What is it the Bible really commands of those who follow it? Does it call for cold duty-bound lives that serve God with hands motivated only by the rightness of their actions? Or does God call us to something more and greater than a rote list of good works?
Duty-bound stoicism has been all the rage in the post-Enlightenment world when it comes to morality. The idea that a good act is neutralized by our desire to do it or by our enjoyment of the act and its results is an old one. But how is this notion biblical? God calls all creation to love Him, to rejoice in Him and make Him our focal point. Deuteronomy 12 focuses on places of worship and the preparation and consumption of burnt sacrifices, yet includes even among this the command in verse 12 and again in verse 18, as one obey's the Lord's commands in these respects, to "rejoice before the Lord your God...in all that you undertake." In Psalm 51 David cries out to God "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me," in verses 18 and 19 saying that God takes pleasure in what is righteous: "Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar." If we are seeking to walk with God, how can we not take joy in what brings Him joy?
The New Testament is just as insistent, if not more so, that what God wants is not actions on our part but a rightness of spirit and a deep desire for God in our hearts. When Jesus admonishes his disciples not to give to those in need in flamboyant fashions but rather to do it discretely, He doesn't tell them to do it simply because "it's the right thing to do." "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
Paul over and over again exhorts the bodies of believers the world over to cast aside the pursuit of short-term, disappointing pleasures of the flesh--but he doesn't call them to replace it with nothing. He instead calls for all followers of Christ to not only to obey, but to take great joy in obeying and in the act and reward of loving God and doing as He commands. Through all writings he proclaims the true joy-seeking found in pursuing God, and the desire of reward from God that drives all Christians. God did not instill in humans a desire for reward only to then insist that we ignore it. No, as C.S. Lewis said, our desires are simply too weak, and misdirected. We run after stupid things that evaporate in our hands when God offers us real, eternal rewards in His presence.
The flip side of all this is the prosperity gospel, the notion that yes, God does want us to take pleasure--through Him, by enjoying earthly rewards of money, things, good health, good food, and good living. These things are elevated to ultimate, while God is demoted to the role of Santa Claus, going forth to fetch the good life for those who have said the right set of magic words and fork over a goodly sum of their income to a pastor who parlays it into big churches and bigger houses, cars, jets, etc. This is not what we are called to, and the fact that virtually everyone who led the charge to follow Christ and making walking with Him the focal point of our desires died very badly should speak to that.
We American Christians have become soft and spoiled in this environment of plenty and freedom we've grown up in. We've never had to face the notion of being arrested simply for what we believe, or of starving to death because you can't do business with your neighbors. We've never had mobs show up at our houses to kill all the men and rape and enslave the women. This, however, is the reality that I daresay most Christians in this world face; if not this, than at the very least they face lives of want and pain, without what we consider even the most basic needs of life, like a roof over our head, or food, or central air. Yet these Christian still pursue Him, because they know how valuable he is. We've got so many things distracting us and we run after them, because we can't imagine not having them. So many get called to give up those things for His sake...and say no.
I pray every day that I will grow farther from that and closer to a place where God is the irresistible center of my hopes and desires. Not because I'm so great, but quite the opposite: I am constantly battling with my deceitful and desperately sick heart, and I want nothing more than to be free of that so that I may love and serve God with every ounce of my being.
So I seek my reward unabashed--not in money, or any other perishable, but in a growing relationship with God.
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
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