Be Careful!

 

According to a 2018 report in Charisma News, pornography is ravaging its way through churches. The report found 68 percent of church-going men and over 50 percent of PASTORS view pornography on a regular basis!!

Of young Christian adults 18-24 years old, 76 percent actively search for pornography. 33 percent of women aged 25-and-under search for pornography at least once per month. Only 13 percent of self-identified Christian women say they never watch pornography.

Put another way, 87 percent of Christian women have watched pornography.

And so God tells us through St Paul: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." (Galatians 6:7-8)

As pornography permeates the Church, you and I must be extraordinarily vigilant to stand against sin – ALL sin, not just sexual sin – in our own lives and in our own homes. And we must expect holy lifestyles from our pastors. In the context of sexual sin in the Corinthian church, St. Paul warned, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?” (1 Corinthians 5:6)

What are we watching and reading? Would we do so if Jesus were physically sitting next to us? That might be a good rule of thumb by which to decide what is proper for us and what is not.

What Jesus warned of in Matthew 7:21-23 should terrify every Christian enough to stay on that narrow road and toward the small gate: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’