PORNOGRAPHY AND THE LAW OF LOVE

If you were to ask a Christian why it is wrong to watch porn, that person would probably respond that it is because it creates lustful and impure thoughts. Some may respond that it is a form of adultery, as prohibited in Mt. 5:28. Others may respond that it is because we are to remain sexually pure in the sight of God, and pornography promotes fornication. While all of these reasons are certainly valid, I believe that the issue goes much deeper than that, and actually touches on the first and greatest commandment…..the one by which all other commandments hang, and by which Christ commanded that we live our lives and relate to others.

Mt. 22:36-40    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.”

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   (God) also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life…..Now the Lord is Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty

Gal. 5:13-14     For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself

....Rom..... 13:8-10    Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments…are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.

Everything that we do, how we treat other people, is to be determined by this perfect law of love, which is also called the law of liberty:

James 1:22-25  He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

James 2:8  If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the whole law as transgressors.

All of these Scriptures point to one truth – that 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. This is how we know that we are truly following God’s law – if we think of others the way God thinks of them, and treats them the way the Lord treats them.

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 does great harm to people on so many levels…It completely dehumanizes them, and robs them of their dignity.

If you’ve read any of the testimonies on the Pink Cross website, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I know the kind of damage, because I was one of those people. There is no love in the porn industry. Pornography degrades, dehumanizes, and uses people, 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 (I speak as a female from a female POV), 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   Let us not love in word or tongue, but in deed and truth. And by this we shall know we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him

Oswald Chambers writes: The springs of love are in God, not in us. 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, porn may seem glamorous and 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.