Pornography

Why It’s Sinful

1. You commit the sin of idolatry.

All sin is idolatry, an attempt to find joy and satisfaction not in God himself but in what God forbids (Exodus 20:3-6).  In the moment you begin to look at porn, you have allowed it to replace God as essential to your happiness. 

2. You commit the sin of adultery.

In Matthew 5, Jesus draws a clear connection between lust and adultery. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (27-28). Pornography is lust and exists to foster lust.

3. You commit the sin of deceit.

Deceit is the act of concealing or misrepresenting your actions. Because pornography generates shame, you will hide it, cover it up, or refuse to confess it.

4. You commit the sin of greed.

Sexual sin is greed, a form of taking advantage of another person to defraud them of something that is rightly theirs. In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul insists “that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter [of sexual sin], because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you” (6). The word translated “wrong” in this context refers to greedily taking something from someone else. It is to allow greed to motivate fraud, to unfairly and illegitimately use another person for your ignoble purposes.

5. You commit the sin of sloth.

We are called in all of life to “redeem the time,” to understand that we live short little lives and are responsible before God to make the most of every moment (Ephesians 5:16). Sloth is laziness, an unwillingness to use time well, and reflects a willingness to use time for destructive instead of constructive purposes. Pornography is slothful in that viewing it is a misuse of time. It is using precious moments, hours, and days to harm others instead of help them, to foster sin instead of kill sin, to backslide instead of grow, to pursue an idol instead of the living God.

6. You commit the sin of sexual assault.

The individuals who appear in pornographic film may have volunteered for such degradation, but sometimes they are forced or raped into it. To watch porn is to be a participant in it and to bear the moral blemish of it.

7. You commit the sin of ignoring the Holy Spirit.

One of the ways the Spirit ministers to you is in giving you an internal warning against sin. Paul assures that the Spirit warns against sexual sin in particular, then provides a stern caution: “Therefore whoever disregards this [warning], disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you” (1 Thessalonians 4:8). To resist the Spirit and ignore his ministry to you is a serious offense against a holy God.

What It Does

1. It deceives and entraps

Phil 4:8.

Philippians 4:8 ESV

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Rejoicing, fighting anxiety, a consistent prayer life, being grateful, possessing peace… all of these are what we consider to be fundamental to living a God-honoring, fruitful life. And Paul connects all of these things to what we think about. What we consider, what we ponder. Viewing porn compromises our ability to think on the things necessary to have these crucial things.

It’s available

The inescapable availability of pornography challenges our clarity of what purity feels like. Porn dulls the mind and compromises our ability to sort fiction from truth.

It’s addictive

“In men, there are five primary chemicals involved in sexual arousal and response. The one that likely plays the most significant role in pornography addiction is dopamine. Dopamine plays a major role in the brain system that is responsible for reward-driven learning… Dopamine surges when a person is exposed to novel stimuli, particularly if it is sexual, or when a stimuli is more arousing than anticipated. Because erotic imagery triggers more dopamine than sex with a familiar partner, exposure to pornography leads to “arousal addiction” and teaches the brain to prefer the image and become less satisfied with real-life sexual partners.” (William M. Struthers, associate professor of psychology at Wheaton College)

It is easier for those who consume pornography to embrace their situation as normal than it is to escape it.

It’s desensitizing

The widespread use of pornography leads many to conclude that viewing it is inevitable, natural and benign. Those who have believed this lie fail to recognize the dehumanizing impulses on which the porn industry depends for its vitality.

2. It discontents

It exploits our tendency towards curiositas

Describes the corruption of the mind’s purpose which is to grasp in its fulness. Curiositas is our craving for spectacle, but is unwilling to acquire it through rigorous mental effort. It is a combination of lust and laziness.

Augustine elevated curiositas to one of the three most deadly sins, along with pride and lust. He noted that it captures a person’s gaze in a powerful manner resulting in isolation and alienation from others.

Curiositas is lazy in that it is only attentive to the surface. It does not have the patience required to contemplate and process ideas.

The Christian objection to porn is not motivated by a fear of sexuality, but by a sanctified sense of wonder at the beauty of the human being, fully alive and fully revealed. (Matthew Lee Anderson)

We are meant to wonder and to be in awe

Psalm 65:8-13.

Psalm 65:8–13 ESV

so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

To appreciate the truths contained in these verses we must pursue it with mental energy. The wonder of these things will not be acquired without effort.

3. It callouses us towards what is shameful

Eph. 5:11-12.

Ephesians 5:11–12 ESV

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

Pornography betrays love’s natural inclination toward privacy. It seeks to transform sex into a performance.

Song of Solomon 4:1-7

Song of Solomon 4:1–7 ESV

Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young. Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. Your neck is like the tower of David, built in rows of stone; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that graze among the lilies. Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go away to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense. You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.

Song of Solomon, while it contains a certain eroticism, it is not to be regarded as a sex manual. It conceals the physical intimacy under metaphors, allusions and analogies. Again, pornography betrays love’s natural inclination towards privacy.

The face-to-face character of desire is not meant to be displayed, but enjoyed.

Pornography seeks to transform sex from the display of the one-flesh connection between husband and wife to a mere transaction for pleasure. Porn’s message is that romance and marriage are too much work when sex and pornography are just a click away.

4. It objectifies people

People who view pornography are themselves the product: it is their pleasure that the industry aims at. (Matthew Lee Anderson)

That people want to be desired is the hope that pornography trades upon. It is fantasied that those who are viewed on the screen desire those that are watching them. In other words, viewers of pornography imagine themselves within the scene.

A presupposition among those who view pornography is their desire for the person on the screen makes them worthy of their attention and affection. Conversation and relationship have no place in the pornography industry.

Viewing pornography makes people into tools to which we have no obligation and rejects any claim they may suggest they have on the viewer.

It’s Beatable

A porn-saturated world or life is not inevitable: there is nothing in the cosmos that says it must be a permanent feature of our experience. To confess this, and to acknowledge our own responsibility in making the world we have, is to take the first steps towards freedom. (Matthew Lee Anderson)

Dealing with shame (helped by Jackson Wu’s article, “Shame? How the Bible Reconciles Objective and Subjective Shame)

A definition: the fear, pain, or state of being regarded unworthy of acceptance in social relationships.

The difference between shame and guilt

Guilt focuses on a person’s actions or behavior. It is a person’s negative response to wrong actions.

Shame focuses on a person’s worth. Guilt says, my actions were bad. Shame says, I am bad.

Shame is both subjective ad objective

People can feel ashamed or a sense of worthlessness.

People can legitimately be described as being shameful or lacking honor. The ancient Romans declared this about criminals by crucifying them. Crucifixion was not only the punishment of a crime but also a public declaration that criminals incur shame as a result of their unlawful acts.

Shame due to personal sin

Before their fall, Adam and Even were naked but unashamed.

Genesis 2:25 ESV

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

After disobeying God, their sin made them want to hide from the presence of the Lord.

Genesis 3:8 ESV

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Sacred shame

God is the measure of true honor and conversely, whatever is dishonorable or shameful.

Regarding Israel’s sin and consequent exile, Hosea laments:

Hosea 4:7 ESV

The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame.

Hosea 4:18–19 ESV

When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring; their rulers dearly love shame. A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

In salvation, God brings honor to His people and guards them against shame.

Zephaniah 3:18–20 ESV

I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach. Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the Lord.

Clarity on objective and subjective shame

People have shamed God (objective)

Romans 1:18–21 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

People are shameful - when they dishonor God they incur objective shame. (objective)

Malachi 2:2–3 ESV

If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.

People feel shame (subjective) - since people objectively dishonor God, they bring shame upon themselves. People feel varying degrees of shame.

Our new identity and shame

The gospel does not merely change one’s legal status; it transforms our social identity as well. Naturally, this has implications with respect to one’s personal sense of shame. A person may endure varying types of “objective” shame yet not personally feel “subjective” shame. After all, why should Christ’s people feel ashamed before those who dishonor the King of Glory? Peter’s comments nicely illustrate the point:

1 Peter 4:12–16 ESV

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

When believers understand their identity in Christ, they will not be ashamed of the gospel because they know it is the power of God for salvation