No one looks at porn just because it feels good. People look at porn because it speaks to their souls.

What’s even more surprising is that porn says what your soul longs to hear.

Let me explain. Because knowing how porn speaks and what it says will help you and others break free from its grip.

God designed the human body to speak. And to speak powerfully. I’m not talking about words. I’m talking about nakedness.

What does nakedness express so compellingly? Think about it. When a man and woman marry, and finally undress before each other on their wedding night, what exactly are they expressing?

In a very real way, they’re expressing, or manifesting, the words they spoke to each other during their wedding ceremony. A husband and wife become ‘one flesh’ as they give themselves to each other in a way that reaches far beyond words, into a core place of intrinsic, God-given human longing.

If mankind’s diagnosis was, “It’s not good for man to be alone,” (Genesis 2:18), then this mutual, vulnerable, self-giving says, “You are not alone.”

You are loved.
You are desired and desirable.
You are wanted.
You are safe with me.
You’re powerful.
You’re beautiful.
You’re unlike any other.
I’m yours.
This is my body, given for you.

In the context of the marriage bed, each spouse’s nakedness does indeed communicate these things, and they should.

Pornography plagiarizes this, hijacking the God-given messages manifested in human nakedness and sex to convey something that, in this case, isn’t actually there.

In the context of porn, it’s all a sham. It steals lines from the marriage bed and throws them around like cheap currency. But the hungry soul hears. 

For the man or woman seeking to break free from porn’s grip, we need to practice recognizing what porn is doing. It’s not a person knowing us, affirming us, giving him or herself to us for life. It’s duping us to draw us into a marriage-of-sorts with itself, it’s making us its slaves—a harem to control, use, and dispose at will.

If you’ve been duped, if you’ve been trapped, there is hope. Whether man or woman, married or single, Christ our Bridegroom has come for you. Look afresh at Jesus exposed and naked on the cross. Press all your desire and the images you cannot forget into His wounds. Hear Him: “This is my body, given for you.” Let your body and soul hear.

Regeneration is here to help. Whether pornography or another sexual, emotional, or relational struggle, you don’t have to go it alone.

Leave a comment here.

With great hope for you,

Josh