Romans
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie…
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.
Furthermore, since they did not think of it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.
They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
...realizing that God's kindness leads you towards repentance.
For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
- you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself?
...rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...
...we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character: and character, hope.
...the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death.
For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing.'
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace…
...those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
...Abba Father
We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
If God is for us, who can be against us?
…offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Practice hospitality.
Rejoice with those who rejoice.
Live in harmony with one another.
Love does no harm to it's a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak.
First Corinthians
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things...so that no one may boast before him.
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.
Some of you have become arrogant.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?
I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you...therefore honor God with your body.
Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.
But if an unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.
An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs – how can he please the Lord.
But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world – how he can please his wife – and his interests are divided.
An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lords affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit.
But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world – how she can please her husband.
Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak...Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the Gospel.
What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge...
He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you're tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
The Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had a given thanks, he broke it and said "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.
To one there is given through the Spirit
the message of wisdom,
to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
to another faith by the same Spirit,
to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
to another miraculous powers,
to another prophecy,
to another distinguishing between spirits,
to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one,
just as he determines.
God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those who have gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.
I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.
No, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
Bad company corrupts good character.
Where, O death is your victory?
Where, O death is your sting?
The sting of death is sin...
...be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.
Second Corinthians
And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Ephesians
He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body…
However, each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the Devil's schemes.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One.
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
Philippians
As for legalistic righteousness…faultless.
Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.
Let your gentleness be evident to all.
...by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.
Colossians
Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.
Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
…with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.
Devote yourselves to prayer...
First Thessalonians
For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
Now make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
Test everything. Hold onto the good. Avoid every kind of evil.
Second Thessalonians
God is just: he will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled...
If a man will not work, he shall not eat.
Timothy 1
I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer.
The overseer be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.
For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value…
Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
Do not neglect your gift…
Treat...younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes...
Keep yourself pure.
…who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Timothy 2
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching.
…correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.
Hebrews
For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law.
Such a high priest meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering.
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
...the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
James, Peter, and John
James
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Religion...pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.
Peter 1
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled...
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: " Be holy, because I am holy."
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again…
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
… To abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do – living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him...
Peter II
His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
John I
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are:
Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
...because God is love
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
…The spirit is the truth
John II
And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands.
Revelation
...and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.
Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.
… I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations...
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in…
At once I was in the Spirit...
And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure.
They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.
Armageddon…a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.
From the sky huge hailstones about 100 pounds each fell upon men.
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful...
Behold, I am coming soon!
Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.
New Testament Philosophy
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
If God is for us, who can be against us?
Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.
Rejoice with those who rejoice.
Live in harmony with one another.
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.
Sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.
Devote yourselves to prayer…
Now make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you
Test everything. Hold onto the good. Avoid every kind of evil.
Train yourself to be godly.
Do not neglect your gift…
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
The spirit is the truth
Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.
New Testament Sex
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.
…offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you...therefore honor God with your body.
Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.
But if an unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.
An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs – how can he please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world – how he can please his wife – and his interests are divided.
An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lords affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world – how she can please her husband.
He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body…
However, each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself.
Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God…
Keep yourself pure.
Pornography and Christianity.
As of Spring 2018 researchers found that 73 percent of women and 98 percent of men reported internet porn use in the last 6 months.
According to Werner Herzog and Patrick Carnes’ statistics there is just under 10,000 hours (9806 hours actually) of porn for each of the 7.4 billion people in the world every single day.
That’s a lot of porn…
There are some problems unique with being a Christian and being addicted to porn.
The problems are thorny, but solvable.
I have not masturbated in 27 years and I have attended many Christian Church hybrids of 12 step sex addiction recovery meetings from the Church of God to the Mormons.
The success rate is extremely low in these hybrids.
The reason is fairly simple:
There is an old truth the AA has espoused for 83 years, “Anything I put in front of my recovery I lose”.
This includes family, jobs, friends and favorite places.
What we are taught as Christians is that we must place our relationship with Jesus first.
But, addicts, as we all know, go to extremes. (Me, too!)
In 1987 Harvey Milkman, Stanley Sunderwirth wrote a book Craving for Ecstasy : How Our Passions Become Addictions that describes the neurochemistry of Righteousness.
You know, that feeling you get when the preacher reaches right into your soul and God convicts you hard…and you surrender.
Sometimes just listening to the choir and orchestra can do that…if they are good enough.
It can happen while reading the scriptures and you just know that this is the most right thing you have ever heard or when praying in a group and you feel that overwhelming rush of love, safety, belonging acceptance and oneness.
It is ecstatic.
It feels so good that, as addicts, we would rather do that, than be honest with our sponsors about how long it has been since we have masturbated or used porn.
Here is some bad news: That is addiction. Religious addiction. When feeling good is more important than being honest…that is addiction. Whether it’s Christmas or Holy Week “Addiction is addiction”.
So, as Christians we are trained to put Jesus first, and yet, if we follow that belief we will fail at getting and staying sexually sober, all our lives.
I have worked with over 54,000 sex addicts in the last 30 years and I have never seen one Christian sex addict that put Jesus before his sex addiction recovery recover from porn use…ever.
Ask yourself, right now, as you read this “How do I feel?”. Do I feel angry, defensive, dismissive.
Am I saying “Pshaw!” (Or worse!) in my mind?
There is a solution:
Ask yourself “If Jesus were here, right now, in front of you and saw you faced with putting Him second and your recovery first, so that you would no longer be be mentally ill, what do you think, in his Divinely Compassionate heart, he would suggest you choose?