Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.

-King Solomon, Proverbs 21:17, ESV

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

-Jesus Christ, Luke 12:32-34, ESV

It is no mystery that people love pleasure and will go to great lengths to obtain it.  This has always been true, but it is especially evident in our context.  For the past few generations, America has sought pleasure unrestrained.  The insatiable appetite for sexual pleasure has led to a breakdown of the family that has resulted in the slaughter of enough innocent children in the womb to make Hitler blush; the desecration of the institution God created to most vividly reflect Him (marriage) through no-fault divorce, cohabitation, and homosexual “marriage”; and among other things the men’s mental health crisis discussed last time.  But that is not the only pleasure we seek, as we are equally zealous to pursue the pleasure that comes from greatness and fame, luxury and comfort, and a sense of superiority.  This is the goal of the vast majority of what we see on social media.   It is the unending quest for pleasure that not only drives men’s sexual exploits but also leads them to build wonders of the world.  Sadly, the church has been so polluted by the world that this quest for pleasure is often seen in pew and pulpit alike.  As we saw recently, seeking pleasure in greatness and in sexual gratification led to the downfall of Mark Driscoll and Ravi Zacharias respectively.  This means it is vital for Christians to determine the proper place for pleasure and then confine it within those boundaries.  Once we see where the road of unrestrained pleasure leads, we should be properly motivated to restrain and channel it for our ultimate good. 

An Inspired Experiment

Where does the road of unrestrained pleasure lead?  It would be tempting to think that our societal obsession with pleasure is novel, but “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9b).  The man that penned those words traveled down the road of unrestrained pleasure to see where it led.  That man was Solomon.  His wisdom guided him to embark on that journey for the purpose of teaching others about it:

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.”…I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

-Ecclesiastes 2:1a, 3, ESV

He goes on to describe the various ways he tried to find pleasure, starting with building projects: “I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.  I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees” (Ecclesiastes 2:5).  The most well-known of these building projects was Solomon’s Temple, but Scripture also describes two of his houses.  His palace in Jerusalem was larger than the Temple and took almost twice as long to build (1 Kings 7:1-8).  Its ivory throne was so grand that its existence was doubted by scholars until evidence of it was found recently.  This palace and its contents were so grand that when the Queen of Sheba saw them during her famous visit, they literally took her breath away (1 Kings 10:4-5, 2 Chronicles 9:3-4).  Both the Temple and this palace could be considered wonders of the world.  Scripture also describes Solomon building a palace in Gezer when he married Pharoah’s daughter (2 Chronicles 8:11).  He goes on to describe creating vineyards and parks as a commercial venture and for his enjoyment.  The reference to planting various fruit trees is reminiscent of Eden, suggesting that perhaps through these gardens and parks he was seeking to imitate the pleasure found in the world before sin.  He then talks of grand infrastructure projects: “I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees” (Ecclesiastes 2:6).  He acquired great wealth through business ventures and gained power unparalleled in Israel’s history, expanding Israel’s territory and receiving great honor from all the surrounding nations (Ecclesiastes 2:7-8a).  He also sought pleasure through entertainment and—of course—through nearly limitless sex (Ecclesiastes 2:8b).  You name it, he tried it: “And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil“ (Ecclesiastes 2:10). 

But what did he really gain from all that pleasure?  Nothing: “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).   This led to despair: “I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”.” (Ecclesiastes 2:2).  How could such unlimited pleasure lead him to despair?  First, he knew that pleasure couldn’t last.  When he died, his pleasure would necessarily end: “For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:16-17).  Second, he knew that the lasting legacy of all of his great works was very much contingent on how well those after him maintained them:

I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 

-Ecclesiastes 2:18-21, ESV

Solomon’s successor was a fool.  Rehoboam foolishly and arrogantly tried to ride the coattails of his father’s success in order to secure his own pleasure and legacy without working for it as Solomon had (1 Kings 12, 2 Chronicles 10).  The result was a rebellion that divided Israel into two kingdoms.  Eventually, all of the wealth Solomon had gathered would be plundered and all of his great works destroyed.  But he also noticed something worse than this: “Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business” (Ecclesiastes 4:7-8).  The answer of course is that this man who has no one to provide for is toiling for himself.  In our society that mocks marriage and all but demonizes children, many men and women fit this description of working only for themselves.  And just as Solomon predicted three thousand years ago, many of them end up unhappy.  They are unhappy because they seek pleasure but are never satisfied by it.  No matter how hard they try, like the Rolling Stones satisfaction eludes them.  Like Linkin Park after trying so hard and getting so far, they find that in the end it doesn’t even matter.  Solomon’s experiment caused him to reach the same conclusion three thousand years ago, and the Holy Spirit inspired him to write it down so we can have a map of the road to pleasure and know how to avoid it.

Not the Goal but the Byproduct

We can see that the pursuit of pleasure is futile, but why is this the case?  Is it because pleasure is inherently bad?  That cannot be the case since Scripture speaks of God having pleasure.  He takes pleasure in His people who fear Him (Psalm 147:11, 149:4), but He does not take pleasure in fools (Ecclesiastes 5:4) or false worship (Malachi 1:10, Hebrews 10:6,8).  He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but great pleasure in their repentance (Ezekiel 18:23,32, 33:11).  These pleasures are not God’s all-consuming purpose and their lack does not diminish Him in the slightest.  God is all about Himself and His own glory, so these examples show that His pleasure grows as He works to build His Kingdom and therefore glorify Himself.  Pleasure is not what God is working toward but comes as a byproduct of what He is working toward.  Therefore, as image bearers of God, we should not work toward pleasure as the end goal but anticipate it as a byproduct of fulfilling our purpose in working toward expanding His Kingdom.  This is the lesson that Solomon learned:

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.

So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.

-Ecclesiastes 2:24-25, 3:13-13,22, 5:18, ESV

God has given us work to do, so we should take pleasure in that work because it is a gift from God.  The abilities and resources that allow us to work come from God just as much as the produce of our work.  Therefore, we should approach the pleasure our work produces with humility and thanksgiving.  We should be even more thankful for God’s blessings through our work when we realize that the ability to enjoy them is itself a gift of God (Ecclesiastes 5:19).  Some people have many earthly blessings that should give them ample pleasure, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy those blessings: “There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil” (Ecclesiastes 6:1-2).  Ultimately, the ability to truly enjoy God’s blessings comes not from feeling entitled to them or self-righteously shunning them but by being content with them.  Contentment therefore greatly amplifies and prolongs pleasure.  When we are content, resting in God’s provision that we do not deserve, we will get greater fulfillment out of the normal pleasures of life and therefore not feel the need to explicitly seek out pleasure.

More persistent pleasure also comes from work that is not self-focused.  We already saw how it is ultimately futile to endlessly toil with no one but yourself with no one to inherit the fruits of your labor once you are gone (Ecclesiastes 4:7-8).  This is at least partially what Solomon meant by saying that God sometimes gives great blessings without giving the ability to enjoy them. Contrary to our individualistic culture, we were made for community and were therefore made to have pleasure in community. Men were made to work hard to provide for their families and those in need, deriving their pleasure in large part from seeing those they care about receiving their provision with gratitude, which drives them to work harder and become more successful.  This is evident in circumstances ranging from soldiers accomplishing heroic feats for their comrades to married men being generally more successful than single men by various measures.[1]  We all need a purpose much greater than ourselves, which will bring more fulfilment than any self-focused quest for pleasure ever could, and there is no greater purpose than advancing the Kingdom.  God made us to fulfill that purpose, so as we fulfill it He gives us pleasure in that work.  Therefore, it is futile and foolish for us to pursue pleasure, so we must expect it as a byproduct of our contentment as we work to build the Kingdom of God.

How We Should Pursue Pleasure

While pursuing our own pleasure is futile, Scripture often speaks of pleasure we should pursue.  First and foremost, we must seek the pleasure of God and to find our ultimate pleasure in God.[2]  Enoch, one of only two people ever to escape death, was commended as having pleased God by his faith (Hebrews 11:5-6).  Empowered by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:8), the aim of everything we do must be to please God (2 Corinthians 5:9, Colossians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 4:1).  We please God through genuine worship from the heart and not empty religious acts (Psalm 69:30-31).  We also please God by being preoccupied with serving Him (1 Corinthians 7:32-34).  We recently discussed this positive form of anxiety as an intense focus on what God has given us to do.  This is the same thing Solomon repeatedly exhorts people to do throughout Ecclesiastes.  But this goes beyond actions, as our words and thoughts should also be pleasing to God (Psalm 19:14, 104:34).  We also please Him when we offer ourselves and our resources to His work (Philippians 4:18).  We please God when we pray, especially for unbelievers and the advancement of the Kingdom (1 Timothy 2:1-4).  And we please God when we take care of the people around us, especially our fellow believers (1 Timothy 5:4, Hebrews 13:16).  Ultimate pleasure is found only in God, so as we seek to please Him He gives us that pleasure in limited measure now with the promise of infinite pleasure in eternity: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalms 16:11).

In addition to pleasing God, we must endeavor to please others.  We are to follow Christ’s example by pleasing our neighbors for their good not ourselves (Romans 15:1-3).  Paul notes that it is good and necessary for husbands to focus on pleasing their wives and vice versa (1 Corinthians 7:32-34).  Servants are similarly to please their masters (Titus 2:9), and Paul talks of aiming to please everyone (1 Corinthians 10:33).  Indeed it was Rehoboam’s undoing that he did not follow the wise counsel of Solomon’s advisers to please the people rather than himself (2 Chronicles 10:7).  So we should seek the pleasure of others and not ourselves. 

However, in seeking to please others, we must be careful to avoid becoming people-pleasers, doing everything for the approval of others.  This comes from the fear of man that overrides our fear of sinning against God.[3]  Instead, we must aim to please others as part of pleasing God.  Paul aimed to please everyone so that they might come to salvation (1 Corinthians 10:33), but when they opposed the Gospel, he pleased God rather than them (Galatians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 2:4).  We likewise are called to please people not out of fear but out of the perfect love that drives out fear (1 John 4:18).  We seek to please people because we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves even as we love God with every aspect of our being.  We love them enough to seek their pleasure above our own, but when they are lost in sin and opposing the Gospel we love them enough to seek their eternal pleasure by confronting them with the Gospel.  This is what Paul did: “Paul was not a people-pleaser.  He was a people-lover, and because of that he did not change his message according to what others might think.  Only people-lovers are able to confront.  Only people-lovers are not controlled by other people”.[4]  So we are to please others, but only insofar as it pleases God as well.  When the two come into conflict with one another—whether pleasing man would be sinful such as celebrating homosexuality and using pronouns inconsistent with biology or would not accord with biblical wisdom—we must please God not man (Acts 5:29). 

In the end, Scripture leads us to the same conclusion as Solomon in Ecclesiastes: the pursuit of our own pleasure as the end goal is futile and ultimately fruitless.   It is the thorny soil that chokes out the Gospel (Luke 8:14) and keeps us enslaved to the fleeting pleasures of sin (Titus 3:3, Hebrews 11:25).  But when we endeavor to please God rather than ourselves by advancing His Kingdom and being content to serve Him by obeying Him and serving others, we get pleasure as a byproduct—pleasure that is deeper and more enduring.  So we must labor in the tasks God has given us in advancing His Kingdom, being joyfully content with what He has given us, trusting that He will provide much greater pleasure than our own vain quests for pleasure could ever yield.

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going….The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

-Ecclesiastes 9:7-10, 12:13-14, ESV

---

[1] Explored in detail in George Gilder, Men and Marriage, Moscow, ID: Canon Press: 2023 (orig. 1986)

[2] John Piper, Desiring God, Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers: 2003: 24.

[3] Edward T. Welch, When People are Big and God is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man, Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing: 1997: 40.

[4] Edward T. Welch, When People are Big and God is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man, Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing: 1997: 41.