A really sharp podcast listener named Rachel writes in today, and she seems quite familiar

with Christian hedonism.

Hello, Pastor John.

The world tells us so we can only be real if we obey our native desires.

That's obviously wrong because our natural desires are for sin and for what will only

destroy our joy in the end.

But in response, I hear a lot of people in the church simply offering prohibitions,

various forms of, don't trust your desires, or don't follow your heart.

And yet if I understand Christian hedonism correctly, the Bible calls all people everywhere

to follow their hearts toward the greatest and most lasting joy in the universe.

That seems to be how you define faith in fact, finding Jesus more satisfying than anything

else.

So it would be impossible for us to genuinely believe if we acted toward Christ in a

way contrary to our own hearts and our own desires.

So wouldn't the Christian hedonists say something like, do trust your desires and do trust

your heart when your hearts and desires are calibrated to Christ?

At what point do we trust our hearts and follow our desires?

The blanket prohibitions seem inaccurate to me.

Right.

Yes, they are inaccurate unless they're just calculated rhetorical devices to get your

attention.

And sometimes they are, Rachel really seems to know her way around in Christian hedonism.

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