What do we understand by 'Sustaining the Sacrifice of Love'

Here we are talking about the liberating discovery of pursuing joy in God which is also a devastating discovery. This is because our indwelling sin, opposes and perverts the pursuit of God and stands in our way of our full satisfaction in God. In fallenness, our pursuit of the things of the world are more desirable than God, and this perverts our thinking that we are pursuing God, which is devastating and makes the Christian living impossible. Now the hope for Christian living is found only in God, because He alone can make the depraved heart desire for God. The apostle Paul said, “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed” (1 Cor. 16:22); Christ must be cherished in our hearts, sustaining the sacrificial love of Christ with all of our hearts, mind, soul and in our strength. When we see trials and persecutions of Christians around the world, what do we do as Western Christians? “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Pet. 4:12). “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance” (Rom. 5:3). “Blessed are you when others . . . persecute you. . . . Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matt. 5:11-12). Fighting for joy is not to reduce the Western comforts, but is a fight to join Jesus on the Calvary road and stay with him no matter what our situations, and trials may be and looking at Jesus and the joy that was set before him and enduring the cross. The aim is not to salve the conscience of the well to do Western acquisition, but to sustain love’s ability to endure the worse, and that is may be to endure the sacrificial losses of property and security in life, by the power of joy in the path of love. Through this the aim is to make known to the world that Jesus Christ is all powerful, all wise, all merciful, all righteous, and the most satisfying treasure of the whole Universe which God has created. “Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Heb. 13:13-14).

They are discovering that there is nothing new about Christian Hedonism at all, but that it is simple, old-fashioned, historic, biblical, radical Christian living. – John Piper    

Piper, John. When I don’t desire God: How to fight for joy (Wheaton: IL, Crossway Books,2004).