If you struggle with the sin of watching pornography, Jesus has a remedy for you that is doubly difficult—but effective. You learn of this remedy in the Gospel of Matthew, the fifth chapter, in the passage that recounts the sermon that Jesus delivered to a multitude gathered on a hillside in Galilee.
This is what Jesus says:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
Matthew 5:27-29
Notice the double remedy for eliminating the temptation to sin by lusting with your eyes: (1) pluck out your right eye, and (2) cast it from you.
You turn the TV off to avoid seeing the sex scene, then you get rid of the TV. You cross the street to avoid the sexy undergrad, then you never visit that part of town again. You scroll past the images of half-naked women on that internet news site, then you block the site. You look the other way when sexually suggestive commercials appear on HBO, then you cancel your subscription. You realize that your smartphone is your primary way of accessing porn, so you throw it in a dumpster and replace it with a flip phone that can’t access the internet.
This is what Jesus means by plucking out your right eye and casting it from you. Avoiding temptation in the moment is not enough if that person, place or thing causes you to sin again. You must pluck it out when tempted, then cast it from you so that it never tempts you again. This isn’t easy. But, as Jesus says, it is profitable. Because it prevents you from being cast into hell.
Need a daily kick in the pants to quit porn biblically? Buy the book, or subscribe to my daily kick.
Was this post helpful? Share it now:
