God on Porn (and other things…)

I’ve had a few questions in response to my message (verbal essay?) on Pornography. Mostly along the lines of “does God actually say anything about pornography?”, or for those who know that he does, but don’t know what, “what does he say about it?”. I thought I’d share really briefly.

To start with, the only way I know that we can know for sure what God says on a subject is through the Christian Bible. How do I know that? That’s another topic altogether, I’ll get there, someday… in short, the last 7 years of my life have shown me, through academic research, and through experiential knowledge, that it’s true. Basically, everything I understand the Bible to say matches with the reality I percieve around me.

Anyway, here goes:

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 (ESV)

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

A couple of concepts to pull out of here.

Sanctification: = purification. Pure means completely one thing; not mixed…

Sexual Immorality: The Greek word here is Porneia. It’s where we get the word porn in the first place. In the bible, it means; adultery, homosexuality, beastiality, incest, and intercourse with a divorced man or woman. Hard stuff. Could probably focus a book or semester course on any one of those…

Passion of lust: lust in this context means craving, or desiring something that is forbidden. We all know what passionate means.

Impurity: The opposite of purity (fairly simple…)

Holiness: Same word as sanctification above…

Disregards God: Other translations say “Reject God”. So, if you choose sexual immorality, you are rejecting God. I was hit hard by this thought.

And now from the man himself:

Matthew 5:27-30

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 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. 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.

Looking with lustful intent: Jesus turns the Jewish law, and our common sense on it’s head here. Has anyone reading this NOT looked at someone with “lustful intent”? At any rate, this is the very center of what porn is about, so here he is equating that with sleeping with someone’s wife (or husband…).

Drastic measures: Here’s where to end up. Jesus talked about this pretty strongly, as does Paul in the above Thessalonians passage. Literally gouge your eye out? Probably not, but realize the seriousness of what’s going on here, and take appropriate measures. That’s the message they are conveying. Do we take it seriously enough?