Now this is a good problem for the challenge idea method. Good stuff. The church needs to get out of their box and ask these types of questions which lead to other important questions and so on and so forth being careful to qualify conclusions properly.
We could start by recognizing that the Bible (and observation) states some pleasure is immoral. The paradox of bad pleasures is highlighted in the roll call of faith of Hebrews 11, where we read that Moses chose “rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin” (Heb 11:25 RSV).
“The pleasures of sin” must mean the immediate gratification that some morally bad actions can bring. We can further surmise that pleasures can be “false” when they are morally wrong or when they are overvalued (perhaps to the point of idolatry).
Although in one sense the Bible endorses the person as pleasure-seeker, Paul in 2 Timothy 3:4 delineates what can go wrong with this innate human impulse to seek pleasure when he speaks of people who are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (RSV). Peter extends the picture when he writes of people who “count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation” (2 Pet 2:13 RSV). Here is a double image of false pleasures—activities that gratify the body temporarily but that are pursued excessively to the neglect of the greater good, God, and that are immoral, displeasing to God.
The most obvious category of pleasurable sins depicted in the Bible is illicit sexual activity. A memorable narrative example is David’s adultery with Bathsheba (2 Sam 11). But the book of Proverbs gives the most detailed account of the false pleasures of illicit sex. The seductress Folly assures her victims that “stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (Prov 9:17 RSV).
The extended temptation story in Proverbs 7:6–27 is replete with evocative imagery of sexual and sensory pleasure-kisses, a couch decked with coverings, a luxurious linen bedspread, perfume, privacy and the invitation “Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love” (Prov 7:18 RSV). Equally vivid is the imagery of the “smooth tongue of the adventuress” (Prov 6:24 RSV) and her sexual attractiveness, identified as a “beauty” that a man would desire in his heart and imaged by the woman’s captivating eyelashes (Prov 6:25).
Additional portraits of the perversion of pleasure fill out the description of false pleasures. The proverb “He who loves pleasure will be a poor man” (Prov 21:17 RSV) refers to the person who neglects the duties of work in order to do what is more immediately pleasurable. People can actually come to enjoy immoral acts, so that (for example) they “take pleasure in falsehood” (Ps 62:4 RSV). Addiction and lack of self-control are evident in people who are “slaves to various passions and pleasures” (Tit 3:3 RSV).
The most detailed account of the futility and disillusionment that attend an abandonment to pleasure occurs in Ecclesiastes 2:1–11, where the author decides to “make a test of pleasure” by pursuing discreet sensuality, the acquisition of goods, sex and entertainment. But after keeping his “heart from no pleasure,” he comes up empty: “all was vanity and a striving after wind” (RSV). In this famous test the ancient teacher tried to get more out of the pleasures of life than they can give, whereas other passages in Ecclesiastes show pleasure to be something God gives.
And the imagery asserts places of false pleasure. Ecclesiastes 7:2–4 speaks of a “house of feasting” and a “house of mirth” (NIV “house of pleasure”). In Proverbs 9:13–18 Folly has her own “house” from which she utters her seductive invitation to eat bread “in secret.” The point of the spatial metaphor is at least twofold: (1) many actions require a site where they are performed and with which they are associated, and (2) an indulgent lifestyle surrounds a person and becomes the habitual “world” in which he or she resides. True pleasures are also pictured as having their special places: the psalmist finds his pleasure at God’s right hand (Ps 16:11) and in the temple (Ps 84:4).
The science of sin focuses on those carnal pleasures which are sin (don't confuse those with the ones that are not); however, since we exist in a multi-layered complex reality that incorporates both the material and the spiritual it's important to point out that other components (e.g. psychological, spiritual, etc...) exist as well.
My church was organizing an event for none believers and when we asked that question all of a sudden you see silence in the room!!
