Is Discouragement a Sin?
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00:00:04.860 | Irma writes in to ask, "Pastor John, is discouragement a sin?"
00:00:09.940 | It all depends on what the experience of discouragement is for Irma and for me.
00:00:19.500 | Let's make some distinctions between the sin kind of discouragement and the non-sin kind.
00:00:28.500 | I think it's helpful to compare discouragement to something like anger and irritation and
00:00:34.800 | sorrow for our sin because I think all of those are possible without sin and they are
00:00:42.920 | quickly converted into sin and the question is what's the difference.
00:00:48.440 | So the Bible says, "Be angry, but do not sin.
00:00:51.960 | Don't let the sun go down on your anger."
00:00:54.480 | And then it says in James, "Be slow to anger, the anger of man does not work the righteousness
00:01:01.120 | of God."
00:01:02.120 | So anger is dangerous.
00:01:03.440 | If you go to bed with it, if you come to it too quickly, if you stay with it too long,
00:01:08.720 | it's going to rot on you.
00:01:12.040 | And same thing with irritation.
00:01:14.760 | I've always wondered about this because it says in Acts 17 that Paul was irritated in
00:01:19.960 | his soul when he saw the idolatry and according to 1 Corinthians 13, love is not irritated.
00:01:27.760 | And it's the same word and even though the word easily irritated is stuck in in the translations,
00:01:33.920 | it just says irritated.
00:01:35.160 | So there is irritation that love doesn't do and there is irritation that love does experience.
00:01:42.400 | There's a holy irritation that can pass quickly into sinful irritation.
00:01:48.080 | Same way with sorrow.
00:01:50.640 | It's right to feel remorse and sorrow when we sin, but if that sorrow starts to paralyze
00:01:58.040 | us, if it doesn't willingly bow and receive grace, it's going to become a deadly and ungodly
00:02:05.080 | sorrow.
00:02:06.760 | So those analogies help me when I come back now to discouragement and I say, "It's right
00:02:12.880 | to be saddened and disappointed and disheartened by the sin in our lives or the failures of
00:02:20.640 | other lives we see or the sins that our family members or our church or maybe our pastor
00:02:27.960 | is committing.
00:02:29.520 | We see it and our hearts sink.
00:02:32.120 | We're sad.
00:02:33.120 | We're disappointed.
00:02:34.120 | I think that's a kind of discouragement and I don't think it's wrong to feel that way.
00:02:39.560 | What did Jesus feel in Mark 9 when he said, "Oh, faceless generation, how long am I to
00:02:45.360 | be with you?
00:02:46.360 | How long am I to bear with you?
00:02:48.920 | Bring him to me."
00:02:50.360 | What was Jesus feeling when he felt, it seems like, irritated, a holy irritation at the
00:02:56.520 | faithlessness of his disciples, a kind of holy frustration that his efforts to bring
00:03:05.360 | them to faith is taking so long?
00:03:09.240 | That's not sin in Jesus.
00:03:12.240 | It's not an expression of delight.
00:03:15.520 | He's somehow discouraged with the way they are.
00:03:20.800 | So when we see a faithlessness in others or in ourselves, we ought to disapprove.
00:03:28.840 | We ought to feel disheartened at failures of love.
00:03:31.980 | We ought to feel remorse at our sin and ache for the lostness of others.
00:03:36.720 | And the big question is, what's the difference?
00:03:39.840 | Or when does the good kind become the bad kind?
00:03:43.640 | And here are the things I think Irma should watch for.
00:03:48.960 | Watch for discouragement starting to turn into self-pity.
00:03:55.760 | Watch for discouragement starting to paralyze you and keep us from doing what we should.
00:04:04.640 | Watch for the threat to the abiding contentment that you have in God so that you can't say
00:04:15.160 | sorrowful yet always rejoicing.
00:04:17.960 | If that always rejoicing starts to be defeated by your discouragement, discouragement's gotten
00:04:23.760 | into the sinful category.
00:04:26.120 | When it leads us to doubt God's goodness or his wisdom or his power, it's passed over
00:04:31.200 | into the sinful part.
00:04:33.400 | When it stamps our lives so that we're not outgoing and loving toward people anymore,
00:04:39.160 | we're just moping, feeling sorrow for ourselves, and we're so preoccupied with our own discouragement
00:04:44.960 | we can't love people anymore, we know our discouragement has become sin.
00:04:48.960 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:04:53.000 | Please email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.
00:04:56.960 | At DesiringGod.org, you'll find thousands of other free books, articles, sermons, and
00:05:00.480 | other resources from John Piper.
00:05:02.320 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:05:03.480 | Thanks for listening.
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