Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James 4:8
If you are a Christian man who struggles with the sin of looking at pornography, your problem might not be porn, or lust, but double-mindedness. You are in two minds about your sin. Part of you loves your sin. Part of you hates it. And so you continue to struggle in defeat.
James tells you and me, in chapter 4 of his letter, that our walk with the Lord must be one of humility. We are to submit to God, draw near to God, cleanse our hands, and purify our hearts. And just who, exactly, are the ones who need their hearts purified? The “double-minded.” That is, those who are wavering and vacillating. The Greek word is dipsuchos, and means to literally be “two souled,” as if a person is split in half, a spiritual schizophrenic.
You likely know this experience of being double-minded. You hate the sin. Then you feel drawn to the sin. Then you are tempted. You look at something inappropriate, you masturbate. You enjoy the experience while it lasts. Then, afterwards, you are filled with shame, regret and remorse. You confess your sin to God. You receive forgiveness. You gradually recover. You purpose in your mind to never look at porn again. But then the urge returns. Part of your mind asks you to indulge in a sin that the other part of your mind hates. And so the battle between your “two souls” continues. You remain double-minded, and you remain in your sin.
James tells you that the cure for double-mindedness is to purify your heart. Not your literal heart, of course, but your spiritual heart, that is, the seat of your affections, desires and passions, as well as of your wisdom and understanding. You purify your heart by purifying your desires and understanding. You replace filthy desires with holy desires. You replace wicked images with holy images. When you cleanse your hands and purify your heart, you drawn closer to God. The closer you get, the less you sin.
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