Adult entertainment, porn, churches, christianPornography is a very prevalent issue in the church today. The ease of access and shear volume of pornography on the Internet is staggering. But a deeper, more insidious issue is the fact that a pornography addiction is more easily hidden and justified as not being as bad as adultery.

This makes for a very tough situation when church leaders find themselves addicted to pornography and are not sure what to do.

 

Porn = Adultery

Jesus said that sexual immorality (Greek – porneia) is the only exception for divorce (Matthew 19:9). Sexual immorality in this passage has been traditionally seen as adultery as any kind of sexual encounter with someone other than one’s spouse should be seen as adulterous. Additionally, Jesus said that lusting after another woman was adultery (Matt. 5:28).

The use of pornography is a form of lust and is also a form of sexual immorality. Therefore, based on the two issues listed above, it is a reasonable conclusion that pornography is a form of adultery.

 

“One-Woman Man”

In his first letter to Timothy, Paul outlines the qualifications for an overseer. In this list, Paul tells Timothy that an overseer should be “the husband of one wife.” In the original Greek, this phrase is most literally translated, “a one-woman man.” Essentially, Paul is telling Timothy that whether the overseer is married or not, he should be the kind of person that would be faithful to his spouse (whether current, future, or hypothetical).

Therefore, the use of pornography would show him to not be a one-woman man and would be a disqualifier for leadership.

 

What Should Be Done

First, the leader must be upfront and confess his or her sin. Sin must be repented of and in order to repent, one must confess. While God is the only one who can forgive sins, if a leader is addicted to pornography, the leadership of the church needs to be aware in order to take the necessary steps.

Second, since this leader is engaged in consistent and habitual sin, they must step down from leadership. While judging and holding sins against one another is not okay, there are consequences for our actions and any leader knows that.

Third, the church leadership needs to lovingly, graciously walk with this leader through repentance and healing. We are all sinners and so we will all fail. We cannot hold a leader to a standard of perfection because they will fail at some point. It is in these times that we must be the church for one other and build each other up in the name of Jesus.

If the leader shows that he or she has left their addiction and has been restored to faithfully walking with Christ, the church leadership can decide if they can step back into their position.

 

The Point is Love

Our desire should always be for life-transformation and God’s glory. When someone is living in sin, that is a time to lovingly confront and deal with the sin in his or her life. When they turn from it, that is a time to honor God. Too often church leaders stay quiet about their struggles for fear that they will be torn apart by their people (unfortunately, many who feel this way are right).

But it should not be so.

While there are consequences for our choices, through honesty and repentance come true healing and life-change and that is what ministry is all about.