“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21)
I once knew a Christian who became so convicted about what his family was watching on television that he put it out in the street. When I asked him why, he told me it seemed to be just the right place for it. “I realized it belonged right next to the other trash I had set out to be picked up,” he explained.
He was often the subject of a lot of jokes. Regretfully, when I was an unbeliever, I even laughed about it until one of my friends told me, “He’s not as stupid as you think”.
He’s right. Our televisions, and now our home computers, offer unlimited access to pornography. Twenty-five years ago, the sale of pornographic materials was estimated to generate less than $5 million in this country. U.S. New and World Report now claims that annual sales in this country alone in 1996 exceeded $8 billion.
The truth is there are more places to find pornography in America than hamburgers in McDonald’s Restaurants. Is it any wonder that 91% of all junior high school males and 82% of junior high school females in a recent survey admit exposure to hard-core pornography? Sadly, almost 1 out of every 5 those students admitted that they tried out what they saw within a few days.
Personally, I believe pornography is one of the greatest threats to the Body of Christ. That’s exactly why the Apostle Paul said to the church at Corinth, a decadent city where sexually immorality was rampant, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?” (1 Corinthians 6:15)
There are a lot of Christians who claim that the Bible is silent on the issue of pornography. They are wrong! Did you know that the Greek word Paul used for sexual immorality was “porneia”, the root word for pornography?
No one wrote more eloquently against sexual immorality than the Apostle Paul. In 1 Thessalonians 5:22, he pleads with us: “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” And in Galatians, he reminds us, “The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.” (Galatians 5:17 NLT)
If you use pornography, you are not living in God’s will. The Bible says, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7)
The Bible is clear. Pornography is wrong and God promises that he will have the last word. God also promises that he will forgive us if we repent and turn away from sexual immorality. “To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations.” (Revelation 2:26)
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