Indulgence is easy. Endurance is painful. Indulging in another piece of chocolate cake is easy; enduring all 26.2 miles of a marathon is painful. Indulging in a credit card purchase is easy; enduring chemotherapy is painful. Indulging in a lavish vacation is easy; enduring the death of your spouse is painful. Indulgence is easy; endurance is painful. But it’s interesting. Though indulgence is easy, it often doesn’t lead to true joy. In fact, indulgence often leads to guilt, shame, and diminished joy. At the same time, endurance is painful, and yet, endurance often leads to increased joy. Sometimes what we dread ends up fortifying our joy.
I’m beginning a new series of episodes titled Joy Killers. Joy killers are things that we think or do that kill or diminish our joy. If we can identify joy killers, we’ll be better equipped to run away from them in a different direction. That’s what I want us to think about together. I want to think about things that kill our joy and about how to run away from them in hot pursuit of better things, things that increase our joy. The Christian doesn’t simply flee or say no to bad things; the Christian also pursues and says yes to the best of things. Running from the killer is running toward life. The Christian doesn’t simply put off what kills joy; the Christian synonymously puts on what increases joy.
And joy killers are sometimes difficult to recognize. Good things can be joy killers when they are enjoyed in the wrong way, in a way that doesn’t glorify God, or in a way that is not filled with faith and gratitude. You might think, “This is good. Why isn’t it making me joyful?” Maybe you’re enjoying it the wrong way without faith and thankfulness to God.
I’d like to begin with the joy killer of indulgence. Our joy is diminished when we choose indulgence instead of endurance. When we choose to indulge in sin and carnal pleasures instead of joyfully enduring the pain of self-denial, self-control, repentance, and godliness, our joy is diminished.
Think about the list of flesh-indulgent sins that Paul gives in Galatians 5: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these (vv. 19-21). Indulging in a night of sexual passion with your boyfriend is easy. Indulging in the angry comment to win the argument is easy. Indulging in too much alcohol at the kickin’ party is easy. But is indulgence good for us? Paul said, “those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (v. 21). That sounds bad because it is bad. Jesus explained that “the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many” (Matt. 7:13). Whoa. Many people are indulging in what is easy and are being destroyed by it. Whoa.
When I indulge the lusts of my flesh, it doesn’t increase my joy. Yes, indulgence is fun, exciting, and pleasurable, but it comes with a cost. Indulging in sin leads to guilt, shame, and diminished joy, and that’s not what I want. Indulgence is easy, but it takes so much from me.
When I was a kid, my family and I were at a wedding reception where the food was plentiful and delicious. I ate so much I felt sick. So, I went out behind some building, gagged myself, threw up, and felt better. Pardon the gross illustration, but it’s a good one. Indulgence made me sick. Sin is like that, but it’s so easy and delicious at the start. Yeah, until your soul is vomiting.
There’s another option though, but it’s very difficult to choose. Where indulgence comes with ease and pleasure, endurance comes with difficulty, pain, and a different kind of pleasure. I’m talking about enduring the pain of self-denial, self-control, repentance, and godliness for the pleasure of God. Denying yourself is painful. Controlling yourself is painful. Repenting is painful. Living a godly life is painful. But none of these things kill joy like indulgence does. They wonderfully increase joy.
Paul said that “godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). Paul said, “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6). Folks, indulging in sin leads to death, and repentance leads to life and salvation without regret (Acts 11:18; 2 Cor. 7:10). It’s true that indulgence can be quite pleasurable for a time, but things like self-denial, self-control, repentance, and godliness yield much more in the long run making their pleasures worth the pain. We just need to trust God and believe that enduring the pain of repentance is worth it and indulging the lusts of the flesh is not worth it. I struggle to believe this. What about you?
Heidelberg 88-90 talk about the pain of repentance like this:
What is the true repentance or conversion of man? It is the dying of the old nature and the coming to life of the new.
What is the dying of the old nature? It is to grieve with heartfelt sorrow that we have offended God by our sin and more and more to hate it and flee from it.
What is the coming to life of the new nature? It is a heartfelt joy in God through Christ and a love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works.
Westminster Larger Catechism 76 explains that repentance is to life. It says:
What is repentance to life? Repentance to life is a saving grace, accomplished in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God, by which out of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, and upon the apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, he so grieves for, and hates his sins, as that he turns from them all to God, desiring and endeavoring constantly to walk with Him in all the ways of new obedience. [1]
We must hate joy killers for what they are and what they do. Despite its pleasure, sin is bad, filthy, odious, and ruins and destroys. Enduring the pain of self-denial, self-control, repentance, and godliness is tough, it’s painful, but they lead to life as the Spirit increasing our heartfelt joy in God as we obey. The Spirit is increasing our joy as we deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus. It is these painful acts of faith and repentance that result in true and indestructible joy. Joy is a wonderful fruit of faith in the gospel.
Friends, indulgence is easy, endurance is painful, but endurance by faith yields the marvelous fruit of joy. When you are tempted today to indulge in sin and carnal pleasures, remember that sin takes joy from you. It does. You’ve experienced it. Also remember that Jesus Christ has set you free to endure the pain of self-denial, self-control, repentance, and godliness unto your increased joy. You must trust him to fortify your joy as you do the hard things, as you endure the pain of repentance.
[1] The Confessions of Our Faith, Fortress Edition, ed. Rev. Brian W. Kinney (Fortress Book Service & Publishers, 2007), 76.
Quotes from the Heidelberg Catechism are taken from Zacharias Ursinus & Jonathan Shirk, The Heidelberg Catechism (Manheim: Small Town Theologian, 2021).
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one-half of any book of the ESV Bible.
