This is Scott Anderson, CEO for Desiring God. You and other friends of Desiring God make possible the work of this ministry, including this podcast. Thanks for your part in helping us freely share the truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Well, we asked for your questions on technology and you have responded.

We have a lot of them and they keep coming in and please keep sending them in to us. Josh in South Carolina wants to know when is it time to give up our smartphones and revert to a dumb phone? Arlene from North Florida asks, Pastor John, I've heard Matt Chandler say on numerous accounts how our love and addiction to technology is making us angry and impatient.

I've seen it in my marriage and in my mothering. Could my iPhone be the reason I don't persevere in the faith? And if so, how do I keep that from happening? So Pastor John, two important questions on the table. Well first in response to Arlene, could my iPhone be the reason I don't persevere?

Here's a text from the Bible that comes to my mind immediately. 2nd Corinthians 4 9. Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me, Paul says, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. And what's striking about this is that Demas is mentioned twice more in Paul's writings. Before this it says in Philemon 1 23, Epiphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus sends greetings to you and so do Mark, Aristarchus, and Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

So Demas is a fellow worker with Paul in the ministry. And then Colossians 4 14 says, Luke, the beloved physician greets you as does Demas. So Demas is there in three epistles, and in two of them he's a fellow worker, and in one of them he has left. He has deserted.

Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me. Now, I don't know, we don't know if Demas repented. Maybe he did. But as far as we know, Demas did not persevere in faith, and he looks like he proved to be an inauthentic Christian. And that happens. We've seen that in real life and in our own day.

The reason he left and made shipwreck, it looks like, is because he loved the world. Now, how does that relate to Arlene's question? Her iPhone is somehow involved in making her angry and impatient with her children and her husband, so she is rightly asking, "Could my iPhone be the reason that I don't persevere?" And then the answer would be that the world did not destroy Demas.

His love for the world destroyed Demas, it seems. An iPhone does not, will not, destroy a marriage or mom or soul, but love for what's on the iPhone can. And the Lord will not say to anyone on the judgment, "I don't think I never knew you because you owned an iPhone." I don't think any, I don't think he'll ever say that to anybody at the judgment day.

"I never knew you because you owned an iPhone." But he may well say, "I never knew you because you loved spending time on Facebook and online shopping more than you loved me." When Jesus said in Matthew 5 29, "If your right eye caused you to sin, tear it out and throw it away, better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell," he was talking mainly about sexual lust.

But the principle applies to any destructive allurement, it seems to me. We may have to take radical steps against something that is intrinsically neutral or good in order to fight what in our hearts is bad. Why gouge out your eye when the problem is not your eye, it's lust?

Well, because the eye is complicit, just like the phone is complicit. And yes, the stakes are infinite. Better to tear out your eye than to be thrown into hell, it says. And the poor eye, when God made the eye, for goodness sakes, the eye is good. I mean, this is just Jesus' radical way of saying you have to do whatever you have to do with regard to dispensing with things that may be good in order to avoid what may be be bad.

Now, this brings us to Josh, because they're very related questions. He says, "Is it too extreme to reject the technology and the tide of culture by going back to a very basic cell phone?" A little flip phone, I suppose he means. "And my answer is," to Josh, "it's probably not any more extreme than tearing out your eye." So Josh asks, "Well, when is it time to do that, to pitch my smartphone?" And Arlene asks, "How do I keep my iPhone from threatening my perseverance in faith?" Now, here, my guess is that some are going to say, "Well, look, Piper, since the phone is not the problem, but the heart is the problem, it's pointless to pitch the phone." To which I respond, "No, it's not pointless to pitch the phone.

If that's all you do, it would be pointless, but we're always fighting on two fronts in the battle for holiness. We're fighting on the internal front of the heart, the heart front, to be satisfied in Jesus, to be so satisfied in Jesus, to see him so clearly and love him so dearly and follow him so nearly that nothing, not a smartphone, can control us.

Nothing can control us but only Jesus. Of course, that's the main battlefront. Love Jesus more and you won't be enslaved by your smartphone. But biblically, we're also fighting on the external front to remove or avoid stumbling blocks to our faith. So you get Romans 13, 14, "Make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

Drug addicts don't fondle needles. Alcoholics don't keep stashes of brandy. Sexually supercharged eyes put safeguards on their computers, and smartphone junkies who are throwing away their lives or wasting money or becoming irritable and angry and impatient may go back to a flip phone. This is not unbiblical. This is not legalism.

This is wisdom. This is fighting on all fronts for holiness in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the sake of the heart, for the sake of the Lord, for the sake of the family, in these cases it sounds like. So, it is totally legit, I would say, to take away any particular technology that is characteristically, chronically doing you in in certain ways.

That may be a very wise move. And as far as when, all I know to say is pray and ask the Lord to make it plain when the time has come to take that step. Talk to wise, mature, spiritual people in your church, those who know you best, and seek their counsel.

And always, I'll close with this, always put the main spiritual effort into knowing and loving and trusting Christ. Getting rid of bad influences doesn't make anybody love Christ in and of itself. True freedom from the bondage of technology comes not mainly from throwing it away, but comes from filling the void with the glories of Jesus that you're trying to fill with the pleasures of the smartphone.

Fight the deceitful, fleeting pleasures of the iPhone with the true, lasting pleasures of knowing and being cared for by Christ. Amen. That is strong and wise counsel. Thank you, Pastor John, for thinking this through with us. We have recorded and released a number of episodes on technology recently. Two of them became very popular episodes.

In fact, see episode number 636, which is titled "Why Not to Check Your Phone in the Morning?" and see episode number 637, "Don't Waste Your Mornings." You can find those episodes and all the other episodes at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. And please do continue to keep sending your technology questions in to us.

Well, tomorrow is Wednesday, and I cannot remember what's scheduled, but I'm sure it will be interesting. I'm your host Tony Reiki. We'll see you tomorrow. you you you