Why Pornography Is Not the Problem

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  1 John 2:15–17 (NIV) Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. CONSIDER THIS One of the great traps in a text like today’s is to interpret John as saying, “Have nothing to do with the world.” It gets further translated into such sayings as “Don’t drink, smoke, or chew, or run with those who do.” The next thing you know, we have a full-blown theology of holiness that leads to withdrawing from anything that even smacks of the world. Being holy becomes far more about being disassociated from the world than being distinctive within it. It may appear right, but it’s dead wrong. John doesn’t say to have nothing to do with the world. He says do not love the world. You see, our big mistake when it comes to the way we think about the world is we think the world is “out there.” The truth? The world is “in here”—in us. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. This “world” John speaks of is not some adult bookstore on the side of the freeway. It’s the broken desires in the depths of our hearts. The R-rated movie is not the problem. The real issue is the broken place in me that desires to see something salacious. The “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” is just another way of describing undisciplined desire. The issue is not my materialistic neighbors; it’s my covetousness. When you boil it all down, the problem is never out there in the so-called world. The problem is in here, in the broken world of my inmost self. Thinking the world is out there rather than within us explains how some of the most strident opponents of sin are the most secret of sinners. Ironically, often the greatest crusaders against online pornography are some of the most perverse participants in it. They thought the problem was online when all the while it was inside. It’s not about the pornography out there but the perversion within. Real discipleship in the tradition of Jesus is not the moral crusade to manage sin. It’s about the conversion of our deepest desires. The only way to stop loving the world is to be seized by and given to a far greater affection: the holy love of God. Real discipleship is training the heart by the power of the Word of God and the Spirit of God to desire what is truly good and beautiful and holy and loving—to desire God alone. THE PRAYER  Lord Jesus, give me the courage to stop identifying sin out there and become honest about the source of sin in here, within me. Save me from the trap of self-shaming, which takes me away from the cross. Come, Holy Spirit, and cause me to run to the cross. I want you to eradicate the deeper sin in me. Change me from the inside out. In your name, Jesus. Amen.