Porn, Marriage, & Politics

Logos Assembly March 2024

Introduction
Porneias is the Greek word for sexual immorality. Pornography is any writing or images intended to encourage or stir up sexual immorality. Pornography can be found in books and stories, magazines and images, shows and movies. Fornication is the general name for the sin of sexual immorality, and can refer to sex prior to or outside of marriage. Not all nakedness or references to sex are pornographic. A doctor may help bring healing without sexual immorality, and the Song of Songs is a book of the Bible that describes sexual intimacy without any immorality. But you must still be on your guard. 

In the beginning God created man and woman in His image, and the Bible says that they were naked and not ashamed. But after Adam and Eve sinned they knew they were naked and attempted to sew fig leaves together to cover themselves and tried to hide in the bushes from the Lord. Because of sin, we feel shame about our bodies and sexuality. But in marriage, a man and woman have a taste of that original goodness. The marriage bed is honorable and undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers, God will judge (Heb. 13:4). Sexual union in marriage is good and holy and blessed, but God will judge those who mess with marriage.

Sex & Marriage as a Nuclear Reactor
We live in a world that hates God and how He has created the world, and so it is actively at war with marriage and God’s blessing of the marriage bed. This is because God made marriage and family to be a nuclear reactor. In sexual intimacy, God gave the potential to create new human life, new human beings that bear God’s image. There is nothing in all of creation as powerful as the image of God in men and women. Human beings are immortal souls that will live forever. If one of your neighbors told you they bought some uranium off the internet and they were planning to play with it in their basement, you would rightly object. And you wouldn’t care if they protested that you shouldn’t care what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home. But that’s exactly what people have been doing with sex. We are living in the nuclear fallout of the sexual revolution. 

Pornography and all sexual immorality is playing with the nuclear family. When we obey God and honor his design, there is great power and blessing, but when we try to re-wire the reactor ourselves, there is only misery and pain.

God made the woman from the man, and the woman was created to be the glory of man (1 Cor. 11). This means that part of the glory of being made a woman is being made beautiful. A woman’s glory is her beauty. It is no sin to notice this. But when a man sins, he tends to lust after a woman’s beauty, and when a woman sins she tends to try to provoke that lust. A woman sins by trying to get the wrong kind of attention, and a man sins by giving the wrong kind of attention. This can begin as immodesty in speech, immodesty in dress, but like many sins, it can have a way of wearing down your guard. Taylor Swift can gyrate half naked on a stage in front of thousands, and piles of Christians go along with it since she’s still wearing *some* clothes. But a generation or two before us would have called that pornographic. While many girls and women do not intend it, they are being groomed by fashion designers not to feel shame in spandex and underwear. And many Christians make a very weird exception when there’s water within 50 yards. Pornography has deadened the senses of many. 

The Lies of Porn & Lust
“For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil; but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword” (Prov. 5:3-4). This means that prostitution (and pornography is often just electronic/virtual prostitution) is presented full of lies. The magazine cover looks attractive like honey or oil, but what it is actually advertising is death and destruction. But the lies multiply. To a woman, the lie is that you have to look at least a little bit sexually alluring in order to look pretty. You have to look a little bit like the celebrity prostitutes or else you’ll like a frumpy toad. But that’s a lie. God created woman to be the glory of man, and that in part means you should desire to be beautiful. But you should not allow the sexually immoral world teach you what true beauty is. Don’t take fashion tips from porn stars.

Another lie is that you are missing out, that everyone else is having fun, and if you don’t act now, you’ll never have any fun either. If you don’t watch that show, that movie, read those books, you’ll soon be an old dud with no friends. But those who look at pornography or seek out sexual immorality are not really having fun. They might have a brief taste of honey, but the end is bitter. The end is regrets, shame, hurt, pain, plus sometimes diseases, pregnancy, abortion, adultery, divorce, and broken families. 

Forgiveness
One of the other most significant lies of the Devil is that sexual sin is the unforgivable sin. Satan says, it’s too late. Nothing can be done. But Scripture says, “Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). 

There is no sin that is so foul that you cannot be forgiven. Jesus was stripped naked and crucified in great shame because our sin has been very shameful. But everyone who confesses their sins will be washed clean by the blood of Jesus. Have you looked at sexually immoral images or read stories that have stirred up lust? Confess your sin to God and tell your parents. Get clean and get accountability. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1:9).

Conclusions: The Politics of Marriage versus the Politics of Pornography
What kind of world are you seeking to build? Honoring Christian marriage and the marriage bed is building a particular kind of world. Honoring Christian marriage is practicing a politics of freedom. This is because the blessings of freedom are enjoyed by those with self-control and self-government, those who keep their promises and build strong, loyal families. But pornography and all sexual immorality produce a politics of slavery. This is because a people governed by their lusts and appetites cannot be trusted to keep their promises or tell the truth and must therefore be governed by outside forces. 

Photo by Luis Tosta on Unsplash