We all seek pleasure every day, whether we stop by Starbucks for our favorite drink or order food from our favorite restaurant. We plan parties, mix cocktails, and order wishlist items from Amazon. Of course, there are certain sinful pleasures the Bible commands us to avoid, but is it always wrong to seek pleasure? The Bible doesn’t forbid pleasure. On the contrary, there are times when finding pleasure can glorify God. But how do we discern the good from the bad? The wisest man to ever live, King Solomon, gives us some good advice by sharing his story in Ecclesiastes 2:1-11. If we follow these warnings, we will be on the right path.
1. Christians shouldn’t seek pleasure to find purpose or meaning.
Ecclesiastes 2:1-2 says, “‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.’ But that also proved to be meaningless. “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?”
We easily fall into the trap of believing that we can find purpose from seeking pleasure alone. Solomon gives us a first-hand account of a man who was powerful enough and wealthy enough to pursue pleasure above all. We are never going to have the kind of money that Solomon had. Bill Gates pales in comparison. Solomon had more power than anyone you know of.
Solomon isn’t trying to kill your pleasure through his account. Many pleasurable things can bring glory to God. However, it becomes something different when we seek pleasure apart from God. It becomes self-indulgence. When we seek pleasure to bring meaning to our life through self-indulgence, that pleasure becomes corrupt. It’s easy for that pleasure to become an idol. An idol can only give you disappointment, destruction, and death – not life and meaning.
2. Christians shouldn’t seek pleasure through alcohol dependency.
Ecclesiastes 2:3 says, “I explored with my mind the pull of wine on my body—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—and how to grasp folly, until I could see what is good for people to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.”
We must take caution when reading these verses because they are about more than just alcohol or wine. This lesson is about the motivation behind drinking. Solomon knows that there is no wisdom in drunkenness. So the more significant issue here is to understand that there’s no lasting satisfaction from alcohol or anything else we put into our body to numb the pain. We should not be seeking this through alcohol, speed, meth, heroin, marijuana, or even any other type of food or stimulant. If you’re using alcohol as a coping mechanism for stress or anxiety, you’re in danger of taking that first step toward addiction.
How do you know when you’re crossing the line? Ask yourself these questions:
- Do you associate relaxation with that first sip of alcohol?
- Does a hard day at work make you want to pour a glass of your favorite drink?
- Does attending a dry event take the fun out of that event for you?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, your motivation concerning alcohol might be in question. Maybe you need to find a healthier coping mechanism.
3. Christians shouldn’t seek physical pleasure for satisfaction.
Ecclesiastes 2:4-11 details all the other riches and pleasures Solomon had. He built houses, planted vineyards, and made gardens and parks with every kind of fruit. He had livestock and herds, servants, riches, and concubines. In the end, he says, “All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles. When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11)
What Solomon was doing with his gardens and fruit trees was trying to recreate Eden. However, Solomon learned that the secret to the paradise of Eden wasn’t the lush gardens or flowing streams of water. Instead, it was the presence and the connection to God. This isn’t something you can build with human hands. Solomon also sought corrupt sexual pleasure to bring him the intimacy he craved. Whether it was through concubines or the physical beauty that he created for himself, he says it fell short. There was no satisfaction from chasing this pleasure.
Apart from God, worldly pleasures for personal satisfaction are self-focused. When you make life all about you and what you want, you slip away from God-given pleasure and into self-indulgence. Once self-indulgent becomes your goal, you will corrupt all the good and pleasurable things God created for your enjoyment because you remove the great commandments from your life: to love God and love people. This is what you were created for.
Jesus is ultimately the satisfaction that your soul longs for. Once you crave Jesus, He will give you contentment in your soul instead of the temporary, fleeting pleasures of this world. He says so in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, he who believes in me, will never thirst.”
Next Steps:
- Ask yourself, “What am I expecting from this pleasure?” If your goal is to chase t lasting meaning or attempt to numb the pain, then you’re wrong from the beginning.
- Ask yourself, “In this pleasure I’m seeking, who gets the benefit other than me?” It’s a great question. All the pleasure you seek in secret is for you alone without benefiting anybody else. That’s where you find the corruption. Give those things back to God for His glory.
With these steps and the wisdom from Solomon’s account in Ecclesiastes 2, you have all the tools you need to engage in pleasure without engaging in sin.
