It is no accident that Paul chooses coveting as his primary example in his discourse on the struggles with sin. He is pointing to our problem with the heart. We want what we want when we want it. Pornography is a distorted desire of the heart where we demand to have something we should not have.

Making a Gospel Connection

To make a gospel connection, we have to first understand the gravity of the sin of pornography and its relationship to Idolatry in the heart, visual adultery, and coveting.

Idolatry

You shall have no other gods before me.
—Ex. 20:3, Deut. 5:7

The context is the Ten Commandments: the first four relate to our relationship with God, and the other six to our relationship with each other.

Jesus restates them in summary form in…

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
—Matt. 22:37-39

Context: Note what the word heart means-inner person. The passage means to worship God alone with all you are and treat others with the kind of love you reserve for yourself. Self-love is a core problem because it distorts or even ruins our relationship with God and others. If you are married, you are on the cusp of ruining your relationship with your wife, for she is supposed to be your closest neighbor. The point is we never just commit one sin.

⁵ Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 

⁶ Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. ⁷ Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” ⁸ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. ⁹ We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, ¹⁰ nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. ¹¹ Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. ¹² Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. ¹³ No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 

¹⁴ Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
—1 Cor. 10:5-14

Context: Paul describes to the Corinthian church events from Exodus 32. As Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, the people built a golden calf and worshipped it by falling into the idolatry of sexual immorality (fertility cult most likely but a literal orgy). Moses intervenes on their behalf, but 23,000 are destroyed by God. Paul says these things are written down for our instruction and that we are supposed to flee from idolatry. Paul further states we are supposed to take heed (because temptation to fall is right around the corner; yet God promises a way of escape. The question is, do we really believe there is an escape from pornography? If we do not, we are calling God a liar.

Bridging the context….God redeems his people out of Egypt in a miraculous way; yet they complain, grumble, and wish to return to slavery (Porn is a type of slavery). When God gives them the Ten Commandments, they break out in the worst form of rebellion- out-and-out idolatry combined with sexual immorality in a literal orgy. This illustrates an important concept found throughout the Old Testament-the connection between Idolatry and Adultery. God connects the two in graphic terms, and Paul carries the imagery into the New Testament.

Pornography reveals an idol of the heart motivated by love of self. Call it what you will; the word lust is often used, but power and control are also involved. Ultimately, we have to get our minds around the fact that God sees the sin as a type of adultery for the Christian. The Israelites had a heart issue, and so do we. Consider:

⁴³ “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, ⁴⁴ for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. ⁴⁵ The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
—Lk. 6:43-45

Context is the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus makes it clear that our problems (sin) come from the inside out or “heart,” which is scripturally speaking our control center; the inner person. James put is like this:

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