My daughter plays by sitting in one place and manipulating objects, because in her mind sitting leads to playing, and playing is happiness. For the longest time this is how I saw the interplay between holiness and joy. 'If I am holy, then I will be joyful' seems so very plausible because it's true that if you are holy, then you will be happy in Christ, but the very structure of the thought is harmful because it imposes the idea that holy is the cause of the effect happiness, that they are two distinct things.
Now this is a step up from Piper who starts from the wrong end "Look for joy and then you will find holiness" but even so, upon watching my kids today it occurs to me that there is an even better way to view the dynamic between holiness and joy.
My son plays by crawling around, to him mobility is not a means to an end, it is the end, the crawling itself is what brings him happiness.
This, I think, is the superior way to view the interchange between joy and holiness- not that one causes the other, but that one is the manifestation of the other. That they are essentially the same thing.
And so, mans chief end, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever could be shortened to be Holy, just as God is holy, (1 Peter 1:15), because holiness is joy.
1 comment:
Love this.
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