Welcome back to the S. Pastor John Podcast with longtime author and pastor John Piper.

Pastor John, here's the next question on the list. It's a heavy one and it's an email from an

anonymous man. Pastor John, did God cause or would God cause my wife to miscarry our child because I

have a struggle with lust and pornography? I have a lot of guilt right now and I don't know how

to think about God's discipline and punishment for my sin. I'm very confused. Please help me.

Wow, I see four issues at least in this question. One, what does it mean to struggle with pornography?

Two, does God discipline His children for their sin? Three, may that discipline come in the form

of harm or even death to others that you love as well as yourself? Four, what should you do?

If you believe God has dealt you such a blow. Let's take those one at a time. One, I don't know

what our friend unnamed means by struggle, these struggles with pornography. It might mean

daily bondage of joining sinners on the screen in their wickedness by supporting them

with our interest and our attention and our pleasure and then feeling guilty about it when we're

done every day. I don't think that's much of a struggle. Calling it a struggle is a little less

damning than what is really is namely capitulation and participation or he might mean that he

conquers the temptation 99 times out of 100 and in a moment of weakness gives in but quickly turns

away and repents. That may mean what struggle it means. That'd be a little more meaningful to call

the word struggle. Whatever he means, I'm glad he calls it sin, which he does because Jesus takes

this sin so seriously. He uses a horrible picture to describe the warfare against it and the worst

possible warning against failure in the war. Here's what he says, Matthew 529, if you're right,

I causes you to sin. So he's talking about lust, tear it out and throw it away. Well, what? What

with a screwdriver? This is gross. This is horrible. What? Your fingernails?

For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

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