“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. –Matthew 5:29”
I suppose our eyes are the culprit when we are speaking of traditional pornography, and they are likely the culprit with outrage porn as well. Or perhaps it’d be more accurate to say that the heart is the real culprit. That’s not to be missed in Matthew 5:29. Jesus’ point here is not that plucking out eyes will seal your heavenly fate. His point is that we must take sin seriously. As the Puritan, John Owen, rightly said, “We must kills in before it kills us”.
So what does it mean to pluck out your eyes when it comes to outrage porn?
It might mean taking a season off of social media. You might need to unplug. As I would tell any guy struggling with traditional pornography you need to take this seriously. If unplugging from the internet helps you in your fight then you need to do it.
In studying for this series I read many articles on outrage porn. One particular piece suggested several tips for setting filters to redirect certain trigger words. Or to put in place a redirection system so that if you go to one of those outrage sites it will redirect you to something safer…something that won’t make you as angry.
Now, if that provides some help for you I don’t want to knock it…much. But I’m convinced that things like this don’t actually address the heart. This is why I’ve said previously that bouncing the eyes is incomplete advice when it comes to addressing the monster of lust.
The same thing I said then applies to outrage porn:
Real healing is found in a Person.
You and I need Jesus Christ to pour His grace upon us. We need forgiveness for the way that we’ve made shipwreck of God’s good gift. The guilt of our sin needs to be removed from us as far as the east is from the west. This is what Jesus loves to do. He loves to wash those that have engaged in the vilest of sexual acts and viewed the worst of pornography.
Only through Jesus Christ is the monster of lust decisively slain. And only through Jesus Christ do we regain our true identity. If you are in Jesus Christ, your fundamental identity isn’t as a “porn watcher”. Your fundamental identity is as one that has been washed—you are redeemed. And that is your identity no matter how many hours of porn you watch after coming to know Jesus.
Furthermore, it is through Jesus Christ that our minds are restored. It is through Him that we are able to view men and women as His creation and not as objects of our desire. If we are to win the battle with lust, He can (and must) change our view of people. This he does.
Marriage won’t fix your heart. Bouncing your eyes won’t fix your heart. Accountability groups won’t fix your heart. Only Jesus Christ. Fight porn through Him. Yes, you might need to do various things like unplugging your computer, not going to the beach, and turning your eyes on occasion. (That’s the axe work). But that is incomplete. You need Jesus to transform that which you view as objects into people.
In the same way the real rescue against outrage porn will not come by redirecting websites or training yourself to stay away. It’ll come when their no longer appealing because you’ve found your identity in Jesus. You engage in outrage porn because you are trying to find either pleasure or comfort from it. When your heart is really captivated in this area by Christ you’ll find that He is your pleasure and that He is your comfort.
So, maybe do something like gouge out the eyes of the internet for a season. Unplug. Get off social media. But don’t stop there. Use that sabbatical of staying away from the negative media to be filled up in Christ. And keep at it.
May Jesus transform our hearts so that the pull of outrage porn is no more.
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