Vessels of Honour
One statistic shared commonly, is that 50 % of all hits on the internet worldwide are porn sites. We are dealing with a huge new problem in society that is affecting Christian as well as unbelievers. Internet porn is convenient and secretive. People don't have to go down to the pink pussy cat strip club nor stand at the local magazine rack.
Immorality is a major cause of problems in society. If we could eliminate immorality, we could bring an end to the divorce scandal, eliminate teenage pregnancies, reduce the prison population, stop the sale of pornography, and decrease poverty. If we could come up with a drug that would remove pleasure from the act of sex, we could change the whole moral climate of our country. Take away sexual desire and 50 % of all marital contention would disappear but marriage would be replaced by passionless boredom!
So we are in this tension. We are warned that to be a vessel unto honour we must keep ours vessel clean ( I Tim 2.22) and yet we feel sexual and God will not take that reality away. God has made us spirit beings with a soul, living in a physical body, meaning we are also sexual beings. A man is much more visual regarding sex than a woman. This is why the pornography industry has made inroads among men and not women. Men struggle in this area much more than women and no woman can truly understand the visual attraction of sex, from a man's perspective.
Although a man cannot help this visual aspect of his sexuality, he is under obligation to exercise some control in his life. All men get hungry but we don’t have to immediately eat everybody else’s food to satisfy our desire. We honour others and exercise self-control. A man must recognize the dangers of pornography and even soft porn on TV and realize that the images he puts before his eyes or even allow to be formed in his mind have the potential to create desires that can begin a cycle of failure and shame.
Friend, guard your eyes as they are the key to keeping you whole vessel clean as a vessel unto honour. More helpful is the advice and desire of David who said ‘I saw the Lord always in front of me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken. Acts 2.25. Looking at Jesus and passion for Him is our greatest defence against evil.