Is Fornication Worse Than Porn?
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00:00:05.000 | A podcast listener named Alex writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, is premarital sex worse than an addiction to pornography? Why or why not?"
00:00:15.000 | Yes it is, and no it isn't.
00:00:18.000 | Is that helpful?
00:00:19.000 | No, that's not.
00:00:21.000 | No, well, so here I have to explain. Both premarital sex, called fornication in the Bible, at least in the old translations, is sinful, and pornography is sinful.
00:00:39.000 | Both are expressions of the God-opposing sinful soul.
00:00:44.000 | The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6, 18, "Flee fornication," and then it gives reasons.
00:00:51.000 | It also says in Matthew 5, 27, "You've heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery,' but I say to you, everyone who looks upon a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
00:01:03.000 | The cultivation of sexual arousal with someone not your wife is a corruption of a good gift that God has given of sexuality.
00:01:14.000 | So yes, porn is sinful, and fornication is sinful.
00:01:19.000 | Both displease the Lord.
00:01:21.000 | Both reveal a heart of rebellion against God, and a heart willing to belittle God, because we say He's insufficient for our satisfaction.
00:01:32.000 | We have to have these other sinful avenues.
00:01:35.000 | So what do I mean when I say, "Yes, premarital sex is worse than porn," and "No, it's not worse than porn."
00:01:46.000 | Well, here's the yes.
00:01:48.000 | Fornication is worse in the sense that a real woman is violated physically.
00:01:56.000 | Yes, a woman who's not your wife is violated when you use her body sinfully online, in a picture, or in a video, to gratify your desires, simply in those pictures and videos.
00:02:12.000 | But the violation goes far deeper to another level when her actual physical self is compromised.
00:02:23.000 | Just like anger is like murder, Jesus said, if you're angry, you're like the murderer, yet no one is killed.
00:02:33.000 | So killing is worse than anger in the outward sense that the heart's sinfulness doesn't go all the way in bringing another person to ruin.
00:02:49.000 | And I should say here, it doesn't lessen the man's sinfulness that she may be willing in this sin, and that she may be initiating.
00:03:03.000 | God holds men uniquely responsible for protecting her from this violation, and he is guilty of violation, even if she would never call it that.
00:03:21.000 | Paul treats the sin of sexual union outside the marriage as uniquely evil.
00:03:30.000 | I was pondering this again just yesterday, trying to figure it out.
00:03:34.000 | He says in 1 Corinthians 6, 18, every other sin a person commits is outside the body.
00:03:41.000 | But the sexually immoral person, the fornicator, sins against or into his own body.
00:03:49.000 | What is that?
00:03:51.000 | There's something unique about this sin in Paul's mind.
00:03:56.000 | He sins into—that's the literal translation.
00:03:59.000 | He sins into his own body.
00:04:02.000 | He had just referred to sex with a prostitute as making the two one flesh.
00:04:09.000 | So it seems that sinning into the body is taking a person sinfully into union with your body that is utterly forbidden.
00:04:22.000 | It's a way of sinning in Paul's mind that is uniquely damaging.
00:04:28.000 | There's something that when two unite who are not married, it goes into the body in a way that other sins don't.
00:04:38.000 | So don't do that.
00:04:41.000 | There's a worseness about it in the violation of the woman and in the violation of your own body.
00:04:49.000 | Yes, it is worse than looking at naked women in pictures in that sense.
00:04:55.000 | But no, no, it may not be worse.
00:05:01.000 | For example, I can imagine a one-night failure of moral restraint leading to the most profound remorse and contrition and repentance and forgiveness,
00:05:16.000 | followed by a life of chastity that never falls again, compared to year after year after year of increasingly crude and violent pornography,
00:05:33.000 | resisting all calls to repentance and being indifferent to the women in your life, even your wife,
00:05:40.000 | and hardening yourself more and more to the calls of purity and repentance.
00:05:46.000 | And when I compare that, those two things, then I would say, no, no, that pattern of sinning, that ugliness,
00:05:56.000 | that unrepentance is worse than that one night fall, followed by profound contrition, repentance and forgiveness.
00:06:08.000 | No, that's worse. That pornography is worse than that.
00:06:14.000 | But I would say, finally, don't seek minimal sin. Seek maximal holiness and purity.
00:06:24.000 | Don't ask what sin is worse. Ask what new levels of godliness can I attain?
00:06:32.000 | Listen to 1 Timothy 6, 11, "Oh, man of God, flee these things."
00:06:39.000 | And then he adds, and this is the most important, "Pursue righteousness, pursue godliness, pursue faith and love, instead fastness and gentleness."
00:06:50.000 | Thank you, Pastor John. That's a great reminder.
00:06:52.000 | And speaking of the destructive sin of pornography, we have two episodes in the Ask Pastor John series to recommend on this topic.
00:06:58.000 | One is titled, "Is Porn the Unforgivable Sin?" which is episode number 273.
00:07:03.000 | And the very popular episode is, "My Boyfriend's Porn, a Marriage Deal Breaker," episode number 122.
00:07:10.000 | Both are worth checking out.
00:07:12.000 | And tomorrow we will talk about race relations and we'll get an update from Pastor John's recent trip to Memphis to speak at the Kinos Conference with Tony Evans.
00:07:20.000 | Until then, I'm your host, Tony Ranke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
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