Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
1 John 2:15-17
You cannot love porn and love God. Sexual immorality and God are so opposed that you cannot love them both at once. So, the question is, do you love porn? That is, are you fond of it? Do you desire it? Do you long for it? Does it give you tremendous pleasure?
If you are like most Christian men, you deny that you love porn. You also likely deny that you love the world and the things in the world. And yet you look at porn—habitually, compulsively, repeatedly, without amending your ways. You deny that you love the world or the things in the world, yet you keenly follow one of the things in the world, namely, the lust of the flesh. I know I once did.
This word “love” here, in the Greek, is agapate, to love, wish well to, take pleasure in, long for. To love the lust of the flesh means to wish well to, to take pleasure in, to long for, the lust of the body, namely, the “wrong desires of the heart, the appetite of indulging all things that excite and inflame sensual pleasures” (Matthew Henry).
If you love pornography, you love the world, and the love of the Father is not in you. If you love porn as your portion and live for it, you are a stranger to God’s grace. If satisfying your lust is the ruling principle of your life, if your main aim in life is to gain and enjoy sexual immorality, you don’t know God. You are a stranger to His love and redemptive power. Your heart is not renewed. You have no portion with the children of God.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that the world is passing away. Pornography, pornographers, the lust of the flesh—they are all passing away. “But he who does the will of God abides forever.” I know which side I want to be on.
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