Streaming And ScriptureSample

Do not watch porn via streaming services!

As Streaming services are relatively new in India, several review articles about their content were featured in India’s News magazines. These articles were talking about scenes involving nudity in several of the streaming services’ popular shows.

While we may not walk into a porn movie show in a theatre showing frontal nudity, we tend to think it is no big deal to watch the same via a smartphone using a streaming service account like Netflix or the like. Porn is porn, no matter where it is showing! And watching porn is sin, for the Bible teaches through passages like Leviticus 18 – read it in the English Standard Version – that a woman’s nakedness belongs to the eyes of her husband alone and vice-versa. “You shall not uncover the nakedness of…. X, Y, Z who is not your spouse” – this is the common refrain of that chapter. When Apostle Paul wrote that parts of our body that are not presentable must be treated with special modesty, while the presentable parts have no need for clothing (in I Cor. 12:23-24), he was appealing to common-sense to vote against watching nudity of a non-spouse. When I read and re-read Luke 8:27 I conclude this: when I deliberately and desirously expose myself to nudity of a person not my husband or wife, I open myself to the work of the Devil. “Contentment”/ “Peace” comes in the heart of the husband whose eyes beholds the naked beauty of his wife; this I learnt when I read Song of Songs 8:10. The corollary of this is this: “contentment”/ “peace” will be shattered when the man beholds the nakedness of any woman who is not his wife. Our Scripture-directed consciences must rightly prick us when we watch non-spousal nudity via streaming platforms or anywhere, leading to our repentance!

How do we overcome the temptation to use Streaming Services to watch porn? We must hide God’s Word in our heart (Psalm 119:9,11). Quoting Job 31:1 – in the Message version this verse goes this way, “I made a solemn pact with myself never to undress a girl with my eyes” and is particularly powerful – helps me in this regard. Just like Jesus overcame temptations by quoting three verses from Deuteronomy, we too can overcome the lust temptation by quoting relevant Scripture from the storehouse of our hearts! For more biblical ways to overcome the porn temptation look up two plans on YouVersion by the same author: Porn Temptation Beaten (https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/2317-porn-temptation-beaten) and Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained (https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/9430-beating-sexual-temptation-bible-practically). 

Let us not violate Scripture when it comes getting entertained by these streaming platforms! Let not Netflix flick you off your nearness to Jesus! Let not Prime Video cause the plummeting of your purity! Let not Hotstar cause a scar in your sanctification!