Avoiding Porn (Part 3)

I fully realize how hard it is to do what I am charging you to do. I know all too well that the statistical scoreboard says that the church is losing ground in our war against pornography. But I also know that God is on our side; I know we can’t just pack up and quit. So how do Christians hooked on porn win their secret sex wars? Again, you have to follow a biblical battle plan. If you let the mercies of God flood your heart with a love for God and you fill your mind with the Word of God, then the Spirit of God will renew and purify your mind (Romans 12:1–2). So renew your mind with the portions of Scripture that extol women as persons who bear the image of God. When you view women that way, God will arm you to fight like a spiritual warrior against pornography with the use of your mind and your eyes.

Focus on Her Person and Not Her Body Parts

Someone well said that a bird can land on your head, but you have to allow it to build a nest. It’s not a sin to be tempted. It is a sin, however, to yield to it. The difference between Christians who win their battles for purity and those who lose them can be evidenced by what they do with their eyes. Be like Job and discipline your eyes to look women in the face and not everywhere else. Job wisely vowed, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (Job 31:1). The verb for gaze is intensive. It refers to one’s thoughts.

The secret to success is that if you don’t look, you won’t be able to visualize later. That is the insidious part of the lie “You can look but not touch.” Once you look, your mind takes a digital picture, and it can then pop up in your brain at any time. That’s why the act of looking doesn’t just stop at looking. It always moves to thinking, and then to lusting, and then to sexual involvement. So don’t be deceived. If she is immodest, then look away, turn the channel, close the computer window, and fight to not look back. In other words, take your head off of the swivel, and turn off your X-ray vision. Practice letting your eyes be governed by biblical convictions and not by what women choose to wear or not wear.

It takes time to develop new habits, and it can be somewhat difficult. However, Christians can learn new habits by yielding to the Spirit of God for help. I plead with you to accept God’s charge to guard your eyes before circumstances beyond your control lead you to make a decision in the heat of a moment. Be like Job. Set up your defensive battle line at the point of choosing to look or not look.

Never Give Up

Beware. The wink of an immoral woman is like the venom of a black widow. Solomon again warns, “For many are the victims she has cast down, and numerous are all her slain” (Proverbs 7:26). Perhaps right now you are hearing a whisper saying that it is too late. You’ve been bitten. You have looked and looked and now you can’t stop looking. That too is a lie from the pit of hell. You can stop, and there are many Christians who have and who no longer live in bondage to that devious master. But you must repent,
by God’s power.

Jesus charged us, “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29). You must know that whatever Jesus commands us to do, He gives us abundant grace to do it. Here again, I plead with you to learn from David’s flawed battle plan. Sadly, he chose to give in to his aroused carnal desires, so he kept looking at a nude woman who wasn’t his wife, and that foolhardy decision changed his life, his family’s lives, and the life of a nation.

David didn’t think right, and therefore, he didn’t act right. He chose to look, and he was hooked. Be wise and fear God. Learn to think right about porn. It’s sin, and sin cannot satisfy. It can only enslave and degrade. Cry out for God’s empowerment. Develop a biblical mindset regarding nudity, women, and your passions, so that you can honor women and hate the temptation to lustfully use them. And remember God is our helper who enables Christians to live as overcomers (Rev. 2:26-27).

Go back to Part 2

(This series of posts is adapted from Secret Sex Wars, by Pastor Bobby Scott.)