Theological Commentary: Click Here
This chapter
is easy to get wrong. If we read it too
lightly, we hear verses such as Ecclesiastes 6:3 and think that life is not
worth living unless we are having fun.
If we take this too far, we end chasing happiness, not God. We end up making decision based on what will
please me rather than what is right.
However, if
we read through this chapter and put too much emphasis on the other end, we
become too legalistic. We think that
life is only best lived if it is right.
The truth, however, if that God doesn’t want a miserable legalist! There is no point in a person who does
everything right but has no joy along the way!
Life is best
lived with an understanding that we should pursue God’s righteousness, but do
it with a cheerful heart. Pursue all
things of God, but focus on the things of God that genuinely bring joy to your
soul. What is the point of life if we
are not given pleasure by the righteous choices that we make? On the flipside, what is the point of life if
we do not increase in righteousness by that which gives us pleasure?
In the end,
who truly knows what is good for us but God.
As human beings, we go forward in faith.
We try things, knowing that the closer a choice gets to being hindsight
the better our perspective will become.
We will make mistakes in judgment, naturally. That’s why we need guideposts. On one hand, we need the guidepost of
righteousness. Yet we cannot lose sight
of the other guidepost. We are flirting
with vanity if we pursue righteousness and give no consideration to whether our
hearts are filled with joy.
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