How to be set free from the slavery of pornography?

Today a faithful man came to me to ask for counseling. He told me that he felt very bad, burdened and that he was good for nothing. I was surprised to find out that because, as I had kown him before, he had looked like a faithful and rightoues man. I asked him if he hadn’t done any sin that made him feel that way. Then he told me: “Yes, I sticked in pornography…” Then we discussed together, I advised him from the Word of God and then we prayed together for his liberation of this cruel slavery. Then, I found out necesarrily to write this article because there are many men and even many women who are enslaved to this great evil. So, how to be set free from the slavery of pornography?

1. Realize that pornography is a great evil

The Lord Jesus said:

You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Gospel of Mathew 5:27–28)(NASB)

You can not be set free from this slavery unless you realize till the end that it is a grave and dirty sin before God when you look at pornography.

2. Realize that looking at pornography brings an eternal separation from the face of God

Immediately after He had said the verses from above, further on, to show them how grave was to lust a woman in the heart, the Lord Jesus said:

If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell. (Gospel of Matthew 5:29–30)(NASB)

When one looks at pornography commits adultery with those women in his heart. The eternal punishment for adultery in heart is equal to the punishment for the adultery commited physically and it is the fire of Gehenna, that is hell and an eternal separation from the face of God.

3. Realize the gravity of the consequences that pornography brings out in this life

The man who came to me said that he was very depressed, burdened and miserable. He was not worthy of anything. His wife told him for many times that she didn’t feel to be loved by him because she felt herself used in a mechanical way in their physical relation, and she was ignored in all other things. Even his children had noticed that something bad happened to their father. But, neither the wife nor the children know the real situation and they don’t suppose it. Recently, in a night, he woke up because he had had an awful dream, where he was warned by God that if continued the same way he would die. The dream has a powerful biblical foundation. God says that if we have entered the covenant with the Lord Jesus and we live inversely the condition of this covenant, then He will judge us, so that we may no be judged along with the unbelievers.

For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep (die). But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:30–32)(NASB)

Weakness has already come into this man’s life. Being a business man, he says that, in the last two years, since he is under this dependence upon pornography he has been involved in big debts and that he has had only losts. Even if he gains much money, he lives as poor as he has never lived. If he doesn’t end up with the evil he is doing now, sickness will come very soon to his life and physical death, especially if he had been warned with regards to this in the dream.

4. Remember where you stumbled and began to be under the dependance of pornography

I asked that man when he began to look at pornography and his answer was short and clear: “When I bought the computer and was connected to Internet”. When he comes at night from his work, goes to his room and gazes in front of the computer and for many hours he looks at pornography. Then, because of his conscience’s remorses and being rebuked by the Holy Spirit, he asks for forgivenss from God and promises that he will never do it again. But the next day in the evening, when he comes home the same vicious circle begins. When He warns against the danger of immorality and of the immoral persons, God says in the Holy Scriptures:

…keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house… (Proverbs of Solomon 5:8)(NASB)

I want to draw the attention of the reader that Solomon says to keep your way far from the way that leads to her and do not go near the door of the immoral person’s house. The way that leads to pornography of the person with whom I have spoken today is the computer and he has to go away from this evil way.

5. Destroy the members of your earthly body

The Word of God says:

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. (Colossians 3:1–6)(NASB)

It is a commandment given to all Christians to put to death our members of the earthly body. Almost all those listed in this category (imorality, impurity, passion, evil desire) refer directly to pornography. That’s why, I told that man who asked for my advice to draw out the computer from his house and to draw it out for ever. He was not ready to receive this advice. He tried to argue saying that he can draw out only the modem, to disconnect the computer from Internet. He is not ready yet to put to death definitively his earthly members, he puts them in reserve. I have discussed a lot with him and I tried to make him understand that as long as the computer stayed in his house he would be tempted to look at pornography. Finally he was convinced and decided to draw out the computer. May God help him to put to death his sinful members that are on the earth.

Pornography is a great evil that destroys the personality, the family, the relation with the marriage partner and affect gravely the man’s fate in eternity. If you are enslaved to them, follow the advice from above and do your utmost to be set free from this cruel slavery.

Translated by Djugostran Felicia