1. What is your favorite “pig out” food?
2. Can you give an example of something that was initially good, but taken too far became bad?
3. Proverbs 21:17 in the New Living Translation says, “Those who love pleasure become poor; wine and luxury are not the way to riches.” Please put into your own words why the love of
pleasure ultimately causes one to become poor.
4. Author Leo Sandon Jr. writes, “Pleasure, broadly considered, is the gratifying of the desires of the senses or the mind...To engage in the idolatry of pleasure is to make pleasure the central aim - the crucial value - in human life. As in the case with all idolatries, it involves the inappropriate elevation of a good to the Good.”
According to Psalm 26:2, Psalm 139:23-24 and II Corinthians 13:5 what can we do to make sure that something that is a “good” pleasure does not become so central to our lives that it becomes elevated to the point of idolatry?
5. Society has quite a different spin on pleasure. Consider these two quotes: “Passion is God wanting to say ‘hi.’...You need no outside authority to give you direction, no higher source to supply you with answers...If you look to see what you feel about it, the answers will be obvious to you, and you will act accordingly.” - From the New Age best-seller of Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God
“With no effort other than paying attention to how we’re feeling, we can mold our lives exactly as we choose with relative ease and speed.” - From self-help book, Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting by Lynn Grabhorn
What are the consequences of making life decision’s according to one’s feelings alone, leaving out the authority and direction of God?
6. Associate Professor and Author J. Budziszewski writes, “The morality of pleasant feelings is quite simple: seek pleasure and avoid pain. In its individualistic form, this is Hedonism. Consider this quote that Budziszewski attributes to a famous ad campaign: “We are Hedonists and we want what feels good. We are all basically Hedonists. That’s what makes us human. And we were made to want pretty simple things: Food. Water. Shelter. Warmth. And pleasure. We want what feels good...If it feels good then just do it.”
As someone who follows Christ what Scripture would you offer to approach someone with this line of thinking?
7. Contrast the above quote with that of Leo Sandon, Jr. who writes, “The Christian affirms the experience of pleasure insofar as it is offered to the greater glory of God and inasmuch as it serves the needs of self and neighbor. Pleasure, however, cannot be elevated as the chief end and aim of human experience.”
8. Read Ecclesiastes 2:1-11. What did the teacher, who is thought to be King Solomon, conclude after indulging in every pleasure imaginable?
9. This passage described a grand experiment with pleasure and how it resulted in total failure. What do you think the writer of Ecclesiastes gave up in pursuit of this “grand experiment?”
10. Commentator Duane A. Garrett writes, “Laugher was insanity, and fun accomplished nothing. He does not imply that all laughter is to be squelched as an evil; rather, as a solution for the basic problems of life (above all the problem of death), it is a total failure. Throughout the book the Teacher will recommend enjoying life, but here he warns that partaking of pleasure does not of itself give meaning to existence.”
What has brought the greatest meaning to your existence?
11. What, in your own words, did Solomon express in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14? How does Solomon’s conclusion increase your understanding of “living for pleasure?”
II Corinthians 13:5 (New American Standard)
Ecclesiastes 2:1-11; 12:13-14 (New American Standard)
Feeling Moral Author: Budziszewski, J. Source: First Things no 127 N 2002, p 9-11. Doc. Type: Article Libraries Worldwide: 746
Garrett, Duane A. The New American Commentary Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs 291
Idolatrous Pleasure. Author: Sandon, Leo. Source: Christian Century 96 no 12 Ap 4 1979, p 367. Doc. Type: Article Libraries Worldwide: 3266
Proverbs 21:17 (New Living Translation)
Psalm 26:2; 139:23-24 (New American Standard)
http://www.ask.com/web?q=dictionary%3A+pleasure&content=ahdict%7C54324&o=0&l=dir
