Detour Before the Dopamine | 1 Corinthians 10:13

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
1 Corinthians 10:13

Sexual sin is not an act, but a sequence. It begins with a trigger, and ends with an act. If you want to avoid the sinful act at the end of the sequence, you must make a U-turn long before you get there. If you want to take the way of escape that God always offers when you are tempted, you must know when to take it.

This is the key to understanding the promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13—timing. Don’t expect God to offer you a door, or a window, or some other physical means of escape when you are tempted sexually. The way of escape that God provides is a window of opportunity, typically measured in mere minutes, maybe even just seconds. If you want to avoid the sexual sin, you must take this way of escape when God offers it, without delay.

Resisting sexual temptation is all about the stopwatch, because sexual sin follows what Dr. Kevin Skinner calls The Activation Sequence, which looks like this:

1. Trigger
2. Emotional Response
3. First Thought
4. Chemical Release
5. Body Language
6. Second Thought (The Battle)
7. Action

As you can see, sexual sin starts with a trigger, such as an image, a video, or a thought. That’s followed by an involuntary emotional response (delight or disgust, for instance), which is then followed by the first thought. If you are a Christian man and if the trigger is a pornographic image, this first thought is likely whether you should keep looking or not. Then comes the chemical release, the dopamine that travels to your brain, and feels good. Then your body changes. Your pulse increases, your breathing increases, you begin to get an erection. Then you have the second thought. Here you battle with reasons for continuing looking at the porn, and reasons for stopping looking. Whichever thought wins, that is the action you will take.

If you are a hot-blooded male, this sequence from start to finish might only take a few minutes. Some time during this sequence, God will always provide a way of escape from the temptation. Dr. Skinner suggests that you take a U-turn before you reach step 4, the chemical release. Resisting the temptation to keep looking at porn gets progressively harder after the dopamine starts flowing, because dopamine drives you to seek and repeat pleasurable activities. Looking at porn is pleasurable. Masturbating to porn is pleasurable. That dopamine in your brain motivates you to seek the reward of orgasm. So, to avoid the sin, avoid the dopamine.

The secret to resisting sexual temptation is knowing not just the what of escape, but also the when. You must take God’s way of escape when He offers it. You must take your U-turn when you are given the chance. Many Christian men who have victory in this area report that the best time to stop sexual temptation is step 1. As soon as they see an inappropriate image, or as soon as they have a lustful thought, they change the subject. They win the battle before it even gets going by taking their thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Achieving sexual purity is all in the timing.