Job’s covenant
Although the Bible does not directly address the subject of pornography, it is clear about the subjects of lust and sexual immorality. Job 31:1 says, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.” Pornography not only breeds lustful looks but thrives upon them. One cannot do as Job teaches and watch pornography.
Equivalent of adultery
In Matthew 5: 27-29, Jesus says this about lust, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a women lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of you body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Many men may use pornography who would never dream of committing adultery; but, from the Lord’s viewpoint, they are committing adultery.
David’s lust
II Samuel 11 tells of King David’s difficulties with lust. He was walking around the roof of the palace, not looking for trouble, when he came upon Bathsheba taking a bath. His lust lead him to commit adultery with her and to murder her husband. David’s “innocent” sin of lust led him to commit greater sins that brought him to the worst parts of his life. You can see the anguish these sins brought as he writes Psalms 51. When David came across Bathsheba, he was not seeking the temptation; yet, it caused so many problems. Do you not think that even greater problems will arise in our lives if we seek the temptations of pornography?
Put to death your lust
The Bible instructs us how to avoid the temptation of lust in our lives. Colossians 3:5 says, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” The Bible directs us to take a proactive role in preventing our lusts when it instructs us to “put (the lust) to death.” To do this, we must remove the temptations from our lives. To follow this direction, we must get pornography not only out of our homes, but out of our community as well.
Pornography’s practices condemned
Many of the images portrayed in hard-core pornography are discussed in Leviticus 18. We are commanded not to engage in sexual perversions such as incest, homosexuality, and bestiality. These are often the subjects of hard-core pornography. In Leviticus 18:29, the Lord commands, “Everyone who does any of these detestable things – such persons must be cut off from their people.” To allow this type of pornography to exist is to disobey the commandment of the Lord.
Concern for others
God’s people have the responsibility to not only purify their own lives from the sin of pornography, but to protect others from the problems that it causes. God says that the second greatest commandment, next to loving Him, is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:31) How can we love our neighbor and allow pornography to destroy their lives? We cannot; we must not.
No one is immune to the evils of pornography. Innocent children suffer from the affects of child pornography and molestation. Read what Jesus says about the children in Matthew 18:6-7, “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!”