The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God's Delight in Being God

Piper's concern is to remind us that this grace in which we stand in relation to God, is a condition of joy and delight rather than grudging discipline. As the herald of Christian hedonism he prophetically calls Christians away from the drabness of explicit or implicit practical legalism. Too many Evangelicals consider discipleship as a general, stoical acceptance of toilsome religious duties and an unhappy scepticism of anything that gives pleasure. Paraphrasing H. L. Mencken, Piper is fighting against the "suspicion that someone, somewhere is enjoying themselves" as the prevailing character of Christian life.Piper eloquently points us away from ourselves and toward God's Person as the sine qua non for true human living. In this book he undertakes to help us avoid a very real pitfall that causes many Christians to stumble. He seeks to remind us that it is a very subtle form of self-worship which understands our relation to God as being one where God's ultimate purpose is to make us happy and complete. Too often Christians are so caught up with the idea that "God has a wonderful plan for our life.." that we can get to thinking that God's whole reason for Being is so that WE can be happy. Piper does a good job in this book of showing us that our lives and indeed all of creation, is not about US, it is about HIM! God's Delight is what is of first importance. Our happiness is a by-product of that Delight when God enables and motivates us to enter into His joy. It is a very important point and one that is difficult for a consumer oriented generation of Christians to appropriate for themselves or teach others.I was struck by the ease with which Piper strengthens his writing by taking on the questions that can distract us from finding our delight in God's Person and thereby entering into His Joy. Specifically, in this book, I found his handling of the question of God's electing grace to be wonderfully concise yet remarkably thorough. It is not easy to connect the dots between God's sovereignty and His delight in that sovereignty and our joy in being the objects of that sovereignty, yet Piper does as good a job as I have ever seen. For those of us who fell in love with the doctrine years ago, it will not add much in the way of new insights, but he provides us a very accessible manner of communicating it to others, and that alone makes this book worth reading.I will admit that in this book, as in Desiring God before it, I could never escape the feeling that he is too anthropomorphic in his characterizations of God. Though he often affirms God's transcendent nature, yet his practical focus tends to keep "bringing God down to our level" rather than lifting us up to His.Piper's central purpose in this book is to tell us about God's delight : how He delights in Himself as the Triune God, how He delights in all the things He does, etc. Piper wants to point us toward God's pleasure as a real and controlling principle for all that we are to understand about Him. This is right and good. It is also true that the Scriptures continually remind us of God's pleasure in doing things, and His contentment in His work, and His joy in various people especially His Son. The problem comes in when Piper implicitly presents God's pleasure as being essentially like our pleasure. He does not adequately convey to us that the Scriptural discussion of God's pleasure, joy and delight, reflects God's condescension to us. It gives us a way to think about God in terms of something that we know and can experience. It is true that man being created in the image of God is able to draw some analogs between those things he finds in himself and their equivalent aspect in God's character. But there are decided limits that must be observed.Man cannot reconcile his own pleasure with his own displeasure. Man cannot be simultaneously content and agitated with anger. Man cannot experience the sense of well-being as he is engaged in the outflow of passions. All this is to say that man is sequential and finite. God is neither. God's delight can never be opposed to His "unhappiness" about sin. God's pleasure is never distinct from His wrath. God does not move from one mood to another. We can think of Him in terms that we recognize and seek to worship Him for the knowledge of Himself that He communicates to us in those terms, but we must stop well short of identifying God or His attributes with those things. God is incomprehensible to us in His Being. His delight is ultimately incomprehensible also. He is God and we are not. The Creator who is outside of all creation can never be understood in His essence through the use of terms which are limited by their correspondence to creation.This does not pose a barrier to anything that Piper desires to do. God intends for us to think of Him in terms of being angry at sin and wrathful toward those who commit it. Alternately, when WE think of Him looking down from heaven on the baptism of His Son, it is right and proper that we should think of His Heart overflowing with pride and joy at the event, even as we parents have that experience when we bring our children to be baptized. It is absolutely proper for us to think that way. But we must always keep in mind that God is above and beyond that description. His Heart did not overflow with joy at that particular moment in any way that would make His level of joy greater than it had been before. In fact , we can't even consider, from God's point of view, that there was a "before" and an "after" since God is beyond time.I know that the mind boggles at this point and that practical Christianity cannot constantly abide in the realm of God's incomprehensibility. That is why God adopts anthropomorphic terms when He speaks to us and why He allows us to think about Him in those ways. But, and this is where I think Piper needs to improve His work, we must not go too far down the pathway that these terms open up for us. We must not ever forget that the wonder of God is most manifested in the way that His incomprehensible fullness was incarnated in a finite body. The wonder of that cannot be described and it is lost when we identify the finite with that which only infinity can covey.That being said, I must again affirm that this is a very good book for Christians to use and encourage others to use. Piper's heart comes through on every page and he has something very important to say.

Here, in The Pleasure of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God, author John Piper aims to convince the reader that God delights most in Himself, which in turn overflows to the benefit of those who are to rejoice and delight in Him. A cursory glance at that idea may make it appear strange or even unseemly, yet careful contemplation, as well as exploration of scripture, inevitably ends in a similar discovery.Piper reasons,“Is not the essence of righteousness to place supreme value on what is supremely valuable, with all the just actions that follow? And isn’t the opposite of righteousness to set our highest affections on things of little or no worth, with all the unjust actions that follow? Thus the righteousness of God is the infinite zeal and joy and pleasure that he has in what is supremely valuable, namely, his own perfection and worth. And if he were ever to act contrary to this eternal passion for his own perfections he would be unrighteous, he would be an idolater.”It is statements such as this that give the impression that the author benefited from Jonathan Edward’s thoughts in 'the End for Which God Created the World'. The idea that God delights in being God may offend some, but as Piper demonstrates, “The great ground of hope in all the God-centered servants of the Lord has always been the impossibility that God would let his great name be dishonored for long among the nations.” His triune nature and perfect (intra-trinitarian) love, His sovereignty and divine power and finally, His glory and renown perpetuated by the hope, prayers, and obedience of His people, freely chosen, and preserved according to His infinite grace and wisdom, all serve as the indomitable basis of His perfect happiness.“Prayer is his delight because prayer shows the reaches of our poverty and the riches of His grace”“God has pleasure in an act that comes from faith because he has pleasure in the demonstration of his glory”“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”“…the essence of faith is being satisfied with all that God is for us in Christ.”The book is scripture-saturated with the majesty of God resonating throughout. Piper’s passion is palpable, and his theology is congruent. Here, the mind and heart merge, consummating in this (soon-to-be) classical piece of Christian literature that I highly recommend to Christians in need of guidance as they look to embark upon a season of spiritual growth through careful reflection. ‘The Pleasures of God’, a study Bible, and notepad/pen, along with a humble spirit, teetering on the cusp of prayer, are all that is needed to delve into Spirit-led, soul-satisfying meditation.

Not for light reading, this book is wonderful in its treatment of the most glorious topic, God. Piper shows that the way to become more like God is to see him and admire (worship) his character. And the way to do that is to see from his Word what he most delights in. Piper takes the reader step by step through the pleasures of God, and the result is that all who love God will find themselves more in love with him, and transformed through the process.

I read this book years ago and recently started reading it again. Once again I was challenged by God's greatness and His desire for communication and relationship with His creation. Lots to absorb on each page. This copy was bought as a gift for a relation at Christmas.

This book is special

Piper brought me clearer understanding of my connection to the Father, Son, and Spirit than 50 years of scripture reading alone has accomplished. His writing style or approach to the text won't suit everyone but this has given me richness and depth, endless delight in Christ that has sustained me for twenty years. Worth any amount of reading effort.

pacco amazon eccellente. Libro bellissimo, letto già nella sua versione italiana. Ricco di contenuti complessi ma non complicati, Piper è uno scrittore di grande talento al servizio di Dio. Si può amare qualcuno solo se lo si conosce, e questo è un ottimo libro per approfondire la propria conoscenza di Dio.