Husband Material

What Does The Bible Say About Porn?

June 01, 2020 Drew Boa
Husband Material
What Does The Bible Say About Porn?
Show Notes Transcript

Most people don’t realize the Bible talks directly about porn. In this episode, I’ll share three New Testament teachings on “porneia” and reveal the beauty and power of each one.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the husband material podcast where we help Christian men quit pornography so you can change your brain, heal your heart, and save your relationship. My name is drew boa and I'm here to show you how. Let's go. Today we are talking about the Bible because contrary to what you may have heard, the Bible has so much to teach us about porn. When I was in college and grad school, I spent four years researching every single part of scripture that talks about sex, sexual behavior, and sexuality. And what I found was gold. You could do an entire year's worth of Bible study on this one topic and trust me, you would never get bored. There is so much to learn and it's really important to read the Bible for yourself in this topic because otherwise you will be a slave to whatever your parents and pastors think or worse, whatever your peers think. So today we are going to cut through all the crap of purity, culture, and of popular culture to get to the core of what the Bible says about what we should do about porn. And not only that, but why? What's the bigger picture? Because when you have that, it actually gives you power over porn in a way that you may not have heard before. So let's dive in. Today's episode might sound a little bit like a sermon because I am going to go into three passages from new Testament letters where the word Neha appears. This word appears throughout the new Testament. It's a Greek word that is usually translated in today's translations as sexual immorality and the old King James version, they called it fornication. So I'm really glad that you're not going to see that in any of the modern translations. Sexual immorality is a pretty good way to say it. Unlawful sexual intercourse, prostitution especially would be associated with the word porneia. And the word pornography is actually a compound word of pornea and graphene. The word graphic is the word for writing for depicting in some kind of media. So the word pornography literally means prostitution in media, sexual immorality in media. Makes sense, doesn't it? So we are going to look at this word porneia where it occurs in some of these new Testament teachings. And the first text I want to take you into is first Corinthians chapter six. The body is not meant for porneia, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body, and God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her. For as it is written, the two will become one flesh, but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from porneia. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not your own. For you are bought with a price,

Speaker 2:

glorify God in your body.

Speaker 1:

The message of this passage is pretty simple. Flee porneia, flee sexual immorality, but the power of this message is in why? Why are we to do this? He says, your bodies are members of Christ. In other words, you are United to Jesus. You belong to him. It says you were bought with a price. You're not your own. It says you're filled with the Holy spirit. So if this is true of you, then to use pornography just doesn't make sense. Going back to porneia would be to unite Christ to unite Holy spirit to something that just doesn't belong in this temple of God. If you have been saved by Jesus United to Christ United to the body of Christ and filled with the Holy spirit, porneia has no place in your life. So the first reason to avoid porneia is because you belong to Jesus. And the second reason I want to point you to comes from first Thessalonians chapter four

Speaker 2:

for you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. That each of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one transgressed and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an Avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you for God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God who gives his Holy spirit to you.

Speaker 1:

The message here is to avoid porneia because it's God's will. God has this design. He calls it your sanctification, that we would become like Christ, that we would learn how to control our bodies in holiness and honor, not impassionate less like the pagans who do not know God. There's this assumption that our relationship with God changes every part of our lives and that our sexuality doesn't have to be a place of repression or release, but then it can be a place of holiness and honor of joy, of life, of goodness, and that this is not something that we should use to take advantage of anyone. I mean poor Nana, prostitution, the global sex industry, all of it is ultimately taking advantage of other people. And so God is calling us to something so much greater. And the emphasis here is that it's God himself who tells us to do this, not some manmade tradition. And that once again, we're seeing the Holy spirit is involved. He's giving us his Holy spirit. And when we are full of the spirit, we are empty of cornea. So the second reason to avoid porneia as first Thessalonians four tells us is because it's God's will. And the third reason that I want to show you comes from Ephesians chapter five. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But porneia and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. The invitation here is so beautiful. It's saying don't have anything to do with cornea because that's not who you are. You are beloved children. You are sons and daughters of the most high King. You are saints. You are God's Holy people. You are chosen righteous, pure, blameless, Holy. It's not who you are. Jesus has loved us and has given himself up for us. And because of that, we are now children of God. So with God as your father, Jesus as your lover, and later on in the chapter it talks about the Holy spirit again, living in you. What place does porn have in our lives and what power can it have over us when we have God himself showing us the way, loving us, making us new. So it asks us to imitate him, to become more like the one who made himself like us. Jesus is sexual. Jesus is a human, and we are invited to become Christ-like in our sexuality, to imitate God with every part of us, including our sexuality. And so the biblical vision for becoming like God is so much bigger than just avoiding a behavior. It's about who we are today. I've introduced you to some treasures from God's word that have so much power to increase and enrich our lives, especially when it comes to freedom from porn. So don't just move on after this. Go back to them, reread them and soak in them. If you really want to be transformed, memorize them. That way you'll know them not just in your head but in your heart and they will rewire your brain in awesome ways. So I highly recommend not just reading them but memorizing them. And let me summarize for you what I've said about this. When it comes to porneia, the new Testament says three things that I think are really important in first Corinthians, it says to flee porneia because you belong to Jesus and because you are a temple of the Holy spirit. In first Thessalonians it says to avoid porn because it's God's will for you and God wants so much more for you. In Ephesians it says that porneia has no place in your life because it's not who you are. You are God's beloved son and in you he is well-pleased and that's why I tell you this at the end of every episode, if you want to hear more teaching from me on sexuality and the Bible, download my new free ebook, which is called sexuality meets discipleship. And always remember my friend, you are God's beloved son in you. He is well-pleased.

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