“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18–20, ESV)
No one stumbles into purity, passively drifts toward holiness, or escapes the reach of digital temptation without intention. The digital world offers access, anonymity, and endless novelty. Sexual content does not wait in hidden corners anymore. It appears on homepages, in suggestions, and between conversations. Without vigilance, a disciple of Jesus will begin to absorb the values of a world that treats the body as a commodity and desires a king.
Paul did not tell the Corinthians to manage lust. He told them to flee from it. He wrote to people living in a culture that normalized promiscuity, celebrated temple prostitution, and confused the body’s purpose with its appetite. The call to flee did not come from fear. It came from clarity. The body belongs to God. It houses the Holy Spirit. It carries the blood-bought mark of Christ. It cannot be used casually.
The challenge has intensified. Digital lust is not different, but it is different in reach. It offers gratification with fewer barriers, no social cost, and the illusion of secrecy. It trains the eyes to wander and the heart to grow numb. Jesus said that to look at someone with lust is to commit adultery in the heart. He did not offer loopholes. He pointed to the seriousness of what lives inside the human heart (Matthew 5:28).
This war often begins in silence and isolation. The digital world creates the illusion of privacy, but sin never stays private. What enters through the eyes is stored in the heart, and the heart shapes every part of life. What begins as curiosity becomes a pattern. What once shocked now becomes familiar. But no one can meditate on impurity and walk in the light.
David knew this. After he fell, he did not hide. He prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10). He did not ask for better habits. He asked for a changed heart. He understood that restoration requires more than behavior management. It requires transformation.
Yet many disciples carry not just sin but shame. Shame has a history in American churches. Though well-intended, the purity movement of the 1980s through the early 2000s often focused more on external pledges than inward transformation. Books, conferences, and events like “True Love Waits” emphasized abstinence but sometimes reinforced fear and control rather than grace and discipleship. Critics of this movement noted that it often placed the burden of purity on women, linked worth to virginity, and failed to provide a framework for recovery when someone stumbled (Gilbert, 2025).1
Others had observed that rather than reducing lust or healing hearts, these efforts created a generation of Christians with anxiety about their bodies, confused views of sexuality, and deep shame when they did not measure up (Perry, 2019).2 The intent was faithfulness, but the method too often confused legalism with holiness.
Paul offers a better way. He ties sexual purity not to shame but to identity. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. This is not about hiding from sin. This is about walking in the light. Lust distorts and isolates. Holiness restores and gathers. Disciples do not resist the temptation to earn God’s favor. They resist because they already belong to Him.
And this battle is not only spiritual. It is deeply psychological and emotional. Recent studies show that conservative Christians who struggle with pornography often experience a unique form of distress—not always because of the volume of their use but because of the moral and spiritual conflict it creates. The sense of being stuck between desire and devotion leaves many feeling isolated and hopeless (Perry, 2019). The church must not respond with silence or slogans. It must respond with community, clarity, and compassion.
Scripture never tells believers to fight alone. Joseph fled. Paul warned. Jesus answered temptation with truth. James urged believers to confess their sins and pray for one another (James 5:16). Paul said, “Do not present your members to sin… but present yourselves to God” (Romans 6:13). This is not passive. It is a daily surrender of the body, the eyes, the mind, and the desires to the One who already owns them.
Digital temptation will not vanish. But it can lose its grip: not through guilt but through grace, not through control but through a renewed heart. The gospel speaks directly to this struggle. Jesus does not shame the weary. He heals, restores, and walks with them in the light.
If the body is a temple, holiness is not a secondary concern. It is a response to redemption. “God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness” (1 Thessalonians 4:7). That call has not changed. The battleground has shifted, but the invitation remains. Come into the light. Walk with Christ. Leave behind what cannot satisfy.
No one fights alone. Christ intercedes. The Spirit strengthens. The church surrounds. And the war for the heart is winnable.
~PW 🌮🛶
Sources:
- Gilbert, S. (2025, May). What Porn Taught a Generation of Women. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/05/porn-american-pop-culture-feminism/682114/ Sophie Gilbert analyzes the cultural normalization of pornography in American media and its long-term impact on how people, especially women, understand sexuality, relationships, and self-worth. The article critiques both secular and religious responses to porn, arguing that the conversation has often failed to address how porn shapes expectations and fosters performance-based views of identity, desire, and worth. ↩︎
- Perry, S. L. (2019). Addicted to Lust: Pornography in the Lives of Conservative Protestants. Oxford University Press. Sociologist Samuel Perry explores how conservative Christians experience deep internal conflict over pornography use. His research shows that feelings of guilt and shame often arise not from the volume of use but from the perceived moral failure it represents. Perry critiques the “purity industrial complex,” where well-meaning programs may reinforce cycles of secrecy, self-condemnation, and isolation rather than leading to genuine transformation. ↩︎
Phillip W. Martin 
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