What does the Bible say about Pornography?

When it comes to Porn, we are desperate to find any solution that can deliver us from what feels like complete addiction. And without realizing it, we can attempt to use and treat scripture as merely a self-help guide to fix our behavior and lusts, or as a medicine cabinet to numb and assuage our guilt and shame.

—Where is hope?

We have a bulleted list of verses pounding in our conscience and driving our fears, “As a dog that returns to his vomit”, “if we go on sinning wilfully”, “the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.”, and literally we cry out, “oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?“

And we start to panic all the more as we ask ourselves, “if I keep repeating the same sins, and repentance means to have a change of mind and change of direction, am I even saved? If I keep returning to this vomit, am I truly repentant?” And we can’t bypass 1 John 3:8b, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” So as we participate in porn, we realize in essence, we are acting in opposition against our Lord, and wonder if we are in league with the enemy!

So, how should I look to understand God’s word and find continual forgiveness that cleanses my conscience, deeper intimacy, and fellowship with the Lord so as to actually mortify the deeds of the flesh as well as resist the inclination to indulge?

We are going to be covering:
• the unique scriptures that identify who we now are, “having union with Christ” and indwelt by the Holy Spirit and the relationship this has to our bodies/members.
• “addiction” or “desires and the appetites of our flesh”? Therapeutic terms we gravitate to, promoted by today’s no-fault cultures use of “dysfunction, genetic pre-dispositions, the environment, or chemical imbalances” as permission to be dismissive and condescending about the true character of sin and our responsibility.
• the deceitfulness of sin, its subtle worship, and the spiral down
• the call to combat and mortify our fleshly lusts, strategies and precious promises that scripture clearly offers that will help you fight and not succumb, the Lord willing.

Scripture first calls us to understand who we really are in Christ. This is critical, otherwise, we might actually be under the mistaken notion that as we go to porn and then masturbate, we may actually think, we can ask Christ to wait outside the door while we engage. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Look at the text in 1 Corinthians 6.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. 1 Cor. 6:15-20

Some key points to speak Gospel truth to ourselves about our new identity.
• we are now “members” of Christ, and not just in an anecdotal way, but all too real. In this new birth, we are “joined’ to Christ.

• as such, our bodies now are the “temple” the place where God meets us, that new “tent” where His Holy Spirit now resides in us. We now meet God in our bodies.

• we are “not our own”, we have been “purchased”, by Christ’s very blood, and as such are His as to ownership and have no rights other than the new liberty we have from being purchased by Him. But a liberty that compels us to (through love), serve one another instead of (the old man) serving ourselves! For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Gal. 5:13

Tertullian considered by some to be the father of western theology is often represented by his famous rhetorical question, “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? Or, a bit more literal, what does a secular and therapeutic worldview, the academy, natural law, and the sciences of the day, have to do with our Lord’s stringent view of holding to an assurance based on eternal hopes derived from a conviction of things unseen? Or believing in a God who “speaks” creation into existence, and a fall originating from satan speaking to the first two created beings via a serpent, only to cause sin that not only brings death (physically and to the soul) but then continues through all human progeny?

Without even thinking about it, our culture and its secular nature have lulled us into compromise with a cloak of relativism we wear so easily so as not to appear judgemental or dogmatic. Just ponder “Facebook” messaging and one quickly realizes “likes and shares” are the Holy Grail of the day and being “unfriended” leads to social exile. And one thinks twice before saying something that might put you in an unpopular light away from friends and followers. So to Tertullian’s point, to “hail” from Jerusalem might very well come at a steep cost and place you in social media wilderness having only an offline presence but with only your iTunes intact.

Augustine correctly understood man’s sinful condition; we generally seek happiness apart from God. The scriptures support Tertullian and our Jerusalem call as “born again” individuals now hailing and identifying from a New Kingdom.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Gal.6:7,8

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Gal.5:16,17

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Col.1:13,14

Jesus answered (Pilate), “My kingdom is not of this world. John 18:36

Sin, its deceitfulness, its inducements, and our inordinate desires to please ourselves by viewing some of the vilest and most wicked videos online, places the responsibility on our doorstep or more accurately “search engine”. And the resulting URL’s we quickly review and then choose by which has the most engaging and twisted content to gratify ourselves with.

If we fill our mind with things that increase our sexual appetite during the day then it is not surprising that we find it hard to say no to the temptation later. Be careful what you watch, what you read, what you look at, who you take a double look at when they pass you in the street. If we can win more of the small battles earlier in the day – we can win more battles later.

Do you believe there is a God? Have you ever spent time trying to learn about who Jesus is, what he did and why he did it?

When you believe that Jesus loves you and is deeply interested in you it gives you a different picture of the world around you and of what your life is all about. It gives you a new hope and a new focus outside of yourself.

The more you get to know the real Jesus of the Bible, the more you will want to live to make Him happy and this will also then become a great motivation to saying no to the thing you are addicted to.

Find something new to fill your free time, spend time with other people, start a new hobby, keep yourself busy, volunteer at something. Find new, rewarding things to do and people to make a difference to – the more the focus is moved away from you and onto others, or God, the better.

Set yourself small achievable goals – 24 hrs free, 48hrs, 3 days, 1 week. Keep something that you enjoy to do, read or eat – and when you reach these goals give yourself the reward! Positive motivation is so important in wining the battle to say no to your addiction.

Place extra steps in your way to give you more opportunities to say no to the temptation. e.g. Leave your laptop outside your bedroom at night, remove the battery and place it high up on something you need a chair to reach, write a note and tape it to the laptop, shut the laptop or phone down properly.

All of this would mean that if you are in your bedroom and you suddenly decided you wanted to look at porn you would have multiple opportunities to say no to the temptation. You would have to (1) go out and get the laptop (2) go and get a chair and take it to the battery (3) climb on the chair and retrieve the battery (4) place the battery into your laptop (5) move the note you taped to your laptop. That’s five extra opportunities to say no and not do it!

Also we need to be clear about why we want to stop – what is motivating you to want to break free? Motivation is important in breaking free from being addicted to pornography – why do you want to be free? Are you just trying to stop for you? For someone else? For God? The stronger our motivation, and the more it isn’t just about us, the greater the power the motivation has.