Piper also disagrees with rejecting happiness as an aim of life, although, again, his definition of happiness is notably different from Peterson’s. “I think [happiness] should be redeemed as something deep and lasting and soul-satisfying and rooted in God and expanding in love—because its historic usage is not merely superficial, but deep and rich,” Piper said. “And its best usage today doesn’t always have to signify such emptiness and futility.”
But “most important,” said Piper, “my strategy for rescuing people from fleeting, superficial, empty happiness is governed by the authority of the Bible with the glory of God at the center.”
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Piper offered a number of Bible passages to support five truths about God, people, and the created world to bolster his point. Piper’s first three truths were that God created the world for his glory, that human beings were made to represent the glory of God, and that sin has made us God’s enemies, but Jesus has restored those broken relationships.
“Fourth, I found in the Bible that being supremely happy in God, supremely satisfied in God, supremely content in God, is essential to glorifying God and showing that he’s supremely valuable and beautiful,” Piper continued. “And this is true especially in our suffering.”
“It shows that he’s valuable, more valuable than health, if we maintain our happiness, our satisfaction, our contentment, our joy, our delight in God, in suffering,” said Piper. “If we can maintain a deep and unshaken happiness in God through suffering, we make him look as precious as he really is (Philippians 1:20–23).”
“And finally, fifth, I found in God’s word what you would expect: If God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, especially in our suffering,” Piper said, “then if we aim to glorify God, we must make our life goal to be supremely satisfied in God, especially in our suffering. Because, as Peterson says, life is suffering.”
“Happiness, joy, pleasure—they’re not optional for the Christian,” said the pastor, citing verses including Psalm 37:4, Psalm 32:11, and Philippians 4:4 in support of his argument. In 2 Corinthians 7:4, Paul writes, “In all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.”
“As the psalmist says, ‘In your presence [O God] there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11),’” Piper concluded. “Enjoying him is not a byproduct of something greater. It is the essence of human greatness. It is the essence of worship.”
