Love — the Porn-Buster! Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Love — the Porn-Buster! ----------------------------------- Date: 8/10/2000 Keywords: "faith" "knowledge" "love" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Today, we continue our exploration of the importance of love as we move through 1 Corinthians 13. Passage: 1 Corinthians 13:1-8a* 1. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2. And if I have {the gift of} prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3. And if I give all my possessions to feed {the poor,} and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4. Love is patient, love is kind, {and} is not jealous; love does not brag {and} is not arrogant, 5. does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong {suffered,} 6. does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7. bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8. Love never fails; Questions 1. Faith is really important! The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). But 1 Corinthians 13:2 says that something else must be present, or our faith-filled selves are "nothing." What is that "something" else?   2. Knowledge is really important, too! The Bible says that Christians are to grow in their knowledge of God. And knowledge of Scripture is a valuable commodity. But, there is something, which, if we don't have it, makes us knowledgeable people "nothing." What is that something?   Practical help If love can be defined as "acting for the benefit of someone else" (a loose summary of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a), then is it possible that behind every moral lapse is a failure to love? Could it be that behind every adulterous affair, every purposefully played out lustful fantasy, every click of the mouse leading to a pornographic Web site, what is really going on is a failure to love as God loves? It seems so. Sadly, there does not seem to be a link between knowledge of Scripture and refusal to view pornography. Many knowledgeable Christians struggle daily with this cruel temptation. Nor does there seem to be a link between those who trust God for great and mighty things and avoidance of porn. It is possible to know Scripture and to pray mountain-moving prayers — and still get caught in the web of smut! However, it is not possible to love well and be trapped by pornography. That is because love, by definition, seeks to bless and benefit someone else. Looking at pictures of people for the sole purpose of personal sexual gratification does nothing to bless them. If fact, it uses and exploits them. Want to stay away from Internet porn? Put on love. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2000 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."