If the internet is available, pornography is available. Behind this porn pandemic stands Satan. Aside from destroying families and fueling sex trafficking, which are horrendous, Satan uses pornography for something even more disastrous. He uses it to choke world missions.
As Christians labor to spread the good news of God’s grace, pornography can strangle them and deprive them of spiritual oxygen. As gospel seeds try to take root in cultures, pornographic thorns can choke it out and make it fruitless. Pornography chokes world missions, and it does so in several ways.
Pornography Exposes and Fosters Wrong Worship
Jesus taught that our words and actions reveal what’s in our hearts (Matthew 12:33-37; 15:10-20). When sexual immorality abides in the heart, pornography manifests itself in the life. But missions work involves proclaiming and living out the gospel, so the most genuine form of missions comes from a heart that is abundantly full of Christ and the gospel.
If we use pornography, it means we’re treasuring lust and adultery in our hearts, which means we’re not treasuring Christ. If we’re not treasuring Christ, we’re not going to speak about Him to others. If we don’t speak about Him to others, we’re not advancing Christ’s mission.
Worship is the heart of missions, the highest and greatest motivation for missions. A delight in God’s glory that leads to desiring God’s universal praise is a consistent pattern in the Psalms (e.g., Psalms 96-100, 105, 108, 117). The greatest commandment—to love God with our whole being—is about worship (Matthew 22:34-40). The context of the Great Commission begins with the disciples worshiping Christ (Matthew 28:16-20). Missions is about increasing the global worship of God. As John Stott says, “The highest of missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission… nor love for sinners… but rather zeal—burning and passionate zeal—for the glory of Jesus Christ” (Romans: God’s Good News for the World, 53).
Pornography use not only exposes wrong worship, however. It also fosters wrong worship. Pornography is frighteningly addictive and can be a distracting thornbush that prevents genuine conversion (Mark 4:1-20). The deceitful trinkets of pornography can turn our hearts away from relishing Christ. If Satan can hinder missions in this way, he will spread pornography as far as possible.
This is not to say that God’s glory cannot marvelously break through the darkness of pornography and turn a heart away from worshiping sin to worshiping Christ. That happens any time God saves someone (2 Corinthians 4:1-6). But pornography certainly hinders people from coming to Christ and living for His glory.
Pornography Cripples Churches
Churches are God’s vehicles of redemptive work in this era, so Satan sabotages them with pornography. It’s no secret that many church members use pornography. This undermines the gospel and immobilizes churches. The church is a body, and dysfunctional body members are not effective or even active in world missions. Such sin-diseased members are not the beautiful feet of those who carry the good news of salvation to the world (Is. 52:7).
Pastors are not immune to pornography, either. Churches need leaders, but pornography disqualifies many men from being pastors. Paul insists that a pastor must be, literally, a “one-woman man” (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6). A man who indulges his lust with pornography cannot be qualified for pastoral ministry. Without qualified leaders, churches become anemic, unprotected, and misguided, which hinders world missions.
Pornography Dehumanizes People
Pornography is inherently selfish and dehumanizing. Pornography is never about pleasing someone else, which is what God intended for sex; it is always about using others to please yourself. In a missional context, Paul says that Christians should no longer view people in fleshly ways (2 Corinthians 5:16), but pornography trains us to do just that.
Pornography lowers our view of people. We view them as toys for our pleasure rather than eternal souls created for God’s glory. We view them as tools to be used rather than neighbors to be loved. We value them based on their appearance and how much pleasure they can give us rather than on their status as God’s image-bearers. We look on lost sheep with lust rather than the Savior’s compassion (Matthew 9:35-38). If we view people in this selfish way, we will seek to use them rather than evangelize them.
Pornography also dehumanizes the user. We become like what we worship (Psalm 115:8). Since Satan is the ultimate self-idolater, he loves to use pornography to make us miniature self-worshipers who reflect his image. When we worship pornography and view others as less than human, we become less human. We become predatory animals, living for nothing other than the instinct of personal pleasure. If we live in such a selfish way, we’ll never make the sacrifices necessary to take up our cross, follow Jesus, and carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. We will follow Satan, instead, on the destructive path of self-worship.
Pornography is not just an individual issue; it has devastating effects on world missions and God’s global glory. So we must repent of any lust we treasure in our hearts. We must beg God to pour his grace on our passions so that we blaze with zeal for his glory. We must hold one another accountable in the body of Christ and help one another strive for purity. Through God’s Word, we must let the Spirit renew our minds so that we view people in a Christlike way. Porn chokes world missions, so in God’s strength we must fight this Satanic scheme.
Pursuing Truth, Cultivating Virtue, Creating Beauty 