Skip to main content

Why Do We Give In to Pornography?

You know the scenario: The room is empty. You’re alone. You look over at your folded laptop sitting idle on the desk, and the urge for sexual release that has been intensifying all day collides with the seductive thought of indulging in porn yet again.


You think to yourself, “I know it’s sin, I know I’ll feel horrible afterwards, I know the satisfaction won’t last.” And yet, so often the scenario ends with turning on the computer, typing in a website’s URL, and taking part in the dark porn experience again.

As I lived out that scenario many times, and as I have walked with men who experience that on a weekly, if not daily, basis, the question we must ask is, “Why was our conviction of sin, our knowledge of Scripture, our joy in the gospel not enough to keep us from consciously, actively sinning against God again?”

Why We Fall

The sins of lust, pornography use, and masturbation are first and foremost worship problems. That is, we do not see sex and satisfaction rightly because we do not see God and God’s glory rightly. Therefore, when temptation rises, God often seems like a distant observer simply watching and waiting to see if we will give in. His presence is like that of a coach watching his defense respond to the other team’s attack.
“Purity is not a call to mere self-denial. It’s a call to exuberant indulgence in Jesus.”
And that’s why we fall.

We use pornography only when we fail to see the goodness and glory of God in his present-moment actions towards us, and for us. We choose to sin only when we are blind to what God is doing to us, and for us in the very moment we choose to sin.

The Past-Tense God

New Testament scholar Leon Morris writes, “The man who carries on an act of impurity and lust is not simply breaking a human code, not even sinning against the God who at some time in the past gave him the gift of the Spirit. He is sinning against the God who is present at that moment, against One who continually gives the Spirit. The impure act is an act of despite against God’s good gift at the very moment it is being proffered” (Morris, 128).

When we sin against God, we are actively biting the hand that is presently feeding us the substance we are starving for. When we rebel against Christ, we are striking the Physician that is currently, in that very moment, administering the life-sustaining medicine.

It is not hard to sin against the God of past-tense. If our understanding of the glory of God in Christ Jesus is only that Christ came to earth for us, he died to make atonement for our sins, and he resurrected and ascended to the place of highest honor, we can rather easily shelve that good news when our desire for sin becomes greater than our joy in what God did two thousand years ago.

Now surely, we cannot and will not ever graduate from the ever-glorious gospel story of the cross. However, what makes the gospel story glorious is that the story transcends time. While the cross happened in the past, it could not be contained there, and like the morning sun, it has broken through space and time with infinite intensity and brought life and glory into this very moment, and forevermore.

I absolutely adore my wife. I love her and celebrate her not only because she loved me four years ago on our wedding day when she entered the covenant of marriage with me. I cherish and enjoy her because of all that she is in this present moment: a gospel co-laborer, a servant mom, a radical disciple maker, a humble Christ worshipper. My joy in my wife didn’t end on our wedding day; in many ways, it began there. Likewise, our joy in Jesus must not stop with the cross; rather, we must see how the gospel story affects right here, right now, and forevermore.

The Present-Tense God

The only weapon we have to defeat the beast of porn is joy in something — no, Someone — greater: Jesus Christ. The battle strategy against porn is to do everything you can to enjoy Jesus more than you could possibly enjoy porn.
Weary one, this is what Jesus is doing right now in your moment of greatest temptation.
In the moment of temptation:
The battle strategy against porn is to do everything you can to enjoy Jesus more than you could possibly enjoy porn.

What Jesus Does When You’re Tempted

Victory over porn is not a call to mere self-denial, but a call to exuberant indulgence in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Next time the dreary clouds of lust come over your room, set your mind on what Jesus is doing to you, and for you, in that very moment. Set your mind upon the things of Christ (Romans 8:5–6; Colossians 3:2), and may your joy in Jesus become too fulfilling, too gratifying, too satisfying to forfeit over to the sad counterfeit pleasure of pornography.

 I'll leave you with these: “Purity is not a call to mere self-denial. It’s a call to exuberant indulgence in Jesus.” 



We believe that this Amazing teaching has really blessed and transform you, let us know your thoughts and testimony, you can drop your comments below or write to us at

themessageofdcross@gmail.com

God bless you. See you next week as we begin fresh inspiring topics. Don't forget to subscribe not miss any of our latest post.


Join passionate believers on our WhatsApp Group, click Here

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why did GOD Kill NABAL?

I came across a Story in the Bible in 1Samuel 25. This story cut my attention and leave me wondering, asking myself a question: WHY DID GOD KILLED NABAL?   I decided to take my time to dig deep into this Amazing Story and it is so Awesome what the HolySpirit reveals to me of this story. It is my Prayer that your life will be Transformed as you read this didactic Discoveries about NABAL, ABIGAIL & DAVID. Amen. Two of the Psalms, the fourteenth and fifty-third, begin with the statement, ``The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.'' When we read these words today, we might picture an atheist-someone who has come to believe, perhaps for philosophical or scientific reasons, in the nonexistence of a Supreme Being. However, we have no evidence that there were any atheists living in the time of David, to whom this psalm is attributed. In those days many people believed in a plethora of deities, but few, as far as we know, imagined that there were none at al...

The FALL of GEHAZI

THE FALL OF GEHAZI (GREED)  The Devil held a great anniversary, at which his emissaries were convened to report the results of their several missions. "I let loose the wild beasts of the desert," said one, "on a caravan of Christians; and their bones are now bleaching on the sands." "What of that?" said the Devil, "their souls were all saved." "For ten years, I tried to get a single Christian asleep," said a third; "and I succeeded, and left him so." Then the Devil shouted, and the night stars of hell sang for joy.— Martin Luther I believe this is a great strategy of Satan. Not that he can cause committed, mature Christians to step into some great sin. But that he can wear down our resolve to live for Jesus. He can cause us to take our eyes off Jesus and place them on our circumstances and ourselves, so that we will begin to doubt the grace of God and begin to look for our own definition of blessing, and ...

How Do I Love God More Than My Entertainment? (John Piper)

The base meaning of the word entertainment is “to hold.” It’s a term for maintaining interest. To entertain is to capture and hold one’s attention. And we naturally find the passive watching of television more appealing than labor. Entertainment holds us. But the on-demand access we have for a lifetime of captivating entertainment literally at our fingertips also raises really important questions about what is it that most holds my attention. Does God have any chance at competing for my attention with the allure of Hollywood? Thus, this question from a listener named Craig. “Dear Pastor John, hello! I know that I have begged for Christ to receive my heart and life. My repentance is sincere. I have stopped my willful sinning, and I am doing everything I can to live a holy life. My question is about my desire and satisfaction in spiritual discipline and worship. I prefer entertainment to time with God. That’s the honest truth. Time with God feels like labor. Entertainm...