If you are a Christian man who is also married, you have likely made only one vow in your life. And that is the vow you made on your wedding day to your wife. You faced her at the altar, before God and a few other witnesses, and said something like this:
“I, [NAME], take thee, [NAME], to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my troth.”
If you find yourself breaking your wedding vow these days by lusting after women you see in movies and magazines, and on websites and apps, you may be ready to make another vow. A vow that helps you break free from the bondage of habitual sexual sin. This is what King David did.
You find David’s vow recorded in Psalm 101, a psalm that David penned. Here is what he wrote:
“I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.”
Psalm 101:3
Did you spot the vow? “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes.” This is the vow of a married man who committed adultery with a woman called Bathsheba. Read the account in 2 Samuel 11. Notice where David’s sin started, and then how it progressed. David’s sin started with his eyes. First, David saw a woman bathing. Even though he was married, he kept looking. He noticed that the woman was “very beautiful to behold.” Because he kept looking, he soon started lusting. He sent his messengers to the woman’s house to bring her to his palace, where he slept with her.
David’s sin with Bathsheba is one that he confessed to God and repented of. But David also took remedial action, as it were. He vowed to God to never put anything wicked before his eyes. Why? Because David hated the work of those who fall away from the right path, who deal crookedly. He didn’t want their sins to cling to him. Read Psalm 101 again to see what I mean.
If you are serious about quitting pornography, conquering lust and overcoming habitual sexual sin, you can make a vow like this as well. You can vow to never put any wicked pornography, sexually explicit images, or even sexually suggestive images, before your eyes. Unlike your wedding vow, this is a vow you make to God, not your wife. But your wife will be the primary beneficiary of your vow, next to you, that is. And assuming you keep your vow, of course. That’s the hard part.
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