Home > Short Studies > Enjoing this present life (Ecc 5:18)
Enjoying this present life
Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward. — Ecclesiastes 5:18
It is a common perception among believers and nonbelievers alike that the Christian life is primarily one of deprivation, a life that shuns the pleasures of this world in favor of rigid piety and sacrifice. The Bible lets us know however that these pursuits are not mutually exclusive. God wants Christians to enjoy life to the fullest, and it is through their faith that they are able to do so.
Solomon was a ruler of unparalleled wisdom, possessing an ability for insight that had been granted by God Himself. While it is true that despite this gift of wisdom Solomon made some unwise choices, his observations immortalized in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are truth straight from the Holy Spirit, and numerous times there he asserts that it is a good and right thing for people to enjoy themselves—to rejoice in their various labors, to eat and drink and take pleasure in the good gifts that God has provided.
Everything good comes from God, but man’s limitations often prevent him from distinguishing the good from the bad. In our fallen state, we are driven by our sinful passions and as a result sinful pleasures appeal to us. Unfortunately this is all too often how we choose to enjoy life. We surrender to temptation and engage in sinful pursuits, even though the fleeting enjoyment we may glean from them is a lie; sin ultimately and always leads to man's destruction.
We must discern the good from the bad as we seek happiness in this life. We must remember that because no darkness exists in God at all, He is not and cannot be the author of sin. What God did do is make this earth and declare it to be good. His word makes plain that He richly supplies us with all things to enjoy, and He provides our ultimate fulfilment in this life through faith in Jesus Christ.
Though Christians are instructed to take up their cross and follow Jesus, discipleship is not an affliction, and a life serving Christ is not intended to be an exercise in misery. If it is, then our perspective is wrong and our motivations questionable. It is God’s will that Christians enjoy the good things He provides in this life. As Jonathan Edwards wrote in an exposition of Proverbs 24:13-14:
God has given us of his redundant bounty many things for the delight of our senses, for our pleasure and gratification. Religion is not a thing that makes these things useless to us, nor does it cut us off from the enjoyment of them.*
While God certainly permits and encourages believers to enjoy temporal pleasures, their real fulfilment is found in the abundant spiritual life that Jesus describes. This is the eternal life of God that is promised to everyone who puts their trust in Jesus and follows Him as Lord of their life. Because of their unique understanding of God’s gift of grace, Christians can set their sights on what is eternal rather than what is temporary. It is not necessary for them to depend on the things of the physical world to provide fulfilment.
As a result, Christians are able to fully enjoy the material blessings and pleasures of this earth reasonably and in moderation. Their partaking comes from a place of humility, gratitude, and security in God’s truth, in contrast to heathen who veer unrestrained into sin in an attempt to appease unquenchable sensual appetites. Sin is the product of free will and it is the lot of the natural man to seek happiness by way of it. As Solomon put it, “God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”
There is only fulfilment in Christ. It is this reality that enables believers to derive full enjoyment from the good things God provides on earth while their true hope resides in the things above, the abundant, eternal life of God.
* Edwards, Jonathan, “The Pleasantness of Religion”, Sermons and Discourses 1723-1729
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Most scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB)
