Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half-full) of artificial admirers (like people who write generic anniversary cards for a living). On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship.
John Piper, Desiring God
I put this quote from Piper in my away message today. The first time I read it, I highlighted it and think it sums up Desiring God in a great way. Some people believe Piper to be a person who promotes “empty frenzy” and that his writings “cultivate shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought.” It’s funny, because try reading his major books and you will have engaged in some seriously rigorous thought. This is not the way he writes, and I agree with his lament:
I would prefer to reserve a definition of Christian Hedonism until the end of the book, when misunderstandings would have been swept away. A writer often wishes his first sentence could be read in light of his last, and vice versa! But, alas, one must begin somewhere.
So it is in this light that I admit I am in somewhat disbelief over people who wave Piper off as a mindless emotional Epicurean after they have read his works, especially the first few chapters of Desiring God. A wacky Calvinist, that’s fine (I’ve gotten called that). A friend who is just starting Desiring God gave me the best description of Piper’s work that I think I have ever read (this was in response to the above quote):
I was glad to hear him say something like that — somehow having the writer address that the “other side” still exists, though perhaps he never denied its existence in the first place, assures one of his sensitivity to God.
And then I read and reread the next part:
It makes him easier to trust, as one not trying to hypnotize the masses into a new feel-good doctrine, but as one who has methodically searched the Scriptures and found them to impart a strong, celestial pulsing of the vast fulfillment found in God Himself.
“Wow,” I thought. “A strong, celestial pulsing of the vast fulfillment found in God Himself.” Those words are what I’ve felt for so long; it’s nice to occasionally have someone who grasps it, too. Sometimes, I get criticized for being a “Piper fan,” simply because I enjoy his works as they present to me the great God of glory. But I’ve told people that if I’m criticized for talking too much about anything, let it be God’s glory. “There goes that glory guy,” someone might say. Or if they say, “There goes that Piper guy,” I have no problem with it to a degree. As long as Piper guy = God’s glory guy, I am content with the label. Call me a Calvinist, call me a Piper guy, whatever. I wrote this in my 07.30.02 update, and it applies here (this is from J.I. Packer’s Knowing God):
To be sure, there have always been some who have found the thought of grace so overwhelmingly wonderful that they could never get over it. But many church people are not like this. They may pay lip service to the idea of grace, but there they stop. Their conception of grace is not so much debased or non-existent. The thought means nothing to them; it does not touch their experience at all. Talk to them about the church’s heating, or last year’s accounts, and they are with you at once; but speak to them about the realities to which the word grace points, and their attitude is one of deferential blankness. They do not accuse you of talking nonsense; they do not doubt that your words have meaning; but they feel that, whatever it is you are talking about, it is beyond them, and the longer they have lived without it the surer they are that at their stage of life they do not really need it.
I don’t know if you’ve ever felt that way, but that describes my feelings on many occasions. There have been a few rare instances where someone’s eyes will light up, as if I’ve just spoken of their favorite musical or favorite movie, and we feast together. But alas, those times are scarce. I thank God for making Himself known to Tim Elam, someone who has stayed up with me many nights and trips to Dallas talking of nothing but God’s glory. Of Mack Wedel, my proctor who, the other night, saw me talking to someone at church about Desiring God, and as he walked over, his comments on the book were simply sighing, “Oh…” as if he savored the truths magnified from Scripture in the book. Of Nathan Carr, who yesterday grabbed my copy and flipped quickly to the back, holding the Scripture index pages from end to end and saying, “This is why I don’t have a problem reading this guy a great deal.” Of Josh Williams, who sat with me at Steve’s Rib in Edmond and gave me Piper’s book, Future Grace, which meditating on further Scripture in regards to the truth of the purifying power of living by faith in future grace has literally dropped me to my knees, weeping over the free grace of God. Of Jeff Deyo, whose closing comments on one of his songs said, “I mean, aren’t you tired of reading your Bible because you feel you have to? I want to want to love Jesus. I want to wake up every morning and can’t wait to be with Him…. I want to be like John Piper says in The Pleasures of God: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. I want God to be glorified, so I want see what I can do to be most satisfied in Him.” Of others who are beginning to not just grasp, but savor and rejoice in the truth that the chief end of man is to glorify God BY enoying Him forever. Oh, for more worshipers of God in spirit and truth!
And if you have wondered why Piper calls missions the “battlecry for Christian Hedonism,” I’m one such reason why.
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