Owning up to Porn’s Lovelessness Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Owning up to Porn’s Lovelessness ----------------------------------- Date: 8/12/2000 Keywords: "love" "selfishness" 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. Jesus said that love would be the standard by which all people would know His disciples. Look at verses 4-8, above, to see the characteristics of biblical love. List them.   2. Look especially at verse 5. What do you think is involved in "acting unbecomingly"? What about "seeking its own"?   Practical help Porn strugglers need to find some way to quantify their behavior as right or wrong, and that is tricky because the Bible doesn't explicitly address Internet porn (or any other kind of pornography, for that matter). It does, though, mention many of the attitudes that are nurtured through involvement with behaviors like pornography (lust, greed, lasciviousness, etc.) and this is where 1 Corinthians 13 is extremely helpful. If folks will honestly judge their use of pornography on the standard of verse 5, they will receive a great help in saying, "no!" to porn, because they will find conviction from Scripture that what they are doing is objectively wrong. Specifically: Would you consider viewing people in various stages of undress or as they are involved in intimate acts anything other than "unbecoming"? If so, then you are admitting to not being loving when you view pornography. Would you say that your viewing sexually explicit images is entirely about "seeking your own" and has nothing to do with seeking the best for another? If so, then you are admitting that your porn habit is unloving. If you are ready and willing to admit that your involvement with porn is unloving, then you can expect God's help in resisting temptation to porn. Lovelessness is among the ugliest sins, and He has promised to come to the aid of those who are tempted to sin. 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."