Pain and Pleasure

The issue of pain and pleasure is one that we must all address at some point in our lives. The natural tendency is to gravitate towards things that bring you pleasure and away from things that cause pain. This is a human instinct almost as basic as that of breathing. However, at some point we must address the issue- in order to do right, must we endure pain, and are there some instances in which pleasure is wrong?

"Moreover, a love of pleasure has grown up with all of us from infancy. Therefore, this emotion has come to be ingrained in our lives and is difficult to erase. Even in our actions we use, to a greater or smaller extent, pleasure and pain as a criterion" -Nicomachean Ethics

In making major decisions, how often do we base our decision on what effect the result will cause on our personal comfort? I will be far more likely to decide to give away my money when I am sitting in my quarter million dollar home, safe, warm, and fed, than I would be to give away the $200 bucks I'd made that I intended to spread over food, rent, and utilities. The latter would probably cause me pain, the former, pleasure. Pain because I will have to do without. Pleasure because I now have the satisfaction of having done a "virtuous" deed with minimal cost to my own comfort. This is man's tendency.

I cannot help but wander whether or not Aristotle equates (at least to some degree) pleasure with virtue, and pain with evil. Clearly however, this is not the message of the Bible. Christ followers are often called to forsake pleasure and to endure suffering for the sake of the Kingdom.