What
is happiness? The feeling you get when you have a chance to be kind
to someone in a way that completely changes their circumstances? Or
the feeling of loving someone and being loved by them? A time in
your life when you feel completely at peace? Being filled with
thrill and joy of an exciting experience? Maybe all those things are
included in happiness, but there is one thing any child can see. We
humans are all seeking after some sort of complete happiness. One
with no guilt, unending, and without compromise in the smallest
details. It is true, many give up the idea that such a happiness
exists, but they are still driven to it in their actions.
A
friend of mine said, “God cares more about our holiness than our
happiness.” There is some truth this statement. However, God does
care greatly about our happiness—that's why he put the desire to
obtain it inside of us. The truth in the statement is that true
happiness without lack is only found in a being and environment of
true holiness. And nowhere else. First holiness, then happiness.
If you didn't know already, that being is God and that environment is
His kingdom.
“You
shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus
20:1-17) is what the old testament says at the top the list of
the big ten. There was once a very well studied lawyer wanted to
test Jesus' knowledge of God's law, so he asked him what was the
greatest commandment in the law. “Jesus said to him, ''You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and
with all your mind.' (Deuteronomy
6:5) This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second
is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself' (Leviticus
19:18) On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets.” (Matthew
22:37-40)
So
what does this mean? Was Jesus wrong? Of course not! But he gave
an answer that the lawyer was not looking for. One that confounded
him. Jesus was telling in that moment the one thing that matters
most to God. He was showing that when a heart is surrendered and
sold out to loving Yahweh only and when His worthiness is realized,
worship (lit worthship)
comes naturally in all that we do. And the second has to be
included, because Jesus knew that many would, even today, begin to
think that they can forget those around them and just have a
relationship with God. It is second because it is impossible to love
others without first loving God. It is included because it is
impossible to come to love God and not love those around us. (1
John 4:20) So what the law and the prophets have been trying to
tell God's people for so long, Jesus showed they were all dependent
on these two commandments. To truly worship no other gods before
God, we must truly and fully love Him. And those around us.
The
instinctive desire to obtain happiness that God built into us in
creation is almost always corrupted in a selfish way that causes one
to look first to oneself to bring themselves the most happiness.
This is just not how it was meant to be. Jesus is our perfect
example in this. I don't mean to sound cliché
when I say that we need to follow Jesus example. He was a type of
Adam—the one that didn't make any mistakes. “Great. But I'm not
God,” we say. And that is exactly the statement we need to come to
conclude. We could be completely holy and perfectly happy, but we
are not God.
This
is where the good news comes in. Literally what the gospel truly is.
We all want happiness, we understand that perfect happiness is only
found in the One who is holy, and we cannot survive coming near His
perfection and purity without being pure ourselves (Psalm
24). We know we need to completely love God to be holy, but to
love like that is to be completely holy. We know that God is
completely holy and even if we could make our selves holy, it does
not erase the stain of what we have already done. So we are without
hope. We can never find happiness. Except that Jesus died to
literally give us His holiness—to erase the stain of what we have
done and put His Spirit of holiness in us to give us His holiness, so
we can understand His worthiness, so that we can truly love Him and
others! And therefore we find the real happiness we were made for.
A great way to understand this is in 1
Corinthians 15.
Now
we no longer search for what we have, going back to the old way of
seeking happiness, but only seeking God. Happiness is a by-product.
A fruit if you will. The fruit of God in our lives is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. That is true happiness. The pursuit
of it outside of God looks opposite. (Galatians
5:17-26) Understand it as you draw near to the one who gave you
your desire. One step at a time, starting with love.
