How would you feel if your fiancée showed up on your wedding day in a dress that had been carelessly dragged through the mud, after she spent the morning sleeping around? I’m guessing you’d lose interest real quick.
Jesus isn’t interested in a dirty Bride, either.
But, when you think about it, that’s not far from how the Christian life is often lived – continuing to wallow in sins that so easily take us down. How did we convince ourselves that Jesus would settle for something we never would?
Outside of Jesus, one way or another, everyone is like the prodigal son, living with the pigs. When we finally come home, we get clean – well, mostly clean . . . for a while, at least.
Pornography – the pigpen of choice for millions of men claiming to be Christians – is destroying men and their families faster than locusts destroy a green field.
Which raises a question: Why do so many who claim to have received Jesus regularly head back out to the pigpen for another roll in the muck?
The answer is not that complicated. The reason men who call themselves Christians are willing to walk in adultery when they think no one is looking (and that’s exactly what porn is: adultery) is revealed in the Scriptures. Anyone who persists in known sin, who will not repent, is not saved – even, someone calling himself ‘Christian’.
Harsh? Well, ultimately the wrath of God is exceedingly harsh against the unrepentant . . . and, it is coming on them and the world. Truth that saves – the biblical approach – isn’t harsh. It might hurt but it isn’t harsh. That’s why the Bible says the wounds of a friend are faithful.
Before theological daggers are hurled my way (in love!), consider the warning of Scripture to the morally incontinent found in 1 Corinthians 6:9 which basically says, ‘Don’t be deceived. Those who walk in sexual sin will not inherit the kingdom of God.’
Galatians 6:7,8 puts it this way ‘Don’t be deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man plants, that will he also reap. For he who plants to his flesh will of the flesh reap death; but he who plants to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
So, let’s do what the Scriptures say and refuse to walk in deception. No amount of church attendance, or emotional-high worship singing, or statements about how much we love Jesus will negate the declaration of the Scriptures. If we choose to walk in known sin we are headed for Hell. We will reap what we have sown.
Now, there is an important distinction we need to consider between falling into a sin and walking in sin. Yes, a true Christian can fall – choose sin – but he won’t walk in it. (read 1 John). He won’t stay there. He will repent and enter back into fellowship with God, forsaking his sin.
Repeated pornography use isn’t some slight infraction that needs proper management. It’s the highway to Hell that needs a detour. And, it isn’t something that happens to you. Porn use is a choice – one that must be forsaken, for good.
Let’s keep the cart and the horse in proper order. We don’t forsake this or any sin to be acceptable to Jesus. The Christian man forsakes this sin because he has been made clean by the blood of Jesus and is now filled with His Spirit. Romans 8:13.
Christian man, believe the Truth. You are not weak! The resurrection power of Jesus Christ is within you to walk in strength and purity, if you have truly repented with a broken and contrite heart, Psalm 51:17.
Heed the warning of Scripture, don’t be deceived into thinking your walking in sin won’t cost you everything – and then walk in the victory Jesus has won for you and everyone who calls on Him.
Romans 8:37 . . . we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Walk tall – walk in the victory that is yours, and live.
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