(upbeat music) Joseph from Atlanta writes in to ask about James 4, specifically verses nine and 10, which read, "Be miserable and mourn and weep. "Let your laughter be turned into mourning "and your joy to gloom. "Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord "and he will exalt you." End quote.

Joseph asks, "It seems rather explicit "that James is saying to not be joyful. "Pastor John, in light of this text, "are there times when the pursuit of joy in God "isn't the chief goal in every season of life "or are the two cohesive?" - Oh, that's a sharp observation.

I love questions like that. Anything that helps me take my Christian hedonism deeper to wrestle with seeming contradictions is just great. So here we have, how can you say, seek to be happy in God, Piper, and at the same time with the text say, be wretched, mourn, weep, let your joy be turned to gloom.

That's the opposite of be happy, isn't it? Let your joy be turned to gloom. So let me just, let's stay with the text. I don't think it's good to run away from texts that feel problematical. Just stay with them. So verse four, he's talking to people who are adulterous.

He says, "You adulteresses," it's a feminine, really, "You adulteresses, don't you know that friendship "with the world is enmity with God?" So he's talking to people who are finding their joy by using God as their so-called husband to get the money and go out and make friends with the world.

They're making a cuckold out of God. They're cheating on him. And that's the people that are being spoken to. Or verse six, "God opposes the proud, "but gives grace to the humble." So he's talking to proud people. Or verse eight, "Cleanse your hands, you sinners. "Purify your hearts, you double-minded." And that's back up with these adulterous people.

They got half the time they're in bed with God and half the time they're in bed with the world. They're double-minded. So that's the context when he says, "Let your laughter be turned to mourning." This is not wholesome laughter. This is not godly laughter. This is the laughter of an unfaithful wife in a bar with her boyfriend.

This is sinful laughter. They're laughing behind the backs of the employees that they are treating unjustly. They're not taking joy in God. They're not treasuring God. And that's why he calls them adulteresses and double-minded. So you ask, are there times when, I'm seeing Joseph asks, are there times when the pursuit of joy in God isn't the chief goal in every season of life, every situation?

That's a really good question. And let's just drop the word chief for a minute 'cause that's a little ambiguous to me. I'll come back to it. There are times, so here's my admission, my concession. Next thing is biblical. There are times when the most immediate goal is stop being happy in the world.

Stop being happy in sin. Start weeping over dishonoring God by finding happiness in things. That's what the text is saying. Yes, right now, stop that happiness. Stop that laughter. Be brokenhearted. Don't rejoice. But wouldn't it be true, Joseph, that the ultimate aim here, the ultimate aim is, and maybe I would even say the chief aim, depending on what you mean by chief, the chief goal at this moment that James is after is not their long-term misery.

He wants them to start honoring God by finding pleasure in their husband. Get back in bed with your husband and stay there. Don't go cheat on God by finding pleasure in what he has declared to be sin. So the pathway to that joy is sorrow, and that reminds us of another text, doesn't it?

Second Corinthians 7, 10. Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation. That's joy. And worldly grief produces death. So at this point where he says, stop rejoicing, weep, be brokenhearted, don't take joy anymore, what he means is start having godly grief for your sin. And that leads to repentance, and that leads to salvation, and salvation is full of joy.

So even in the summons to be broken, the summons to weep, he is pursuing our joy. - Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast. Email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. You can visit us online at desiringgod.org to find thousands of free books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)