Pleasure

Virtually everything in the human context can become reflective of that in the spiritual.  This perception has something to do with Jesus using parables to teach spiritual truth.  Even with much ignorance, we understand in somewhat broad coverage what natural life requires, and much of its meaning.  So it is that analogy/comparison/contrast (parable) became the human approach Jesus used to freight spiritual meaning.  From that system he drew out listeners with their questions of interests related to the great issues of life.  On occasion even the disciples urged more clarity from him.  In the passing of the days (there were only a thousand of them) He did confront squarely the explanations of vital matters related to them and the ministry of God to the world.  Without parables, the common language of all peoples in any generation, he would be differently interpreted by various cultures, languages and eras.  We can be grateful for the parables in that they work from our experiences, situations, fears, hopes, and like experience in any age. 

We sometimes trip up by changing things, even the meanings of our words.  The parables bring us back in any society to the matters that must be resolved if we are to find our way spiritually through the mazes we create for ourselves.  Jesus seemed to love the parables of earth and heaven, of families and groups, of aspirations and failures, and so the story goes.  He seemed to revel in stories of agriculture and fishing, and in children, health and homes.  The great parable of Scripture is related to husband, wife and child as representative of the family of God.  Nothing seems to have been left out.  From natural contexts he drew spiritual messages.  The people were hungry on one of the long days of his teaching.  Give something to them, he said to the disciples.  They had nothing to give, so he served a crowd with fish sandwiches, and told the people he had bread to eat that would not pass away.  Jesus tied earth to heaven in parables.

God is interested in pleasure.  God’s pleasure is a major reason for his creation of mankind.  We have turned pleasure into various contexts, some carnal, some merely related to entertainment, but God relates it to fulfillment in the good of relationships.  He is pleasured in himself, which makes it possible for God to put down pride, and so to find satisfaction in his relationship with others – persons of his creation.  Human beings find pleasure in their pets, an attitude that is part of the end of love that serves the loving person.  We are, as the loving child to the loving parent in a vision of pleasure.  Those parents missing it, and those children denied it may never feel the glory of life as they should.  The fallout may be extended to even greater tragedy for both child and parents.  It is tragedy, almost unbelievable, that some persons have never felt that pleasure.  They have felt natural pleasure, which is often referred to in Scripture – often in a negative sense in that it does not find its parable in the divine pleasure that rests in God’s holiness and love.  I have never heard the pleasure of righteousness discussed.  God treats us, in his redemptive plan, as innocent as babes in the arms of pleasured parents.  We feel warmth of pleasure in family love and order.

The Apostle Paul wrote of the good pleasure of his (God’s) will. (Ephesians 1:5, 9)  This should be sufficient for us each day to pray for the will of God on earth as it is in heaven.  He wrote to the Church about the good pleasure of His (God’s) goodness.  (1 Thessalonians 1:11)  It is its own motivation as noted above.There are other passages of Scripture using the term pleasure in some facet of application related to positive relationship with God and others.  Both pleasure and pleasures are also noted as negative in that they are so forceful in the context of nature they can close off relationship with God for persons addicted to them.  The best known of these verses is found in Hebrews 11:25 – Choosing . . . to suffer affliction . . . than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season.  For the informed Christian it seems virtually incomprehensible that persons choose temporary pleasure that closes off immortal pleasure, but some do make that choice.  It is not easy for serious minded persons to believe worldly pleasure can be that strong, but it is. (2 Timothy 3:4)  Parents should include concepts of holy pleasure early in the lives of their children.