How do I battle lust in temptations that are subtler than porn? It's a question I see often from men in talking about swimsuit issues and lingerie catalogs. This particular question comes into us from an anonymous man. "Hello Pastor John. Three years ago I turned away from porn for the final time.

A perennial struggle for my life for the better part of a decade between ages 16 to 26. I'm now married and have not looked at porn for three years. I can only say it's a victory from the Lord to find deliverance in Christ from the bondage. In recent months, however, I'm lured to images of women in female marketing campaigns.

My wife gets a number of catalogs from companies that make female workout clothes and lingerie. We're putting a stop to those mailings as much as possible, but a lot of them simply show up. It feels like the same allure as porn, the same challenge. Maybe less immediately dangerous, but very similar.

I don't want to undersell this struggle. What advice do you have for those of us who have experienced victory over porn, now tempted by subtler and less scandalous objects of lust like this?" Well, may God get the glory now and from everyone who listens to this, that there are stories of triumph like this.

There are. They're there by the thousand and we shouldn't be totally discouraged when we hear all the bad news about how prevalent pornography is among people and believers in particular. But this is glorious. Thank you for sharing it. I love the renewed sense of vigilance over the soul. It is such a good sign of spiritual reality when little things matter as well as big things in the pursuit of holiness.

All impurity matters to God. Seemingly harmless magazines as well as adultery and rape. God lays claim on every impulse in the human heart. And the male eye is like a magnet in its attraction to excessive female skin or tantalizing gaps in clothing or featured bodily shapes through tight clothing.

And God cares about these magnet impulses of the male eye and what we do with them. And I am glad that our friends, and this man in particular, cares as well. Every Christian should care about what appears to be such little things compared to the horrific things that we might be considering.

So I'd like to point to five passages of scripture. Each of them addresses, I think, an aspect of the battle for purity, even in regard to a wife's women's magazines. And I know exactly what he's talking about. I could name them. I just I dumped three of them in the garbage yesterday.

My wife's in Florida right now welcoming a grandbaby and the magazines keep coming. They all tend to come at once. You notice that they must all use the same mailing company. Three women's fashion magazines, clothing magazines, and there they go. I mean, or do I open them? Do I look for the bathing suits?

Do I look for whatever? You know, what do you do? So I would sum up these five principles or guidelines or you decide what they should be called like this. Number one, faithfulness in little. Two, urgency in warfare. Three, fighting like a dead man. Four, making specific covenants. Five, praying for sovereign sway.

So let me say a word and give you a verse for each of those and tell you what I mean and see whether this might just provide another piece of kindling on the fire of vigilance that is being expressed. Faithful in little. Luke 16 10. One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much.

And one who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest in much. Now, that applies in context to money, but it is the same with regard to all temptations. I believe God cares about small things. And when we are faithful in the small, who knows what God might be willing to entrust us and what great things he might be willing to do through us if we are faithful in the smallest things.

Number two, urgency in warfare. Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You will not commit adultery.' But I say to you, everyone who looks on a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 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 your whole body be thrown into hell." Suggesting that we tear out our eye because the issue is heaven and hell is a call to urgency. About as strong a call to urgency as I can imagine. My, oh, my.

Misplaced sexual desires, not just acts, but desires, is, turns out, not such a small thing after all. So urgency is essential. Number three, fighting like a dead man. Now this is the heart of the uniquely Christian way of pursuing purity and fighting sin. Lots of people think it doesn't really matter how you kill sin, just do it, you know, just do it.

Well, no, there's a Christian way to do it, and you might be turning it into a false way if you don't do it the Christian way. Colossians 3, 2 through 6, "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth." Why? "For you have died." Wow.

So every Christian has to come to terms. Have I? Have I? What is that? What is it in my experience? You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. That's about the most amazing thing that can be said about a human being. You're dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Wow. Worth a few hours of meditation. Verse 4, "When Christ, who is your life, appears, you will appear with Him in glory." And here comes the imperative following from the indicative, "You have died." You have died, "Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you." And the first four things he mentions are what?

Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and then he adds, "And covetousness, which is idolatry." On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. So here's the uniquely Christian paradox. You have died, so put to death. You have died, so put to death. You have died means that by faith alone, you really have, through identification with Jesus, died and risen and passed from death to life.

Your life is hid with Christ in God. Sin's forgiven. Eternity secured. Now, fight! Kill sin! And the first four sins he mentions relate to sexual desire. Go figure. Nothing new under the sun. If you say, "I don't need to fight because I've died and I've been raised and I'm secure in heaven.

Nothing can happen to me," you simply show that you're not dead. You're not, and therefore not secure. The fighting like a dead man, you're fighting like a dead man, is the proof you're a dead man. You don't fight, you're not dead. Number four, making specific covenants is absolutely essential, I think.

Here's what I mean. Job 31.1 says, "I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze at a virgin?" A covenant with the eyes. I think there's a difference between saying on the one hand—and I'm basing this on significant personal experience as well as biblical observation—there's a big difference between saying on the one hand, "I'll do my best by the power of the Spirit to walk in holiness and purity for the rest of my life." 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years.

And saying on the other hand, "In the next four weeks, I will not crack open a single woman's magazine that comes in the mail." Not one page, period. No exceptions. If you leave your hormones wiggle room, which is what lifelong general commitments do, if you leave your hormones wiggle room without very specific commitments or covenants with your eyes, your hormones will almost inevitably convince your mind that this little exception is okay.

They're just bathing suits. There is a place, in other words, for very specific covenants with our eyes and hands and feet. And I'll be honest, when Noelle left, and she'll be gone probably for a couple of weeks, I made one of those covenants with regard to a bunch of specific things.

And I think that's crucial. Not that, "Oh, those should be—it's okay to sin when she's here." But there's something unique. There's a unique challenge when you're alone. Here's number five. Finally, pleading for sovereign sway. Psalm 119.37. This is a pleading prayer. "Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things, and give me life in your ways." So the psalmist knows that his eyes are like magnets drawn to "worthless things." Depersonalized female skin is a worthless thing.

Now, women as persons are of infinite worth in relation to God. But lust depersonalizes skin and turns it into a worthless thing. It's demeaning to women. It's deadly for men. So the psalmist pleads for sovereign sway. "Turn my heart. Turn my will. Turn my eyes. Get sway, sovereign sway over my desires." So those are my five suggestions in the ongoing fight for purity, even when the great battles have been won against pornography.

Number one, faithfulness in little. Two, urgency in warfare. Three, fighting like a dead man. Four, making specific covenants. Five, praying for sovereign sway. Great counsel from Scripture. Thank you for those five principles, Pastor John. And wherever you're listening in the midst of your busy day, thanks for joining us on the podcast.

Be sure to subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app or in YouTube or in Spotify. And for our episode archive or to submit a question of your own, go to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Well, how do we rid our minds of low thoughts about Christ? Well, we banish them by filling our minds and hearts with the wealth of revelation of who Christ is.

And that's what we're doing in the month of December leading up to Christmas. And that's what we'll be doing next time on the podcast. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you on Wednesday. . .