was removed. Every barrier to seeing and knowing God, and being with him, and enjoying him, had been removed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And God himself was now so precious, so satisfying, so sure, that affliction and poverty could not stop their joy. And that joy overflowed in a wealth of generosity for the poor in Jerusalem — and Paul calls this overflow of joy love!
Here’s my definition of Christian love for people, based on this text: Love is the overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others. Or, to put it another way, Joy in God has in it an impulse to increase by including others in it. The Christian knows that joy in God grows by making sacrifices to meet the needs of others and bring them into our joy in God.
So, I conclude that if God is not your overflowing joy — your overflowing satisfaction — you will not be able to love people like this. And this is what Paul calls Christian love.
Reason 6: God’s Glory
It is our duty to pursue full and eternal pleasure in God because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
If we are indifferent to God as our supreme satisfaction, we will not be able to glorify God from the heart as we should. The first question of the Westminster Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” The traditional answer is this: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” I am now arguing that man’s chief end is to glorify God by enjoying him forever. By enjoying God as our supreme treasure, we glorify his worth, his beauty, his desirability. And if we don’t enjoy him, we make him look defective. Let’s consider Philippians 1:20–23.
It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be [magnified — glorified!] in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:20–21)
Paul’s all-consuming passion was that Jesus Christ be magnified in his body, whether in life or death. I hope that is what you say: Your goal in life is that Christ be seen as magnificent because of your life and your death.
How will that happen? Paul tells us. He says in verse 21 that the reason Christ will be magnified in his body by life or death is that for him “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Christ will be magnified in his life because to live is Christ. And Christ will be magnified in his death because to die is gain. So, let’s just focus on how he glorifies Christ in death.
“Joy in God grows by making sacrifices to meet the needs of others.”
My hope is to magnify Christ in my body by death. How? “For to me . . . to die is gain.” So, experiencing death as gain makes Christ look magnificent. But that argument doesn’t work yet. There is a piece missing. What’s missing is how death is gain. He answers that in Philippians 1:23: “My desire is to depart [to die] and be with Christ, for that is far better.” The reason death is gain is because it means being with Christ in a new way. He gets more of Christ, more immediacy, more glory — more of Christ.
So now, let’s restate the argument: My expectation is that Christ will be magnified — shown to be magnificent — in my body in my dying because I will experience my dying as gain because of getting more of Christ. When I lose everything that death takes away, and exchange it all for Christ, I will cry, “Gain!”
Do you see what that means about how we make Christ look great? Paul finds so much satisfaction in Christ that losing all of this world in death will be called gain. Here is my paraphrase: Christ is most magnified in Paul when Paul is most satisfied in Christ, especially in suffering and death.
And I draw out this principle: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, especially in suffering. If we do not find God supremely satisfying in our suffering, we will not glorify God as Paul shows us we should.
Invitation and Obligation
We return to our text, Psalm 16:11:
You [God] make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
If you cannot say that God is your portion in this way, this is an invitation for you as well as an obligation. Call out to God like St. Augustine did: “Lord, give what you command and command what you will!” Please, God, I do not deserve this joy, but I believe that Jesus died for my sins, and for his sake I ask for this gift of fullness of joy in your presence and pleasures at your right hand forevermore." from the Transcript
John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy. Read more about John.