One of the deepest unhealthy attachments for maturing disciples of Jesus is spiritual hedonism. It has many variations and its veins reach deep down to the core of our being. It is best to assume that it will be a threat to your maturity for the rest of your life. No matter how much we grow spiritual hedonism will invent new ways to infiltrate our soul.
Spiritual hedonism is the disordered attachment to pleasure (we use the words “sweetness” and “consolation” interchangeably with “pleasure”) from God or from following God. Our old self naturally desires to fall in love with the pleasure we receive through God instead of God himself. This is deeply ingrained in us because God made us for pleasure but our desire for pleasure was corrupted in the fall of Adam. Now our desire for pleasure creates distortions in our spiritual growth. In the next age, God will flood us with spiritual pleasure for all eternity.
Spiritual pleasures can include the unusual peace or joy that might come over us during times of worship or devotion. They can also include waves of love or other euphoric feelings that flood our souls. It can also include the general enjoyment we might feel during prayer.
In this age we must pursue God’s will and the way of the Cross more than we pursue sweetness from God. Scripture is clear that unchanging faith and suffering is required for our own purification and for sacrificially loving others. In other words, the opposite of spiritual hedonism is a healthy relationship with God. Romans 8:17 says that we are God’s children “if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (NIV).
Johannes Tauler (c.1300-1361), a teacher esteemed by Martin Luther, warned that “spiritual sweetness” is one of the five captivities we encounter in this world and described how it captures us:
Many a man has been led astray by it, because he pursued it in an undisciplined way, sunk down in it, and came to a standstill there; it seemed to him a good thing to possess and to abandon himself to with pleasure. But nature will claim its share, and when we think we have grasped God, it is only our own enjoyment we have grasped.[1]
Johannes Tauler
He offers a practical way to know if we are wrongly attached to the pleasure, which we would do well to consider:
If we feel restless and distressed and are troubled as soon as the sweetness begins to fade and diminish, if we are unable to serve God as willingly and as faithfully as before, then we may be sure that it was not really God we served.[2]
Johannes Tauler
Therefore, if we do not feel the presence of God like we used to we should not let that alone convince us that we have gone astray somehow. This is the time to learn deeper faith and seeking God’s will. It is the time to let go of our attachment to spiritual pleasure.
Someone might object: “Doesn’t God want us to be full of pleasure in him?” “Isn’t joy one of the fruits of the Spirit?” The answer is that there is a big difference between joy and pursuing pleasure in God. The latter elevates pleasure above the giver of the pleasure. The latter is averse to suffering and the way of the Cross. The latter is actually a love of pleasure. Joy is a quality that abides in us even during our suffering, though we may not feel it at times. Jesus experienced suffering along with his deep joy. We should not attach our hearts to pursuing joyful feelings, rather we trust and love God and joy flows naturally even while we cling to God’s will and follow the way of the Cross.
For a related post on seeking the presence of God see here.
[1] Johannes Tauler, Johannes Tauler: Sermons, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Maria Shrady (New York: Paulist Press, 1985), 71, (sermon 19).
[2] Ibid., 71, (sermon 19).
