“It’s a Sin to be Sorrowful”

It’s a sin to be sorrowful since the Bible says we are to,”rejoice in the Lord always.”

The Bible does instruct us to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4) but every admonition in the Bible doesn’t have a reverse formula as though we were working mathematical equations. Jesus himself expresses great sorrow on a number of occasions (Luke 19:40-42, John 11:34-36, Matthew 26:37-39) yet was without sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Paul taught that we are to “mourn with those who mourn”. (Romans 12:15)

The Bible makes the distinction, however, between Godly sorrow and worldly sorrow.

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. 2 Corinthians 7:11

Unconditional Forgiveness?

When John the Baptizer was sent to “prepare the way of the Lord”, he preached repentance. (John 3:1-12) According to the gospel of Mark, the first thing Jesus preached was, “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14)

Jesus instructed his disciples to go to the brother who has sinned against them, show him his fault and hope he listens—or repents; if not, he outlines more steps to take. If after all that, the sinning brother still won’t listen, he is to be treated as a “pagan” (non-believer). (Matthew 18:15-17) Jesus further told them, “If your brother sins, rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him. (Luke 17:3 emphasis added) Repentance as a qualification for forgiveness is a major part of the framework of the Bible in both Old and New Testaments.

A second qualification for forgiveness is that the sin must be forgivable. Jesus said, “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit (calling the Holy Spirit’s ways evil) will never be forgiven, he is guilty of an eternal sin. (Mark 3:29, 30) John said, “There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.” Since he didn’t specify which sin that is, I can only conclude that he referred to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

So no, God’s forgiveness is not “unconditional”. However, in his mercy he may occasionally grant forgiveness without repentance just as he “sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”. (Matthew 5:45)

Forgiveness is often confused with God’s love. Followers of Jesus are to love each other, their neighbors, those who insult or persecute them and their enemies—that would seem to be everybody.

“God Must be Mad at You.”

“God must be mad at you since you had a stroke, cancer, etc.” or “What did you do to make God mad?”If you had truly done something so bad that God would “strike” you, you are not likely to be a follower of Jesus, and more like King Herod (Acts 12:23), Saul (Acts 9:3) or Elymas (Acts 13:8-11) or as Ananias and Saphira who had done something directly against the Holy Spirit. (Acts 5:1) In any case, you would know if he had and you would know what you had done.

God simply doesn’t go around beating up his children. In addition, he has given us his word, our consciences and the Holy Spirit to let us know when we’ve done wrong—better yet, to avoid doing wrong in the first place.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.1 John 3:8

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Matthew 7:9-11

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. John 15:3

His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” John 9:2,3 (The man’s healing.)

“Everyone in the church should be in an accountability group.”

Accountability groups in churches have gone from trendy safeguards for men, to implanted expectations for entire congregations. However, a study of the New Testament reveals no mention of accountability to anyone but God. (Romans 3:19) Yes, if we see our brother or sister in sin, after we remove the “plank” from our own eye, we are to gently correct and restore them. (Matthew 7:5; Galatians 6:1) But this is very different than the control factor, which seems to be built into “accountability groups” (some are alternately called small groups or home groups but not all of those are “accountability groups”). By all appearances this practice is simply a modern adaptation of the Shepherding movement of the 1970’s, which abused so many Christian lives.