There has been plenty of discussion around about whether porn is harmful or really rather innocuous if used in a “responsible” way. I believe it is a rather easy question to answer just with the many testimonies of destruction that porn has brought on individuals, marriages, families and societies as a whole. In fact, I would say that peanut butter is harmful if it becomes an addiction, so in reality the “harmful” nature of porn is irrelevant. Anything that has taken control of an individual and makes them make unhealthy decisions merely to fuel the addiction is harmful. But ultimately, as a believer in Christ and a follower who has been addicted to drugs and struggled with porn, I have to know what God says about it. I was reading Romans the other day and I believe God showed me a powerful truth to simply and unarguably state His position on harmful sexual practices.
Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore (In other words, because of what I just described) God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, (Continuing on with the consequences of these decisions) since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
It all starts with sexual impurity, and progresses- “Therefore-Because of this-Furthermore…” I am not going to claim that everyone that has masturbated to a porn magazine is going to end up a murderer and is hopeless. But the point being that when they rejected God and turned away from Him, the first area to collapse was sexual purity. That tells me that it is a foundational element to understanding and receiving God’s love. If the enemy that wants to destroy us can get us compromising in that area, then it begins a shaky downhill adventure. I believe it begins to warp the whole concept of love and commitment and makes the guilt and shame of it cause us to in fact turn from God. As the above referenced example shows us.
God’s love for us is pure and Holy. What all does that mean? I don’t fully understand it, but I know it is the kind of love that when I repent and turn to Him He RUNS to me as it teaches us in the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:20. Even when we have sinned sexually, the prodigal son spent his inheritance on hookers and booze, yet when he came back to his father, he RAN to greet him he was so glad to see his son. Now personally, anything that causes me to not perceive that, or make me feel like “He couldn’t love me after what I’ve done, ” I want to run away from whatever it is. Is porn harmful.
What do you think God thinks?