If the title makes you uncomfortable, now you have a better sense of the provocation in Jesus’s words:

If your hand or your foot causes you to fall away, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to fall away, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hellfire.— Matthew 18:8-9

This admonition is perhaps nowhere more appropriate today than in the virtual onslaught of pornography. No longer reserved for seedy downtown theaters or smuggled magazines from dad’s nightstands, the crack cocaine comes right to our televisions, phones, and tablets. The porn epidemic has reached public health crisis proportions. But even worse than that, according to God’s Word, it jeopardizes our souls.

So what can we learn from Christ’s warnings in Matthew 18 about getting free from porn? At least three things:

1. The sin is “in here.”

Yes, it’s “out there” too, but notice that Jesus does not allow externals to become excuses. Nobody gets to say that (in this instance) pornography “made” them fall. You are not responsible for someone else’s deliberately chosen sin, but nor are they responsible for yours. It’s not the temptation that leads you away—it’s your “foot.” It’s not the sinful vision that leads you away—it’s your “eye.”

Bottom line: Own it. Take responsibility. There may be all kinds of contributing factors to your susceptibility to certain kinds of sin, but you won’t get free from it by blame-shifting or excuse-making. It’s nobody’s fault but yours. The sooner you admit that, the sooner you can be rid of it.

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