“I Will Stop Viewing Porn”

Everybody knows what is good or evil.

Even people we may consider as atheists or wild individuals know when they do something that is evil or good.

When a man steals another man’s wife, he knows in his heart that he is doing something evil, but he does it anyways.

Do you know where this “knowing” of good and evil came from?

This is what I think it came from: From the fall of Adam and Eve.

The Bible says, ““You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”” Genesis 3:4-5

You see, before the fall, Adam and Eve didn’t say to one another, “Oh, no! We sinned against God. We rejected the good and embraced the evil. We need to ask God to forgive us.”

Why?

God was their Shepherd who led them to everything good! No need to know good and evil. All they needed to know was that God is good and they followed Him. Period!

But one day, Adam and Eve fell short of this glorious life and decided to be their own shepherds and trespassed the one command God gave them: the only command that stood to remind them that God is God and they are humans.

The moment they eat the forbidden fruit, they showed God that they wanted to be “gods,” not humans.

“And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”” Genesis 3:22

From this point on, man was left to himself to know good and evil. Well, there is nothing wrong with a man knowing good and evil. The problem is he has no desire and will to choose good! That part of him died the moment he sinned against God! He still has free will but he is only free to choose and do evil, not good. The desire to do good, to love God and worship Him, died.

“And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”” Genesis 2:16-17

So, Adam and Eve certainly died, and we all died with them!

But God, praise God, with His mercy and grace, sent “His Holy Word” (Jesus Christ) to earth to save us from this “eternal death.”

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Beautiful! So, now Jesus Christ, the Word, lives in us who believe in Him.

So, John writes to young men who tend to struggle with sexual immorality like this:

“I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God lives in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.” 1 John 2: 14c

In light of this truth of God, saying things like

“I will stop viewing porn!” or,

“From now on, I am not going to masturbate!” kind of thing benefit no one!

Why?

It is the Word living in us who can give us victory over our struggles. It is the Word who can free us from being slaves to our sinful, evil, and destructive habits. It is only the Word who can take the evil desires of our hearts and replace them with good ones.

So, always remember this: It is the Word of God in us, not our will-power or anything else, that can give us victory over the evil one. ///