Pornography And The Bible

by Gary T. Panell

Today, if a person desires to look at naked men and women doing immoral things, it is very easy to do so. Recently, I heard that there are more people watching pornography than there are people who watch sports. There are many magazines, internet sites, videos, movies, cable T.V. programs, and “music” programs that are porn-related. Most of these are accessed by the mere touch of a button. There are also “live” strip shows in many cities and towns besides “Adult Bookstores.”

Access to porn today is extremely easy. Many local market stores also sell “adult magazines.” With these types of temptations being so prevalent, it is easy to destroy a life, a marriage, a home, a country. It can become an addiction that is every much as bad as a drug, alcohol, or gambling addiction.

The addiction will lead to death, physical and spiritual! What price are you willing to pay? Are you willing to give up your family, your home, or your life? In the Bible we have the story of Esau and Jacob in Genesis 25: 29-34:

“Jacob cooked a stew; Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, ‘Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.’ Therefore his name was called Edom (Red). But Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright as of this day.’

“And Esau said, ‘Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?’ Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”

You say, “What does this story have to do with porn?” It has everything to do with it!

You can fill your eyes with things God never intended for you to see, and sell your “birthright” for a short time of pleasure, as Esau did. God has something far better for us in marriage, and that is lasting “love,” not “lust,” that lasts a short time.

You say it will never happen to me; I only watch a little porn, just enough to have some fun. This is the way Satan tempted people of the Bible. Eve got close enough to the forbidden tree to see what it looked like. Then Satan tempted her even more, he said, “You will not surely die.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes.Genesis 3:1-6

The Bible says, “For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world.” 1 John 2:16 says that two of the Devil’s main tools to destroy men and women are the “lust of the flesh,” and the “lust of the eyes.” Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell,” adds Matthew 5: 27-29

The temptation today to watch porn is for both men and women. Even countless married couples say, “Oh, we just watch porn to encourage our sex life.” Wrong, God never intended for a husband and wife to need anyone other than their own spouse to cause stimulation. Scripture tells us, “Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” 1 Corinthians 7: 3, 4

You see Satan has taken something that is proper and right in marriage, and made it dirty. Dirt is fine and useful for growing plants, but bring a bucket of it and pour it onto the carpet in the living room and it is in the wrong place. So too, sex is right in marriage, Paul says, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge,” Hebrews 13: 4. Using pictures of women or men other than your spouse for stimulation is playing with fire.

Accessing porn is playing with fire, look at what Proverbs 6: 23-28, “For the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light; reproofs of instruction are the way of life, to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattering tongue of a seductress. Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, nor let her allure you with her eyelids. For by means of a harlot a man is reduced to a crust of bread; and an adulteress will prey upon his precious life. Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be seared?”

God created the woman’s breasts for nursing babies, and for the husband’s stimulation. The husband doesn’t need to see any other breasts for stimulation, other than his wife’s. “Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and always be enraptured with her love. For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, and be embraced in the arms of a seductress? For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He ponders all his paths,” Proverbs 5:19b-21.

The Bible also makes it totally clear that men are never to go to another woman other than his own wife for sexual satisfaction. Proverb 5: 15 says, “Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be only your own, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth.”

Then, the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 6: 15-20 states, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh.’

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

In Romans Chapter One, we see that immorality leads to homosexuality, in the individual, and in a nation. Right now in the United States, I believe, we are moving from immorality into homosexuality.

Here is what Romans says, “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

“For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”

The next step down is all sorts of perversion, no doubt, such as pedophilia and bestiality.

This is where porn leads to, the only way out, and there is a way out, is through the salvation that Christ alone can give. In 1 Corinthians 10: 13 it says, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

You have to realize that Satan is out to destroy as many of us as he possibly can. 1 Peter 5: 8 reminds us, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

God wants us to be victorious in our lives, like Joseph. It says of him in Genesis 39: 7-12, that when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him, he ran from temptation. “Now it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused.and told her ‘How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?’ And so it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her.

“But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, ‘Lie with me.’ But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.” You see he did exactly what God wanted him to do to in order to overcome the temptation, he had to run from it, he had to get away from it. Do Christians have these temptations? “YES,” but God can help us to be victorious!

We need to realize that people in these porn pictures are not playthings-they are people God created and died to save. They are someone’s sister, daughter, brother, son, etc. Job said that he had made a covenant with God not to look at women in a lustful way. Job 31: 1 states, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a young woman?”

How can you overcome this temptation to look at porn? First you have to have Christ Jesus living in your heart. You can ask Him to forgive you, and invite Him to come into your heart right now. Just pray and He will hear and answer your prayer. Then start reading your Bible everyday. You will need to go to church and pray and live for God.

When temptation comes, and it will come often, do what Jesus did when He was tempted by Satan, use the sword of the spirit, the Word of God! 1 John 4:4 says, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

Maybe you feel your sin is too great and God cannot forgive you. Look at what King David did, the story is found in 2 Samuel 11: 2 “Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, ‘Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’ Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her..”

You may know the rest of the story, but she became pregnant and David had her husband killed. I don’t think a person could get much worse than this. But this is not the end of the story. David repented, and God forgave him. You can see David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51:1ff “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving-kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”

It is a beautiful prayer, and one that you might pray. You may be saying, “But I have been involved in things God could never forgive.” Consider 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11, which says, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”

You may be thinking, “see God says I am not going to heaven,” but wait read the next verse: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” If you truly repent of your sin and turn from it, God can, and will forgive you of that sin. He will save you, and make you a child of His.

Will you ever sin again? No doubt, but that is why 1 John 1: 9 is in the Bible: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

What would you feel like if Jesus were to visit you in person while you were looking at porn? Jesus is looking at us all the time whether we know it or not. We want to be ready for His return and not ashamed when He comes for us. Now, go and live for God! (All the verses in this article are taken from the New King James Version of the Bible.

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