Month: March 2012

The Quest for Happiness

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. “ Psalm 1:2

Is true happiness attainable? The longer we live in this world, the more we are exposed to the harsh realities of life, leading many to a sense of utter desperation.  Still, others go beyond despair to a state of cynicism. Both perspectives ultimately hold the view that true happiness is beyond grasp in this world.

The Bible addresses these two impressions with the assertion that yes, life can be tragic, but these ways of thinking leave out the most important factor: God.  The Book of Psalms starts out with the words “Blessed (happy, fortunate, prosperous, enviable) is the man who…”.  Therefore, it is possible for a person to attain happiness.

The first psalm shows the way.  It starts by laying out the things one must avoid.  What are these things?

First, do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.  If you want to be happy, the first thing you must do is to stop listening to the outlook of the world: that which disregards and excludes God, the view that is opposed to God.  The counsel of the ungodly solicits the trust in one’s own knowledge and understanding. The word “ungodly” as translated implies a sense of restlessness; they must be restless because their knowledge is man’s knowledge, and therefore contingent and transitory.  Consider science theories decades ago that have now been discarded and replaced; consider the changing whims of fashion: what is fashionable today may be considered ludicrous in a few years.

Second, do not stand in the way of sinners.  This admonition requires little explanation.  If you want to be happy, you must avoid the way of the world, the way of the sinner, the way he only lives to satisfy the flesh.  This will never bring true happiness.

Third, do not sit in the seat of the scorners. These are people who hold everything that is holy in derision, people who laugh at God and religion and the sanctities of life, people who scoff at morality and decency.

The retrogression from walking, standing and sitting is clear in this first verse and illustrates the increasing grip of sin upon the soul.  Another aspect of this is how it causes the finest things in a person to degenerate to a state of immobility,  accomplishing  and affecting nothing, just sitting and muttering out their own conceived cleverness. Scoffers and scorners are so far removed from happiness, with no hope, paralyzed by evil and sin.

The other side of the prescription for happiness is a positive instruction.  Here is the secret of true happiness: it is that a man or woman ‘delights in the law of the Lord’, not in the wisdom of philosophers and thinkers, not in following the ungodly, but in the law of the Lord — the Bible.  Here is everything we need, God’s way to happiness.  But notice that those who are blessed delight in God’s law; they do not simply have an intellectual interest in it, or a religious compulsion to do so, but they have great pleasure in knowing it.

What makes a person delight in God’s Word?  We cannot attain this ourselves; it is a process wherein God takes the first step in showing the way to true happiness.  Amidst the tragedies of life, the desperation, the evil in this sinful world, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bear the punishment for our sins, reconciling us to God, and making us heirs to eternal bliss. Our part is to acknowledge our sins and put our faith in Jesus, believe that He has paid the price for us.  Once we believe and make Jesus the Lord of our lives, we become a new creation; we discover that we do indeed ‘delight in the law of the Lord’, we will lose our taste for the world and its temporal pleasures, we will desire to know more about God and His eternal truths.

Do you have this blessedness, this happiness?  Do you delight in God and His Word? Do you take pleasure in meditating about the joys and glories of eternity? If so, then it does not matter what you experience in this world, you will continually be blessed, and nothing can take this happiness away from you.

* Reference: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “True Happiness”, Gwasg Bryntiron Press, Wales, UK, 1967, pp.1-27

*Photograph: Panoramic Sunset over St. Finian’s Bay by Jean Winters Olkonen

How to Follow the Golden Rule

” because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Romans 8:21

My previous post expounded upon how the Golden Rule is the quintessential summary of the law and the prophets.  Such exposition would not be complete without considering why, after the Golden Rule has been before mankind’s face for over two thousand years, multitudes still do not follow it.  The problem of human relationships is raging as ever now in modern times as it was the very first time the Lord first introduced this glorious principle.

Why do human beings abandon this lofty rule for living? Why are there ongoing disputes between and among nations, in families, and at the cellular level, between two people?

The reason is biblical and theological.  One of the fundamental statements of the gospel is that man is sinful and perverted.  Everything can be brought down to one word: “self”.  Loving our neighbor as ourself is the one thing we do not do because we love self so much in a distorted and excessive way, that it is difficult to apply the Golden Rule.  Man is selfish by nature.

How then can one follow the Golden Rule?  The gospel solution starts with God: to start with the greatest commandment to “love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength”.  We start with God, not with our neighbor.

We turn from all our human relationship problems, the disputes and quarelling,  and we turn to God, and look into His face.  We see Him in all His holiness, His greatness, His almightiness and creative power, and humble ourselves before Him. The knowledge of God brings the realization of our poverty of spirit, our unworthiness, and of our utter need of Him.  In turn, we see other people as ourselves,  no longer as our competitors trying to beat us out in our worldly endeavors, but as victims like us, of sin and of the god of this world. We are both in the same predicament of overwhelming helplessness, that together we must run to Christ and avail ourselves of His wonderful grace of salvation.

It is when we have been delivered from the captivity of self that we are able to love our neighbor as ourselves, and we begin to enjoy the “glorious liberty of the children of God.”

*** Reference: David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount”, Martino Publishing, CT, 2011, pp. 211-216.

*** Photography: Sunrise by Giangiorgio Crisponi

The Golden Rule, the Law and the Prophets


” Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”  Matthew 7:12

The “Golden Rule” is the synopsis of the commandments that Jesus summed up in the words “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  It is the Lord’s prescription for successful human relationships, a system of thought where the place to start is our very own selves: taking stock of our likes and dislikes in the totality of our lives and activities.  Having performed this appraisal, when we come to interact with each other, we need to realize that the other person is exactly as we are in these matters.  Hence we are to put ourselves constantly in the other person’s position, being careful in our dealings to do or not to do those things that please or displease us ourselves.

It is commonly agreed that man’s great problem in the modern era is the problem of relationships.  If people applied the Golden Rule in their lives, this  problem would be addressed.  But there are those who believe that all that is needed is to hold up a standard  for people to follow, and things will work out fine.  But that is precisely what Jesus came against when he confronted the scribes and the Pharisees, those who upheld rules and regulations for people to follow, to conform to the letter of the law.

Jesus made a resounding proclamation in saying that the golden rule “is the law and the prophets”;  it is their whole object and purpose.  The Lord was concerned about portraying to the people the right and proper view of God’s law.  Problems arise because we do not fully understand the meaning of God’s law, its character and content. Many times we are engulfed in the number of directives and ordinances, that we forget what is the spirit of the law.

It is also perilous to view the law as something negative and prohibitive.  While there are negative aspects of the law, the Lord went to great lengths in the Sermon on the Mount to demonstrate the law as having a positive and spiritual nature.  It was never meant to be mechanical, and it was the fallacy of the scribes and Pharisees that they diminished something that was inherently spiritual into something in the realm of the mechanical, making it an end in and of itself; they failed to see the spiritual intent and character of the law.  Most of all, the scribes and Pharisees neglected to comprehend the great end and purpose for which the law had been given.

Why should we not covet our neighbor’s spouse, goods and possessions, why should we not kill and steal, why should we not commit adultery?  Are these directives designed simply for the sake of following rules and regulations and to keep our lives confined within certain boundaries?  No, the whole purpose and true spirit behind the law is that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and that we are to love one another.

Love lies at the very heart of the golden rule.  Love is truly the consummate summary of the law and the prophets.

*** Reference: David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount”, Martino Publishing, CT, 2011, pp. 206-210.