You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery?
Romans 2:22
Looking at pornography is bad enough. But looking at it but also judging others for doing the same sin is even worse. A sexually immoral Christian is wicked. But a sexually immoral Christian who is also a hypocrite is even more wicked.
You may not have this problem, of course. You may not preach from a pulpit or teach Sunday school or lead a men’s Bible study. Your sin of looking at porn might be a solitary sin, one that you don’t chastise anyone else for committing. But if you are responsible for preaching, teaching, exhorting and instructing, the bar is set higher for you.
As Paul tells former Jews in the church at Rome in his day, when you teach the law while breaking the law, you dishonor God and blaspheme the name of God among the Gentiles. These days, if you watch pornography in private but preach against it in public, you do the same. You dishonor God and blaspheme His name among unbelievers.
You’ll agree that this is not a hypothetical case, either. You and I both know pastors and ministry leaders who have preached against adultery while committing adultery, who have thundered from the pulpit against sexual immorality while sleeping with prostitutes. The list is long and sordid: Jim Bakker (adultery), Jimmy Swaggart (prostitutes), Ted Haggard (sodomy), Ravi Zacharias (sexual abuse) Josh Duggar (child molestation, adultery, child pornography), Carl Lentz (adultery), Brian Houston (adultery). I’ll stop there.
I am guilty of this sin. I preached every Sunday evening at my church in Ottawa, and preached the gospel in the Byward Market during the week, for two years, while watching pornography during my time off. I didn’t sin every day, and I regularly confessed my sin to God and asked His forgiveness, but I was nevertheless a hypocrite for condemning in the pulpit and on the streets what I practiced. I am still ashamed of my hypocrisy to this day.
Please let my bad example be a lesson to you. I and plenty of other Christian men have shown you how not to live your Christian life. If you have a problem with pornography that is compounded by you also being a hypocrite on the subject, please forsake your sexual sin today. That will take care of both of your sins in one act.
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