Perspective On Pleasure (In Search Of Truth, Hebrews 13:4-6)

Hebrews 13:4-6
4.Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5.Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6.So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”


v.4

As we trust Yahweh enough to obey him and do life his way, it should be true of us that we highly value marriage and value sexual intercourse as something meant only for the marriage relationship. Both "sexual immorality" (the Greek refers to "fornication") and adultery will be judged by Yahweh.
I think it's easier for us to recognize the wrong in sex outside of marriage when it involves people who are married. But it's also easy for us to convince ourselves that sex outside of marriage is actually okay in other situations, such as when we fully intend to marry the person we're having sex with.

Based on the context of scriptural stories involving marriage, marriage is official when vows of marital fidelity are exchanged openly before witnesses. So even sexual intercourse with someone you have every intention of marrying is not within God's will until you actually ARE married. If you have set yourself up with a situation that makes sex outside of marriage a temptation, I want to urge you to change your life situation, even at the cost of great financial or other difficulty to yourself.

There are numerous, long-lasting problems that can result from sexual activity outside of marriage, even without any kind of adultery taking place. But notice that the only consequence the author of Hebrews feels worth mentioning here is that of God's judgment. Sexual sin is easy to hide. So if you and I want to keep up the appearance of being "good, mature Christians" with those we see day to day or interact with online, we can do that, and congratulate ourselves, basking in how well thought of we are. But every day, every moment we convince ourselves that sin isn't a big deal (or that sin isn't actually sin), we forever miss out on the rewards that were waiting to be applied to us for those moments of decision. And although, as those who rely on Jesus for forgiveness, we are not condemned for our sins, we will have to stand before God and his detailed evaluation of our lives.

(2 Corinthians 5:10, ESV) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

v.5

I don't think many people would actually say they "love money". Money, by itself, is worthless bits of paper and metal, or even just ones and zeroes on a computer somewhere. But the understood promise of money is that it can be used to acquire goods, services, or influence. Contrasted with the "love of money" is contentment with what we have. And the reason offered for why we CAN be content with what we have is Yahweh's promise (a principle stated multiple times in scripture and possibly paraphrased here from Joshua 1:9) that he will never leave us or forsake us.

We might think, "Well yippee skippie, an invisible, intangible God is with me all the time. How does that magically fix how frustrated or anxious I am because I don't have the cool thing I can't stop thinking about?"

Thoughts like those, which I've certainly had myself, betray how stuck we are in a zoomed in, self-centered perspective. We tend to think only of whether or not we are experiencing comfort or pleasure in the moment, which leads to chasing pleasure and ironically building up a resistance to it that requires us to pursue pleasure even more in order to actually feel the pleasure we're looking for.

This pursuit of pleasure we fall into is a natural outworking of the belief that this life is either all there is or it's the main event, and so we need to experience all the pleasure we can while we still have time.That inflation of such a microscopic length of time is why we get discouraged when life does not go well for us or is disappointing in some way. We think that God has messed up somehow when we aren't experiencing enjoyment. But experiencing pleasure is not the purpose of this life.

Remembering God's promise to always be with us, and be true to his promises,  helps us to zoom out and remember God's relentless and eternal commitment to us. God, by the very nature of who he is, will give us enjoyment and pleasure beyond what we can imagine, that will last forever. And in the meantime, his promised presence is a reminder that we are loved by him even as life hurts or disappoints us, and are promised a future we can both hope and invest in right now.

v.6

That eternal perspective is what seems to be in mind as the author quotes Psalm 118:6. Psalm 118 celebrates the victories God gives us in this life in addition to the eternal and enduring nature of God's love. It's also a key Messianic psalm, quoted in numerous books (Matt 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; Eph 2:20) revealing Jesus, our "cornerstone" (Ephesians 2:19-22) as "the stone that the builders rejected". The Psalm also celebrates "he who comes in the name of Yahweh", and was quoted by the crowds when Jesus entered Jerusalem, making its messianic significance even more clear.

The quotation of Psalm 118 here points to the message of that Psalm and its fulfillment in the work of Jesus. Yahweh is a rescuer. He has rescued his people in the past and he will rescue them fully in the future because of what was accomplished by "the cornerstone", "he who comes in the name of Yahweh". It's not that we as believers will never be mistreated or harmed by other people. But anything that anyone can do to us is insignificant next to the reality of the eternal commitment and indescribable future God has promised us.


SO WHAT'S IN THIS FOR GEEKS

A common thread in these verses is choosing an eternal perspective of God's plans over pleasure in the moment. This may be the most intense struggle that is common to the largest number of geeks. Unfortunately, part of how media has implicitly defined geeks is based largely on materialistic pursuits. The measure of a geek is almost made by how much entertainment he/she has experienced or has in his/her collection. I think a healthier view of geekery is based on how much one enjoys some form of entertainment, which does not necessarily translate to time dedicated or money spent.

This pursuit of momentary pleasure, that geeks naturally lean toward, carries over into every area of our lives. Pleasure is a big part of being a geek, which is fine. But we so easily make pleasure our priority, making us vulnerable and weak against temptations toward sexual sin, poor eating habits, insensitive word choices, neglect of healthy conflict resolution, the list goes on. Our natural tendency is to constantly move toward comfort and pleasure in the moment.

In my own experience it seems like such a massive, overwhelming issue. It's a  part of my old self that Paul calls "Sarx" in the Greek (often translated "the flesh"). And yes, it sarx big time! It's not who we are (which is why many translation scholars avoid the translation "sinful nature"), but is a remnant of our old self. As though a bucket of honey were dumped on our head and allowed to dry.
It's not who we are, but it's horribly stuck to us and is a constant annoyance that effects every waking moment. How can we even begin to get that mess cleaned off so we can see and think more clearly?

This passage implies a significant part of the solution. In verse 5, the author quotes a principle of scripture meant to change our perspective and remind us of a truth that has already been taught. Remembering what we've already learned is such a huge part of scripture's purpose. A simple search at blueletterbible.org using the word "remember" reveals how important it is for us to simply remember what God has already said.

Growing up I was never motivated to memorize scripture. It always seemed like some weekly, arbitrary verse was chosen by my Sunday school teachers that had no real importance to my life at home or in school. (And candy wasn't a big enough motivator for me.) It still doesn't come naturally to me, and on top of that my memory is pretty lousy.

But a few years ago I realized that if I was going to really have a changed perspective I needed to strategically commit some scripture to memory, so that the truths I needed to be reminded of could come to mind instantly, rather than depending on me getting my phone out of my pocket. Sometimes that's all the time it takes to choose the wrong priority. Sometimes I need to be able to instantly say, out loud, repeatedly, something scripture reveals that flies in the face of a choice I'm tempted to make.

I don't memorize all the usual verses that are part of some evangelistic pamphlet or Sunday school curriculum, but verses specific to my day to day struggles and temptations. Verses I've accumulated and made note of as I continue a habit in scripture. Verses that correct my view of life and remind me of what is true and important from God's eternal perspective.

I still constantly struggle (and often lose) in my battles of perspective and temptations toward materialism and momentary pleasure. But I can tell you that God has been shaping my heart and moving it in a direction toward him in proportion to my strategic and self-customized memorization of scripture.

Something else that has been useful is to spend time thinking about the tangible reality of eternal life in a perfected, physical body. The more I think about eternity in physical terms (as scripture says it truly will be despite popular depictions in fiction) the more it solidifies as real in my mind, and something I can genuinely look forward to and invest in with my life right now.

When I was leading worship years ago our lead pastor once told me in his office that the church could really use more songs about heaven and what that eternal life will be like. And he was right. So much of our hope and motivation as believers hangs on the reality of heaven, and yet we persist in thinking of it in such cloudy terms while focusing on what God can do for us today. It's no wonder so many Christians lose faith when life goes down the toilet.

The reality is that we can experience transformed lives today, we can be content without giving in to our impulses, we can do battle and win against sin, as we remember our rescuing God and his plans for us.