If you have been a pastor for long I am sure you have had that moment when someone approached you with their bible open and said, “Can you show me where it says I can’t……in the bible?” Show me in the bible where it says I can’t have premarital sex. Show me in the bible where it says I have to listen to the leadership of the church. Show me where it says i should vote. Show me, show me, show me.
As you can imagine, many people have asked us at XXXchurch where in the bible it says porn is not okay. To me it is like asking, show me in the bible where it says I should not use crack cocaine. Well, there isn’t a verse that exactly says, “Don’t use crack cocaine.” But as you know the bible talks plenty about following the laws of the government. The bible talks plenty about exactly what should control you and points clearly towards the Holy Spirit.
The point is this, the bible clearly outlines God’s plan for human sexuality and pornography is not a part of the plan.
“This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. 25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.” [GENESIS 2:24-25]
After God created Eve and Adam awoke to see her he yelled out with excitement. He had been given a partner. With this partner God clearly outlines the plan: your loyalty is now to one another and the intimacy you have with one another should not be shared with anyone else. You have been united into one being. You are united spiritually and sexually. You have become a new family and no one is to replace this role in your life. When we live this way, as God intended, there is not shame.
When we engage in porn we invite someone else into this circle of loyalty and intimacy. This is not God’s plan. The proof is in the shame, the isolation, and the brokenness.
“You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality.” [1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-13]
The people in Corinth viewed sex like food. If you are hungry then eat and if you want to have sex have sex. It was nothing more than an appetite. Let your instincts do whatever they want. Paul is communicating to the church in Corinth that this is not true with sex. He says that “no other sin so clearly affects the body as this one” (6:15). God created sex to exist and thrive in a specific context and it does not hold the same liberties as food. In verse 15 Paul says, “Run from sexual sin!”
The word for sex in this scripture comes from the Greek word Pornea. This is the most general word for sexual sin. It is not simply referring to sex with another married woman but sex outside of marriage in any circumstance. Paul paints the picture of sex as more than physical (like food) it is also spiritual. When you join your soul together with someone else (through sex) you have destroyed God’s intention for sex.
When you engage in pornography you are connecting your mind to a fantasy, to a false reality and this is not God’s intention for sex. Paul says we need to lace up our shoes and run like crazy from this temptation. It will leave you empty and disappointed because it is not God’s original intention. It is an imitation. Although it may satisfy your immediate physical desire or need it will ultimately leave you empty physically and worse yet spiritually.