Pleasure is not intrinsically evil. The drive-reduction mechanism of hunger, thirst, and desire reflects God's mind, and He pronounced His creation good. Paul's warning in II Timothy 3:4 targets those who become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, making an idol of pleasure. The legitimate satisfying of desire is acceptable so long as it does not become an overriding obsession and is pursued by God's rules. Pleasure, peace of mind, and the desires of the heart are by-products of seeking God's righteousness (Psalm 37:4; Isaiah 58:13-14; Matthew 6:33). Setting the heart on pleasure as an end in itself therefore yields no lasting satisfaction, and Proverbs 21:17 says the lover of pleasure will be poor. The same holds for money, power, security, and sleep. Their sweetness comes as the result of productive work and righteous living, not from chasing them directly. Excessive desire, even for good things, breeds addiction, craving ever more without satisfaction, and can end in sin, destitution, and death. God made our nervous systems so that temporary pleasures never fully satisfy. Wine, music, and food are not evil, but misdirected or excessive use is. Desires are meant to motivate and keep us productive, and the Law of Compensation teaches that the value of a thing is learned through its lack. Hearts should therefore be set on what endures. Godly pleasures satisfy without an unpleasant afterthirst, guilt, or sorrow (Proverbs 10:22). Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, the Holy Spirit, wisdom, and God's law brings lasting peace and fullness. In God's presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

Pursuing pleasure for its own sake is self-centered and empty. Solomon deliberately tested it for years with entertainment, alcohol, building projects, and wealth, denying his eyes and heart nothing, and found it a spectacular failure. His words "madness" and "mirth" indicate moral perversity, not mere foolishness. Laughter can mask a bitter reality, and the end of mirth may be grief. Things give pleasure while the work is in progress, but the satisfaction is brief, because God did not create us to find lasting fulfillment in things. Pleasure for pleasure's sake runs against God's selfless-centered universe, since God Himself is selfless, and it pulls toward disappointment, emptiness, and death. Entertainment figures with their broken marriages illustrate this. Good times also lead people to relax spiritually and grow distant from God and others, which is why Judges shows people going bad in good times. Modern believers have ample access to entertainment, travel, comfort, and even illicit pleasures that Solomon might have envied, and Paul warns that people in the end-time will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Lasting fulfillment comes from love grounded in a relationship with God through His Spirit, and from valuing people above things and thrills. Wisdom is far better than the folly of mirth. Selfless pleasure within a relationship with God produces true enjoyment and builds character together. Solomon was not against cheerfulness. Enjoying food, drink, and labor is a gift from God's hand, and God gives joy, wisdom, and knowledge to the one who is good in His sight. Joy cannot be found apart from Him, so those who cannot find enjoyment in life must make God the center. Believers must set their minds on things above.

Pursuing pleasure cannot produce lasting meaning or joy. Solomon spent half of Ecclesiastes 2 recounting how he spared no expense seeking joy in homes, gardens, music, drinking, and sex, and he concluded that laughter is madness and that the pursuit of pleasure has no lasting meaning. His search was not a drunken debauch, for God kept his mind clear so the true meaning would not slip past him. Proverbs, also written by Solomon, adds that laughter and pleasure often hide grief and sorrow, and it pictures fools laughing on the road to destruction. They enjoy themselves right up until they fall into the Lake of Fire, having spent their lives on meaningless folly. Much of the modern craze for constant entertainment is an attempt to deaden the pain of disappointment, depression, illness, and joblessness. Happiness and pleasure are things people chase after and produce, whereas biblical joy is a gift from God, related to grace, and is a calm cheerfulness and sense of well-being despite life's difficulties. C.S. Lewis insisted that joy be sharply distinguished from both happiness and pleasure. Joy does not spring from anything earthly or material, and it is inseparable from godly love. It arises from a relationship with God and from being in His presence. Laughter is no reliable sign of joy, since people laugh at evil, at another's suffering, and at sarcastic put-downs.

The Christmas season, though popularly called the "giving season," is more accurately understood as a "taking season," one that promotes self-focus, self-concern, and above all self-indulgence, defined biblically and through dictionaries as excessive pursuit of one's own appetites and desires, or "a love of pleasure divorced from righteousness." This pursuit of pleasure is examined through several Greek terms: truphaó (to revel or indulge in luxury), truphé (to enfeeble the mind and body through indulgence, luxury, or effeminacy), and entruphaó (self-indulgence resulting in the breakdown of body, soul, and spirit). Together these terms reveal that the pursuit of pleasure, when unchecked, is not a harmless enjoyment but a force that weakens and destroys a person entirely. Importantly, enjoying life's pleasures in moderation—savoring good food, drink, or an occasional luxury—is not condemned, since God Himself encourages enjoyment of such things, particularly at the Feast. The danger lies in losing balance, becoming obsessed with gratifying desire to the detriment of relationships with others and with God, echoing Paul's warning about those who are "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." Notably, the pursuit of pleasure is not limited to indulgence in luxury; extreme self-denial, as practiced by ascetics who obsessively pursued austerity to the point of separating themselves from community and God, is identified as its own form of self-indulgence. Biblical examples illustrate the destructive end of unrestrained pleasure-seeking. Satan's rebellion stemmed from unbridled self-indulgent lust for power and praise, costing him his beauty, talent, closeness to God, and eternal life. Samson's pursuit of self-indulgent desires for Philistine women cost him his strength, sight, dignity, and ultimately his life. Solomon, despite unmatched wisdom and riches, withheld nothing from his eyes or heart's desire, only to find his joy and love for life replaced by despair, famously concluding that all was "vanity and a grasping for the wind." This theme connects to contemporary culture through the LGBTQ movement's growing influence over Christmas observances, exemplified by drag-themed nativity performances described through the term "yassification"—the feminizing of men for pleasure and excitement—which mirrors precisely the biblical definitions of self-indulgence as enfeebling and effeminizing. Both mainstream, sentimental Christmas-keeping and its more radical, hedonistic counterpart are seen as satanically inspired expressions of the same underlying self-indulgence, leaving their adherents increasingly miserable, a reality reflected in the sharp spike in suicides following Christmas, prompting the observation that "unhappiness is the ultimate form of self-indulgence" because it allows one to take oneself very seriously. Ultimately, the pursuit of pleasure becomes dangerous when it displaces one's relationship with God, requiring balance, restraint, and control rather than total denial. The call is to recognize Satan's design of the season as an engineered display of "extreme nonstop self-indulgence," wrapped in charm and beauty, and to resist being ensnared by either form of pleasure-seeking, holding fast instead to what has been given so that no one may take one's crown.

This nation has absorbed behaviors reminiscent of pagan Gentiles, surpassing them in decadence due to its affluence. Such behaviors include overindulgence, marked by revelry and drunkenness, which lead to disorder and sensuality. Additionally, lewdness and lust manifest as immodest actions and illicit indulgences, prevalent among those who do not know God. Strife and envy further characterize this lack of self-control, fostering contention and intense passions that degrade attitudes and relationships. These tendencies mirror the pagan practices of old, where unrestrained behavior was common, and stand in stark contrast to the call for purity and holiness among God's people. Moreover, spiritual immorality, akin to adultery, emerges when individuals are enticed by teachings contrary to God's will, such as those from Far Eastern and Native American religions. These pagan influences, often promoted in media like children's movies and cartoons with themes of the circle of life, yin yang, reincarnation, spirit guides, and dream catchers, pose a risk of spiritual unfaithfulness. Witchcraft, growing rapidly among young women in schools, further exemplifies this trend. It is imperative to guard against such influences to maintain spiritual purity and honor the sanctification that God desires for His followers.