Pornography is a killer. Whether it is viewed sporadically or our indulgences are a daily (or hourly) occurrence, it will within time prove to be the death of all that is good.
We are often blinded to this reality because we typically do not experience consequences over night. The repercussions of our actions are usually the culmination of many baby steps by seemingly insignificant (or at times, blatant) compromise.
Before discovering pornography and masturbation, I was a very joyful person. Seeking after God and living for Him was a delight. I had genuine intimacy with God. I had not yet known the dark paths sin can lead you and ways it will surely diminish your will to live. I was content and at ease for the most part with who I was as a person. (On my blog, I post articles I’ve written regarding pornography and masturbation including many helpful steps to overcome it if you’d like to check that out).
See Is Porn Bad? 10 Things to Consider Before Watching.
Because of my experiences, I want to warn you about many of ways porn (and sexual sin in general) will ruin your life before you even realize it:
- It will kill your desire for pleasing and knowing God. You will lose interest in reading the Bible, spending time in prayer will be seen as a boring task, attending church will become a bother, you will lose your understanding of what it means to find your value and joy through Christ alone, and studying Christian resources will be viewed upon with contempt.
- It will isolate you from others and stop your ability to form healthy and intimate relationships where transparency is treasured and a regular part of communication.
- It will remove any longing to pursue hobbies because escaping into a fantasy world of porn and the pleasures of self-gratification will trump your desire for anything outside of access to a computer and alone time.
- It will stop you from taking your God-given roles and responsibilities seriously.
- It will make you lazy as a person and will drastically increase a selfish mindset, thereby allowing your marriage or relationships with friends and family to suffer.
- It will make you irritable, short-tempered, and angry when something gets in the way of having your fix.
- It will steal your time and money.
- It will breed feelings of self-loathing and insecurity.
- It will create an insatiable longing for unattainable sexual pleasure while your thoughts of fantasy run rampant and become uncontrollable.
- It will destroy intimacy in marriage, cause any trust and integrity to dwindle away, and can rightly be considered adultery.
- It will harm us as we begin to crave the often illegal acts we see in films and when masturbation gets old, can very well lead us to do things we never thought possible.
- It dehumanizes us and will turn you into a predator who sees others as prey. It blinds us to the humanity and dignity of every person.
- It leads us down unforeseen paths and brings nothing but a labyrinth of wandering from who and what was once most important and precious to us.
“Porn promised us freedom, we became enslaved; it promised us intimacy, we found only isolation; it promised us excitement, we ended up bored; it promised us ‘adult entertainment’ and we became increasingly juvenile.” – Matt Fradd
Whether you are in the very midst of addiction, know somebody who is, or are just curious about how sin has the potential to destroy, always remember that no one is exempt from sin. Temptation is ever present and the opportunities to sin really are endless. Please purpose to dwell on what is listed in Philippians 4:8 and take every decision you make seriously; constantly keeping the truth of Galatians 6:7 (NASB) in mind:
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”
I’d really like to encourage young people, especially people under 25 to stop viewing porn now, while you still can. I can tell you from personal experience that it gets much (much) worse after you turn 30. I’ve been a porn addict for 20 years now and it has literally ruined every aspect of my life. I used to be normal, had girlfriends, went out with friends and had lots of hobbies. The longer you’re actively in addiction, the harder it gets and the more powerful the demons become, after a while they will start to cause physical and mental illness, this is no joke. Porn is demonic and if you’re viewing porn while stoned it’s twice as bad. Call out to Jesus for help before it’s too late
its a really great article. thanks
Hello I’m Leon, I am 16 and I started masterbating when I 15 and I have noticed a difference since I started. I have lost my will to make videos for YouTube and a lot of will to do my work for school. My addiction makes me feel down and wanting to commit suicide. But I haven’t watched it in a few days and can see that I am getting better.
Hello, Leon – I’m proud of you for leaving your comment here because this is a very difficult area. A masturbation addiction takes the energy and life right out of you because it takes over your thoughts and actions and robs energy from everything else. I’m concerned about your comments about suicide – here’s the truth…you have unmeasurable value! Your life is a precious gift and a blessing to this planet. Please find someone you can talk to about your struggles. It sounds like you might have a talent for making videos. Get back to that! Whenever you feel tempted, turn that trigger towards something else, even reaching out to someone you trust (I know it’s uncomfortable to talk to someone about this, but think about how much better you felt after posting this comment? Multiply that by 1,000 and that’s how it feels to speak openly with a loving, trusting person about your struggles). If you don’t have anyone you can talk to, and you start to have suicidal feelings again, promise me you’ll call this number: 1-800-273-8255.
God is for you! Leon, you can get through this, and it will be hard work, but it’s worth it.
Peace, Chris
It’s true but it’s hard
Porn addictions beats you down, I’m at the point of my life where I want to commit suicide because I can’t ever quit . Even when the time I stopped for 3 months and then ended up slipping because I ended up with another addiction to cope with porn addiction (weed), and that made things worse! Watching porn and masturbating while under the influence of weed messed me up for good. I don’t know if I ever can get back into a relationship with a woman without having some form of lust build inside due to this . Lord help me because I know I can’t and not sure how much longer o have to deal with this hell hole battle that never seems to end even when you had enough fighting …it still comes back when you get lonely and horny . It’s not a game guys ..
Hey there. I am so sorry to hear about the pain you’re suffering right now. I want to encourage you to find help right away. Find a counselor who can help you process your emotions and work on what healthy boundaries will look like for you. Find a group in your area that will help and support you. Maybe SA, Pure Desire, or even AA. You absolutely do NOT have to be a victim of addiction of any kind!
If you do feel that you are going to harm yourself, you can always call this helpline: 1-800-273-8255.
Porn is NOT worth your life! There is help, there is hope, there is freedom, there is peace.
Praying for you, Kay
I was introduced to it at a young age by people I knew during the 90’s. Their dads had collections of it, and we would look at the adult content during the after school hours when the parents weren’t home from work yet. At the time I didn’t consider it to be a serious act because it wasn’t an illicit drug, but yet it is still addictive. People should reevaluate the meaning of what a drug is because our bodies a very chemical and certain chemicals can go out of balance by what you do, even if you don’t take in an external type of chemical; non-drug addictions do happen.
I think this is a fair and good list, but I would like to add another to the list (forgive me if it is already embedded in one of the already stated reasons) and that is it stunts one’s emotional growth and development overall and depending on how vulnerable one is, that can take years if ever to recover from. I am a 25 year recovering p&m addict (not much different than being a drug addict – more or less the same effects over time – in fact, the usual addict to porn got addicted to it just as fast as a crack addict gets addicted to crack – iow: right away) – it has taken me years to recover and really find my way, emotionally and even and especially vocationally – I’m years behind my peers in that regard…. I got started when I was about 11 or 12, which is really common, (some kid has you over, they go into their dad’s closet, get out the playboys and penthouses, (if you don’t find then out in the woods somewhere…) and the rest is history – well, I guess it really depends on a persons susceptibility levels, some are more susceptible to it than others – I was particularly and especially susceptible due to the amount of trauma and abuse I underwent at the hands of many of my peers – much awful and terrible teasing and emotional abuse,.. far more than the average person). I’m thankful for God’s forgiveness and the grace to move away from that addiction, but often the healing is a process over time… blessings,
Thank you for the article! I’ve been pornfree for almost two year. Reason number
14. There is a bond why bond yourself to porn.
We are often blinded to this reality because we typically do not experience consequences over night. The repercussions of our actions are usually the culmination of many baby steps by seemingly insignificant (or at times, blatant) compromise
Finding this article was helpful to me for my step eleven summary, so thank you Emma Joy. It reminded me that not only is this true but the opposite is true as well. We often do not notice the benefit of making right choices to honor God day by day.
I agree with this article. People who argue for it, or who see it as “no problem” perhaps haven’t gotten to the point yet, where it becomes a problem…and it will. It will become a problem. But again, because our culture seems to “embrace” it – it’s seen as “ok” and marginalized for what it really is.
Porn is a fix. That’s it. Just like the needle, it’s a fix. I’d like anyone who engages in porn, to try and take a third-person view of themselves while doing it. Look how strange it is, to see someone with their hands in their pants, in front of a computer, or magazine, or just wrapped-up in their own imagination…look how utterly selfish it is. How completely strange. Really, in my opinion, quite weird. It just reminds me so much of someone shooting heroine or any other drug – escaping into their alternate reality.
Porn isn’t real. It’s fiction. It’s fake. And it pulls you out of reality into a fantasy, made-up, dream-world. Don’t you want to live in the real world? Because let me tell you…the longer you dwell in fantasy-land, the harder it is to come back.