Making a Gospel Connection

To make a gospel connection, we have to first understand the gravity of the sin of pornography and its relationship to Idolatry in the heart, visual adultery, and coveting.

Idolatry

You shall have no other gods before me. Ex. 20:3, Deut. 5:7

The context is the Ten Commandments: the first four relate to our relationship with God, and the other six to our relationship with each other.

Jesus restates them in summary form in…

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matt. 22:37-39

Context: Note what the word heart means-inner person. The passage means to worship God alone with all you are and treat others with the kind of love you reserve for yourself. Self-love is a core problem because it distorts or even ruins our relationship with God and others. If you are married, you are on the cusp of ruining your relationship with your wife, for she is supposed to be your closest neighbor. The point is we never just commit one sin.

⁵ Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 

⁶ Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. ⁷ Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” ⁸ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. ⁹ We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, ¹⁰ nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. ¹¹ Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. ¹² Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. ¹³ No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 

¹⁴ Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 1 Cor. 10:5-14

Context: Paul describes to the Corinthian church events from Exodus 32. As Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, the people built a golden calf and worshipped it by falling into the idolatry of sexual immorality (fertility cult most likely but a literal orgy). Moses intervenes on their behalf, but 23,000 are destroyed by God. Paul says these things are written down for our instruction and that we are supposed to flee from idolatry. Paul further states we are supposed to take heed (because temptation to fall is right around the corner; yet God promises a way of escape. The question is, do we really believe there is an escape from pornography? If we do not, we are calling God a liar.

Bridging the context….God redeems his people out of Egypt in a miraculous way; yet they complain, grumble, and wish to return to slavery (Porn is a type of slavery). When God gives them the Ten Commandments, they break out in the worst form of rebellion- out-and-out idolatry combined with sexual immorality in a literal orgy. This illustrates an important concept found throughout the Old Testament-the connection between Idolatry and Adultery. God connects the two in graphic terms, and Paul carries the imagery into the New Testament.

Pornography reveals an idol of the heart motivated by love of self. Call it what you will; the word lust is often used, but power and control are also involved. Ultimately, we have to get our minds around the fact that God sees the sin as a type of adultery for the Christian. The Israelites had a heart issue, and so do we. Consider:

⁴³ “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, ⁴⁴ for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. ⁴⁵ The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Lk. 6:43-45

Context is the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus makes it clear that our problems (sin) come from the inside out or “heart,” which is scripturally speaking our control center; the inner person. James put is like this:

¹³ Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. ¹⁵ Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Ja. 1:13-15

Desires of the heart are a critical concept for us to get our minds around. First, we have to understand that sex is a gift from God to be used in its proper context. The desire for sex in that context is righteous. However, when the desire morphs into a demand as it does with pornography, it becomes unrighteous and an affront to God. The demand thus leads to worshipping a false savior, as that savior temporarily satisfies the demand. The repetitive journey to porn are acts of false worship that indicates a type of adultery and coveting.

Serving other Gods (Show no mercy to an idol)

You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. ³ You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, ⁴ for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. ⁵ But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire. 

⁶ “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession. Deut 7:2-6

As a whole, Israel ignored Moses’ command and made covenants with idols; serving other gods kindled the Lord’s anger against them. They could not depend upon their status of God’s chosen people to save them from the consequences of their idolatry. This is why Moses urges them to be ruthless with their idols of the heart. They are to be holy because they are his treasured possession.

The New Testament application here is obvious. We must be committed to overthrowing our idols of the heart, for if we belong to Christ, we are his treasured possession. Christ died so that we would have the status of being God’s treasured possession, based on his work on the cross. To not war against the idols allows us to mock the cross, ignore the sacrifice of Jesus in open rebellion, becoming allies of Satan in his war against God.

Adultery

You shall not commit adultery Ex. 20:14

New Testament Context:

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Matt 7:27-30

Context is again the Sermon on the Mount, and again the issue is the heart. Jesus makes it perfectly clear that the desire\sin of the eyes that has lustful intent means adultery in the heart. It does us little good to parse the sin of the eyes and separate it from formal adultery, although the consequences do differ. The point is adultery, which is connected with idolatry, is a very serious matter before God that has serious consequences, especially if married; the issue being your centered self-love harms your wife in ways you are probably not comprehending. You can’t just commit one sin; if you serve an idol, it is sin, and if you are into porn, you shatter your relationship with your wife (or future wife). This is why Jesus urges taking radical steps to eliminate the sin from you-failure to do so includes the warning of hell.

What is required here is what biblical counselors call “repentance from the heart.” This means that a person does not merely repent of the actions associated with pornography (viewing, masturbation, etc.) but the desire to do these things, which are in effect demands to satisfy self and serve the idol once again. This is key: the desire that has morphed into the demand is what must be repented of. It is not a sin to be tempted; but it is a sin to give in to the temptation. Do you believe that God has given you a means of escape? (1 Cor. 10:13)

Coveting

¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s Ex. 20:17

Context is relationship: if there is adultery with your eyes, the relationship with your wife can be ruined. Imagine, if you will, the shoe being on the other foot, so to speak. It’s like saying “honey you don’t satisfy my needs, so I’m going somewhere else for that satisfaction.” It would hurt, and it should.

 Furthermore, the sin of the desire/eyes can harm your neighbor as well.  Porn is not a victimless crime, and frankly it is often linked to sex trafficking\slavery, and even when it does not, the images are of someone’s wife, girlfriend, sister, mother, etc.; hence self-love once again is more important than loving others. Remember that the images of the women are in fact, image bearers of the Creator entitled to respect regardless of the fact that they are involved in porn in a voluntary manner. Consider your own relatives being involved in the industry? The thought should horrify you.

⁷ What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Romans 7:7-8

Context: It is no accident that Paul chooses coveting as his primary example in his discourse on the struggles with sin. He is pointing to our problem with the heart. We want what we want when we want it. Pornography is a distorted desire of the heart where we demand to have something we should not have. To successfully battle the problem, we must come to the place where we realize the heart is the issue and porn is the bad fruit on a tree whose root is in idolatry (false worship and a false savior.

Homework

The Process of Biblical Change by Julie Ganschow and Bruce Roeder

(Practical applications of the principles of heart change.

Passions of the Heart-Biblical Counsel for Stubborn Sexual Sins by John Street

(The application of heart change applied to the specific issue of pornography)

Hope

²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7: 24-25a)

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal. 2:20)

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