About a year after becoming a Christian at the age of 19, my friend and I were alone in the Youth and Young Adult Pastor’s church office. We decided to open the media player on his church computer to see what he was watching last. To our utter shock, it was a pornographic video. We quickly shut it down and left the office. Was my pastor allowed to watch pornography? Is watching pornography a sin?
Christians should never watch pornography because it is a sin. Watching pornography is the equivalent of adultery. Those who watch pornography are engaged in an evil practice and a work of darkness that defiles a person, gratifies the desires of the flesh, and is in line with how non-Christians live.
The Bible does not explicitly speak toward the issue of pornography. This is understandable because print and digital media as we have it today did not exist in the days when the Bible was written. The Bible does have a lot to say about sexual immorality, however, which is directly relevant to the topic of pornography. I have written an article on what the Bible considers sexual immorality. I won’t reproduce that content in this article, so feel free to click HERE if you want to read it (there will be some surprises in it!). In this article, I will only treat those passages that are relevant to pornography.
Watching Pornography Is Equivalent to Adultery (Matt 5:27–30)
Looking at or watching pornography is looking at a person with lustful intent. This is an issue that Jesus directly addresses. Jesus says,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
MATTHEW 5:27–28, emphasis added
Jesus clearly equates lustfully looking at a woman with adultery. The phrase “who looks at a woman with lustful intent” refers to looking at a woman for the purpose of lusting over her. For those familiar with Greek, the infinitive “to lust” (ἐπιθυμῆσαι) is governed by the preposition πρός, which indicates purpose. Jesus is saying that anyone who looks at a woman for the purpose of lusting over her is committing adultery with her in his heart. Thus, lustfully looking at a woman is equated to adultery. And adultery, as we all know, is a clear sin (Rom 2:22; 13:19; 2 Pet 2:14)!
What is pornography other than looking at a person for the purpose of lusting over them! It doesn’t matter if the person is in a magazine or on a screen. If you are looking at a person for the purpose of lusting over them, you are committing adultery with that person in your heart, which means you are sinning! Because watching pornography is committing adultery in one’s heart, watching pornography is a clear sin.
So serious is the sin of looking at a person for the purpose of lusting over them that Jesus says it is better to cut off the parts making you sin and go around maimed than to enter Hell (“Gehenna”) whole:
“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”
MATTHEW 5:29–30
It has convincingly been argued that Jesus is speaking in hyperbole in Matthew 5:29–30. Regardless, the sin of looking at a person for the purpose of lusting over them is very serious according to Jesus and should be shunned. Thus, pornography should be shunned and we should all flee from it!
Watching Pornography Is Engaging in Sexual Immorality and Sensuality
All Christians should agree that adultery is engaging in sexual immorality and sensuality. Because looking at a person for the purpose of lusting over them is adultery in the heart, it is also committing sexual immorality and sensuality. The New Testament is clear that sexual immorality and sensuality have no place in the Christian life, that is, in the life of a disciple of Jesus.
Let’s first hear what Jesus says about engaging in sexual immorality and sensuality:
“And he [Jesus] said, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’”
MARK 7:20–23, emphasis added
Jesus is clear that sexual immorality, sensuality, and adultery (a) come from one’s heart, (b) are evil, and (c) defile a person. Thus, pornography should have no place in the life of the Christian.
Let’s now see what the apostle Paul has to say:
“The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
ROMANS 13:12–14, emphasis added
The apostle Paul says much the same as Jesus. Engaging in sexual immorality and sensuality is (a) engaging in the works of darkness, (b) not walking properly as a Christian, as a disciple of Jesus, (c) gratifying the desires of the flesh, and (d) is devoid of living like Jesus (i.e., putting on Jesus).
Finally, let’s hear from the apostle Peter:
“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.”
1 PETER 4:1–3, emphasis added
Like Jesus and Paul, the apostle Peter shuns engaging in sensuality and “passions” as (a) not living for the will of God and instead (b) living like the Gentiles, the non-Christians.
Summary and Concluding Thoughts
Christians should never watch pornography. Pornography is the purposeful lusting after another person, which Jesus says is the equivalent of committing adultery in one’s heart. Because pornography is the equivalent of adultery, watching pornography is engaging in sexual immorality and sensuality. Those who watch pornography have abandoned the will of God and are not living as a disciple of Jesus. Instead, they are engaged in an evil practice and a work of darkness that stems from one’s sinful heart, defiles that person, gratifies the desires of the flesh, and is in line with how non-Christians live.
So, what did I do in light of discovering my pastor was watching pornography on the church’s computer? To my embarrassment, I did not say or do anything (neither did my friend). My conscience bore witness to me that what my pastor was doing was wrong (even more so because he was married with kids!), but I did not know the Bible well enough to be confident. Further, I did not have the courage to tell the senior pastor or any of the other pastors or deacons to let them decide if it was sinful. Eventually I moved to another state and left the church. I don’t know whatever happened to my pastor, but I pray he repented of his sin or left the ministry if he did not repent.
Pornography is a scourge in modern Western society. Our culture tells us that it is amoral, neither good nor bad. As you have seen above, this is a lie. Watching pornography is engaging with the works of darkness. As children of light, it has no place in the life of any Christian. Let all Christians privately and publicly shun this great evil.