August 9
“Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18)
This is a huge, huge issue in Western society, the rampant immorality that is pervasive in our culture and growing worse everyday. Most readers are aware of this, so I won’t dwell on statistics or talk much about how bad things are. But things have gotten really, really bad in this area, and immorality and evil are commonplace and even celebrated in our society, and those who won’t accept immorality become the enemies and dregs of society.
With today’s media – movies, television shows, the Internet, millions of pictures and videos, not to mention endless books with numerous lurid details of illicit encounters, all available immediately at our fingertips, much of it free – immorality, perversion, pornography, and evil beyond description assaults our minds and hearts endlessly if we want and allow it to. If one lets down his or her guard just briefly in times of weakness or perhaps arrogance or just curiosity, he or she is pummeled with impure images and thoughts and sucked into a nightmare of spiritual and emotional quicksand that seemingly grabs onto and corrupts the hearts and minds of almost everyone it touches.
We are told that with exposure to pornographic images, great floods of hormones and stimulating chemicals flood our systems, making the experience seemingly very exciting and stimulating, thus overwhelming the spiritual warning systems that would otherwise make us repulsed by what we see and making us desire the experience over and over again, thus creating an addictive habit that ensnares us deeper and deeper until we can’t see our way out anymore, if even we want out.
Worse still, the onslaught of immoral ideas, suggestions, images, activities, statements, endorsements, examples, boastings, bullying, dares, and enticements that we expose ourselves to begin to lower our standards for morality and behavior, and some people begin to act on and act out degrading passions that have been held up by these sources as “liberating” or “good.”
I am deeply, deeply concerned about the Christian Church in this regard. I have heard the statistic that as many as half of our pastors in the USA struggle with pornography to some extent. I am heartbroken over Christian husbands and wives committing adultery against one another, and the divorces that are occurring destroying Christian families. It is sickening indeed to think of my own children participating in these immoral deeds of darkness. Thinking of these things make me sick to my stomach.
But I am not approaching this subject from the standpoint of condemnation and a “holier than thou” attitude. I too have struggled with pornography at various points in my life. When I was an unbelieving teenager, my father used to give me pornography, so this is a sin I have had to battle from my youth. Also, I came from a very dysfunctional family, and I was exposed to immoral behavior from a young age and was promiscuous as a teenager. So I can identify a little bit with those whose past is marred by immorality and for those who struggle with these sins perhaps more than others. I have at various times wondered how great it would have been to have been raised in a Christian home, being exposed to Bible teaching and the fear of the Lord from my youth, instead of being exposed to dysfunction and immorality!
But praise God, Who has called us and saved us from this immoral age! But woe to us if we return to these sins! This is our challenge then, to chart our way to lasting freedom and victory over the immorality that is everywhere around us and so easily and quickly entangles us. It is my hope that in the coming few pages you may find a few things that have helped me in my struggle to avoid the seemingly endless battle with temptation in this area. May God give you much grace to overcome these sins as we labor against this evil of lust and immorality together!