ENSLAVED TO PORNOGRAPHY

Recent news brings a prominent person back into the headlines who no doubt thought he had escaped a bullet. Josh Duggar, who had just recently had his youthful teenage sexual sins exposed to the world, seemed to have eventually gotten past the bad press by the further explanations that he had turned a new leaf, had received appropriate counseling, etc.  But it has now been revealed to the whole world that he is still entrapped by a pervasive lust for illicit sex. The Bible says “you may be sure your sins will find you out” (Numbers 32:23) and that which is hidden will be revealed (see Luke 12:2).

Josh, the oldest son of the Duggar family, who brought down their TV program “19 Kids and Counting” when the sins of his youth were exposed, has now been outed by the hackers of a sexual web-site as having an ongoing problem. Upon having his ties to a pornographic web-site revealed, Josh admitted to being addicted to pornography and to having been unfaithful to his wife.

Pornography is an evil that has an iron grip on millions of souls today. Even multitudes of Christian ministers are caught up in this sin! The apostle Paul called addiction to sin slavery. In Romans 6 and 8 he shows very clearly how we become enslaved to this (or any other) sin, and how we can be free. It boils down quite simply to our will. If we yield ourselves to sin, we become enslaved to sin. If, with the powerful help of the Holy Spirit, we yield ourselves to righteousness, we become slaves to that. Jesus died to set us free, or redeem us from slavery to sin. But we can, and often do, go back to our old patterns of behavior and fall into Satan’s snare with all its miserable consequences.

Pornography appeals to the lust of the eyes, or the lust of the flesh. It’s one of the three primary appeals of sin to ensnare the hapless soul; a sin dating back to the Garden of Eden. The Bible has much to say about this lust. Jesus Himself said that “whosoever looks” (continuing action verb) “on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28) It’s not a victimless sin that harms no one. It soils and perverts the innocence of the soul and steals the affections that should go to the marriage partner, ruining a man or woman for the marriage relationship that God ordained in the beginning of this world. And it inevitably leads to a deepening involvement with sin, which ultimately leads to destruction.

So how does someone who is addicted to, or caught up in the snare of pornography (or any other sin), become free? The first step, quite obviously, is that we must realize that what we are doing is wrong, and truly want to be free from it. We must be remorseful, not just because we got caught and have to face the consequences, but because we genuinely know how wrong our behavior is. We see how our sin has grieved a holy God, and how much we hurt our loved ones and ourselves. It means we see how we destroyed our testimonies for Christ, and disappointed countless friends and acquaintances. And as we come to grieve for our sin, we must make the decision to change. All of this is involved in true repentance.

When we have repented, we must first confess our sin to God (that means we agree with God that what He says about our behavior is right). All sin is against God. In the case of sexual sin it’s also a sin against others and against ourselves. We must ask God’s forgiveness and cleansing. And then we must accept that what He promises is true. He says “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) We must also seek forgiveness from those whom we have hurt and negatively impacted by our foolish behavior.

How then do we escape the snare of sin in the future?  God promises us the power of His Holy Spirit to overcome whatever sin has been holding us in bondage. In this particular sin involving pornography, we have to make a conscious decision to stop doing the things that would lead us into slavery again. We must stop going to places or hanging out with people who would draw us into this sin. We must stop going to web-sites or buying magazines that cater to the pornographic images.  Job set an example for us. He said to his accusers that “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.” (Job 31:1) God gave us a free will, and we have to make the right choices in all things. God has also given us the power of His indwelling Holy Spirit to say “no” to temptation. The pattern is laid out for us by James and Peter. First, you yield yourself to God, then you can resist the devil and his temptation to sin. (See James 4:7-8, and 1 Peter 5:6-9.)

Paul deals with this issue very well in his letter to the Romans. Read Romans 6:5-23, and notice how he emphasizes our choices and the results of those choices in our lives. He spells it out over and over again in his other letters. He says in Galatians 5:16 “live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature…” and in verse 19 “acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; …etc.” If you really want to change your life and stop doing those things that you have been addicted to, you must yield your whole body, soul, and spirit to God and seek His power to resist the devil and temptations to sin.