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| Porn and Christian Love |
| Written by April Garris |
| Saturday, 14 November 2009 |
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If someone were to ask you why it's wrong to watch porn, how would you respond? You might say that it's a form of adultery, as prohibited in Mt. 5:28. You might say that God commands us to remain pure in our thought lives, as commanded in Phil 4:8. There are other reasons, and while they are certainly valid, I think there is a deeper issue. It has to do with the first and greatest commandment, which Jesus called the Royal Law, the Law of Love -- the one on which all other commandments hang, and by which Christ commanded that we live our lives and relate to others. "Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him (Jesus) a question, testing Him, and saying “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Mt. 22:36-40) According to this verse, the most important law, the standard by which all of the other laws and commandments are judged, is the law of love, summarized in two laws: love God, and love your neighbor. When the Pharisees asked Jesus to explain who our neighbor is, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, which illustrates that anyone around us, friend or foe, who is made in the image of God as we are – he or she is our neighbor. So, then, our friends, our next-door neighbors, our co-workers -- even those in the porn industry -- Jesus considers to be our neighbors. Our fellow human beings are our neighbors, and we are expected to treat them with kindness and respect. As Christians under the new covenant, we are no longer under law, but under grace. We are no longer required to abide by the letter of the law, but even so, we are still required to abide by the spirit of the law, which is basically this law of love (1 Cor. 3:6,13; Gal. 5:13,14; Rom. 13:8-10). It dictates how we are to treat others, and how we are to see them. We are to look at them as through the eyes of Jesus, as individuals created in the image of God, having worth and value. How we see and treat our fellow humans is to be determined by this perfect law of love, which is also called the law of liberty (Jms 1:22-25, Jms 2:8). So, if we are really Christians, and are truly abiding by God’s law, then everything we do will be governed by this perfect law of love. If we are truly following this law, we see others the way God sees them, and will treat them with dignity. Jesus said that all of the commandments hang on this one, and that if you’ve broken one commandment, you’ve broken all of them. Basically, if you violate this law of love, then you’ve violated all of the commandments. So, then, how does one define this law of love? Basically, love is looking out for the best interests and needs of others, to care about them and be concerned for their welfare. 1 John 3:17 tells us that if we see our brother in need, and shut up our heart from him, that the love of God does not abide in us. So, then, love is a genuine concern for others. Romans 13:10 tells us that love does no harm to another. Likewise, love does not take advantage of others, and stands up for their humanity. If you look at the porn industry – I mean seriously and honestly look at it – You can see how what goes on is the complete antithesis of this kind of respect and love. Porn completely dehumanizes people, and robs them of their dignity, not just the women, but especially the women. There is no love in the porn industry. Pornography degrades and uses people -- people created in the image of God -- and just because those people choose to be in the industry doesn’t mean that they are not being hurt, or that we should condone their abuse. The girls in the industry are manipulated, abused, and taken advantage of, and to watch pornography is, in a way, a perpetuation of this abuse. As Christians, we are to practice love, as Christ practiced it. Love is looking out for the welfare of others, and in this respect, porn is a direct violation of this law of love. It’s impossible for the love of Christ and the love of porn to dwell in a person’s heart simultaneously, especially if that person is aware of the abuses that go on in the porn industry. No one who loves Christ should want to watch the degradation of others (1 John 3:18). Oswald Chambers writes: The love of God is only in us when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and the evidence that is there is the spontaneous way it is manifested….We have to dedicate ourselves to love, which means identifying ourselves with God’s interests in other people. (My Utmost Devotional Bible, pp. 113) I guess what I’m saying is that in order to practice love as Christ practiced it, we must have the Holy Spirit working in us. It is the Holy Spirit which allows us to follow the Royal Law of Love the way that God intends. The Bible says that He guides us into all truth – not just truth in doctrine, but also in action. If we truly love others the way that Christ loves them, I can’t imagine that we could get any sort of enjoyment out of watching them being degraded and abused, unless of course we deny that they are being degraded, which is to deny the truth. Pornography feeds on the degradation and abuse of women. If a person loves Jesus, then he/she must also love others, which means that person cannot watch porn and still be abiding by the law of love that Christ commanded us to live by. The thing about porn is that it’s so easy to get sucked into the fantasy and lose sight of the fact that the people onscreen are made in the image of God, and are our neighbors, and that their human dignity is being stripped away. At first glance, viewing porn may seem harmless, but if you really look deeply and honestly at it, past all of the make-up and scripted lines and contrived orgasms, you’ll see that at it is a dehumanization of others that goes against everything that Christ commanded us to be as Christians.
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In addition to the dehumanising of those who 'star' in the pornography, the one who uses
pornography is also dehumanising himself. For the great gift of his sexuality is not meant to be acted out in that way.