“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Thomas Jefferson penned these famous words in America’s Declaration of Independence.
What is the pursuit of happiness? What did America’s founders mean by that?
“Today we think of happiness as the pursuit of pleasure,” writes law professor Jeffrey Rosen. “But classical and Enlightenment thinkers defined happiness as the pursuit of virtue—as being good, rather than feeling good. For this reason, the founders believed that the quest for happiness is a daily practice, requiring mental and spiritual self-discipline, as well as mindfulness and rigorous time management. At its core, the founders viewed the pursuit of happiness as a lifelong quest for character improvement …” (The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America; emphasis added throughout).
That is a biblical principle. “[Become] ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The Greek word for perfect describes something that has reached its end or purpose.
You are on a lifelong quest for perfection. Your mission is to achieve perfect godly character.
This is why you were created: to become a perfect God being!
Many other verses declare this same message—for example, Matthew 19:21; Hebrews 6:1; 10:14; 1 John 2:5. When you stop seeking this goal, you resign yourself to unhappiness.
Rosen wrote that according to the classical definition, “happiness is always something to be pursued rather than obtained—a quest rather than a destination.”
The Christian life is a diligent quest for happiness. It is a way of life that produces happiness.
National Policy, Private Morality
America’s Founding Fathers were not converted men, but they worked hard to establish the United States of America on biblical principles. Rosen’s book doesn’t emphasize this enough.
George Washington stated in his First Inaugural Address, “[T]he foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality ….” Our first president believed that how we live matters! This was not a peripheral issue to Washington. It was the foundation of our national policy! He believed we could not sustain national unity without living according to biblical moral principles.
At the end of his presidential oath, Washington reverently added the words “so help me God.” Without religion and morality—without God—Washington knew the American experiment would fail.
Benjamin Franklin, a self-proclaimed non-churchgoer, was nevertheless very religious. In his autobiography, he listed 13 points to follow for attaining moral perfection, the last of which was to “imitate Jesus.” Thomas Jefferson had a similar list of virtues to live by.
George Washington often referred to a set of “Notes of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation,” a lengthy list of 110 virtues more specific than the Ten Commandments. One of the most famous paintings of our first commander in chief pictures him kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge.
During the Constitutional Convention, when the delegates reached an impasse, it was Franklin, the non-churchgoer, who suggested they pray for the “assistance of heaven.” Even Jefferson, not considered very religious, demanded this of the American people: “[C]an the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?”
Many of the Founding Fathers believed in God and the Bible but were not members of a traditional Christian denomination because they recognized that the churches’ teachings didn’t match the Bible.
For the founders, adherence to biblical standards of religion and morality, both nationally and individually, was essential for America to succeed. Our second president, John Adams, wrote, “Statesmen … may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religionand morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand.”
Our Founding Fathers created the Constitution for a people with strong morals. Jefferson and the other founders knew that the pursuit of happiness is only possible if we abide by the principles set out in the Bible. We ignore their perspective to our peril.
The Way to Happiness
Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in the October 1954 Good News, “The knowledge of how to live should be the first interest of every person.” Christ came so we could have an abundant life (John 10:10). That’s another way of saying, “so that you can be happy.”
If you are actively pursuing God’s way, you generally will be a happy person. In fact, as my father writes in John’s Gospel—the Love of God, God’s people should shine with happiness: “I believe that, in a general way, we may be able to determine how much star quality and brightness we will have in the future by how much our face shines today in happiness and joy.”
There is a way to happiness. It is not complicated—the Bible clearly reveals the path. “Conducting your life God’s way makes you happy!” my father continues. “And you’ll never be happy any other way.”
You will never be happy if you are not living God’s way. Many people want the benefits of God’s way of life, but they don’t want to obey the laws that produce those benefits. Man has a built-in hostility against God (Romans 8:7). Are you allowing that hostility to kill the way of happiness in your own life?
God set His laws in motion for our good—for our happiness and enjoyment. The Bible is the instruction manual for happiness. The Missing Dimension in Sex states, “God’s laws are the gift of His love to us. God wants us to enjoy the blessings they make possible.” What makes us happy is doing what God commands! God’s commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:3). God’s law is the way of love—not a shallow, phony love, but an unselfish and outflowing love.
God doesn’t prohibit things that benefit us. He only commands us to avoid things that bring us misery. When God says “Don’t,” it’s because He wants us to be happy and avoid pain.
“If ye know these things,” Jesus said, “happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:17). If you do what Christ commands in the Bible, you will be happy.
Happiness comes from submission to the Father. It really is that simple. You have the power to choose what kind of life you have—a life of misery or a life of joy.
Examine yourself. Are you as happy as you could be and should be? How much are you doing what you know to do? God’s way will never make you unhappy. God is the happiest being in the universe! The Father and Christ have already obtained happiness. The rest of us are on a quest, pursuing it.
What does it mean when we lack joy or happiness? So much of the time we are not 100 percent happy because we are not 100 percent obedient to God.
Why does man resist the only way that brings happiness? Unhappy people populate today’s world because they are in the bonds of sin! Isaiah 3:9 says that Israel’s sins have even affected their countenances. They look miserable because they are living the way that leads to misery! If we aren’t careful, the misery that pervades this world can influence our thinking.
Why is the devil so miserable? He is not pursuing happiness. He diligently pursues the way that leads to misery. He wants you to be just as miserable as he is. Every satanic broadcast pushes you to seek happiness through material means, through the get way, through seeking your own pleasure instead of doing what is right. Beware letting Satan guide your thinking in that direction. My father writes in The Epistles of Peter—A Living Hope, “If our mind is just on the things of this world, we will become mired in depression, stress and discouragement.”
The devil is miserable, but he still thinks he is right. Naturally, under his sway, we make the same mistake. Remember the truth in Proverbs 14:12: “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
Fruit of the Spirit
As our Savior and High Priest, Christ wants us to follow His example of perfect submission and obedience—to do as He did (John 13:15).
The Passover season reminds us that Jesus Christ gave His life so we could experience the true joy and happiness of being in God’s Family. My father writes in How to Be an Overcomer that “the single greatest cause of discouragement around this time of the year—and perhaps throughout the year—is that people are not looking on the Passover the way they should.” Do we not owe it to our Husband to submissively follow His example and pursue the way that leads to godly happiness?
1 Peter 2:21 says, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” Christ set a perfect example for His students. He totally subjected Himself to the Father’s will.
The Son of God paid a tremendous price so that we might receive the Holy Spirit, the down payment of eternal life. The 12 disciples were limited in many ways because they didn’t have Jesus Christ living in them by the power of the Holy Spirit.
As an unconverted student of Jesus, the disciple Peter tried very hard. At one point he even walked on water! (Matthew 14:29). But when he took his eyes off Christ, he began to sink (verse 30). When he got away from Christ, Peter made significant errors. Peter was a dynamic personality, outspoken, a natural leader, bold, courageous—but those strengths were misguided when not channeled by God’s love.
Ancient Israel’s failures as a nation also prove that man needs God’s Holy Spirit in him, or perfect obedience is impossible. The will and power to produce any positive spiritual fruit comes from God.
God’s love dwells within us by the power of His Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). The Spirit of God is the greatest gift in the universe. It is how Jesus Christ lives in our flesh. It equips us to live the way that leads to happiness, and it motivates us to pursue that right way.
The Give Way
True love is the give principle set in motion. The simple act of giving is one of the most powerful forces for good in the universe! It is the rule by which God sustains all of creation.
The Moffatt translation of Acts 20:35 says, “… To give is happier than to get.” The way of give is the happy way.
By the simple act of giving, you not only fulfill God’s law of love but also set in motion a principle of life that blesses everyone within your sphere of influence.
The world tells you to follow your heart and do what feels good. But very often, true love goes against every emotional desire you might have.
God repeats this truth throughout the Bible. “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38).
Christ told His disciples, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11). If we follow Christ’s teachings, we can have His own joy.
Mr. Armstrong said that it was when he gave up living life his own way that he finally found true joy: “Finally, I did make the surrender—unconditionally! I told God He could have my life, and if He could make anything out of it, He could have it—I had made only a failure out of it! And I did mean that!
“To me, it meant giving up everything I had valued as worth living for. … Perhaps, then, I never expected to really enjoy life anymore. … But actually, that was precisely when I really found it!
“That was when truly enjoying life first began! … I began to learn that happiness did not consist of material possessions. Happiness is in the mind. And somehow, I had found happiness—real, full, abundant, deep-down happiness! … Having a part in God’s own Work was the greatest joy I had known” (Tomorrow’s World, June 1971).
If you give your life to the Work of God, you will gain everything. Proverbs 11:24-25 state in the Moffatt, “One gives away, and still he grows the richer: another keeps what he should give, and is the poorer. A liberal soul will be enriched, and he who waters will himself be watered.” Make it a constant, daily goal to practice this godly attitude—give!
Pursue Good, Not Evil
In today’s world, the pursuit of happiness is all about feeling good. People spend much less time trying to be good. But striving to be good is the path to true happiness. Our best defense against evil is good (Romans 12:21).
Paul brings this out beautifully in Galatians 5. Verse 16 states, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Verse 17 explains that our carnal nature and the Holy Spirit are opposed to one another, antagonistic to each other. This is the battle we fight every minute of every day. It is warfare—the Spirit against the flesh!
God says we must fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12). This is a knock-down, drag-out fight! You are battling a real spiritual enemy who wants to destroy your life and your potential!
Every new convert understands this constant pressure to give up. As true Christians, we must exercise our will to get into spiritual shape and fight back. If you do not exercise spiritually every day, you will weaken and eventually succumb to the devil’s attacks.
The moment you put down your weapon and surrender, you might experience a blip of tranquility—but consider the end! When you stop pursuing happiness by living God’s way of life, you surrender to the enemy. Surrendering to the devil is the path to eternal death.
Galatians 5:19-21 detail the carnal influences and pulls we must battle. It is hard work to resist these natural pulls. It becomes easier when we focus on building the fruits of the Spirit in our life (verses 22-23).
The world has its own brand of love, joy and peace. But these are not the attributes of God; they are works of the flesh! True Christian fruits come from God alone.
Among those godly fruits is temperance, or self-control. This is the key to real spiritual power. Most people cannot be filled with God’s Spirit because they are not willing to exercise self-control. You must use God’s power to train your will (article, page 20).
“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (verses 24-25). These verses describe a daily repentance process, a daily battle to let Christ live in us (Galatians 2:20).
These verses give you a real sense of the challenge that “the pursuit of happiness” entails! It is a noble, invigorating challenge, and success truly does lead to genuine happiness.
Called to Virtue
2 Peter 1:3 says that God has “called us to glory and virtue.” The Greek word translated virtue means to be pure, to attain moral excellence. Pursuing that kind of virtue is the pursuit of happiness!
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (verse 4). So many people who are out chasing “happiness” are actually enslaving themselves to corruption. God wants to free us and enable us to partake of His divine nature!
Peter then lists qualities that we should diligently pursue: “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” (verses 5-7).
That virtue, that moral excellence, is right near the top of the list! We add that by walking in the footsteps of Christ and pursuing the quest for happiness.
The qualities Peter lists here will make you an active and fruitful Christian. “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 8).
God wants us to “bear much fruit” (John 15:8). He doesn’t want any one of us to be unfruitful or unhappy.
Achieving that end requires “all diligence.” The pursuit of godly happiness means applying the spiritual knowledge God gives us. You cannot simply agree with the truth and enjoy its benefits.
My father writes in The Last Hour, “If you lack that joy, stay on your knees until you get it! … Full joy comes from fellowshipping with the Father and the Son.”
Pursue happiness. Seek it with all of your being. That quest is your ultimate purpose. Dedicating yourself to this quest will bring you happiness in this life and secure your ultimate destiny of bringing happiness to the entire world.