Our culture has developed a category of books, films, etc. called “adult materials” and this usually includes what we would classify as “immoral materials”. The implication is that these materials are not suitable for children, but when we become adults immoral thoughts can no longer affect us. Thus pornography is justified as a harmless activity that has no victims. On the contrary, immoral thoughts are highly addictive and destructive to the soul (mind, will, emotions), not only of those who allow them to enter, but also of those within their sphere of influence.

Let’s look at three consequences that can come into our lives when we accept immoral thoughts into our minds.

1. Immoral thinking is adultery.
2. Immoral thinking can cause adultery.
3. Immoral thinking can cause us to become judges and critics of those who commit adultery.

1. Immoral thinking is adultery.
In the Word of God we read:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Mt.5:27-28nkjv)
Jesus was preparing His disciples to be His representatives here on earth and it was important that they live a life that was above reproach. And so also God wants to prepare believers to be His representatives on earth today. We are to be light and salt on the earth, not walking in darkness and corruption. The Bible tells us, that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Angry thoughts lead to murder, and lustful thoughts lead to adultery. Job said (31:1), “I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman?” Job did not want to commit adultery, so he made a covenant with his eyes to not look lustfully at a woman. Jesus shows the importance of this kind of covenant in the following verses in Mt.5 where He tells us what to do if we are having trouble controlling our eyes.
“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” (Mt.5:29-30nkjv)
Our gaze must be fixed on a person’s face, where we see the real person, character, and needs—needs we should be meeting in that person. But if you’re having trouble keeping your eyes on the face where they ought to be, Jesus said you should pluck out your eye and throw it away. What a horrible thought. And if you can’t trust your hand to keep on turning the pages, right on past the X-rated movie page, you just take that hand, run it through a buzz saw, and throw it away. We can’t imagine that kind of response, but Jesus is trying to impress on us here the serious damage immoral thinking can do to our mind, will and emotions. However, if we think that plucking out an eye and cutting off a hand is serious, Jesus says that the next alternative is that the entire body would be cast into hell. What Jesus is saying here is that He cannot impress upon you too strongly the importance of controlling what thoughts you allow to occupy your mind, and how destructive immoral thoughts can be to you.

2. Immoral thinking can cause adultery just as angry thoughts can cause murder. This past week, I read in the newspaper about a young real estate salesman, a successful man, came home one night and killed his wife. The article continues, “sobbingly, he said ‘I don’t see how I did anything like that, I never had any intention of doing anything like that. I still can’t believe that I really did it.’” He was broken hearted for what he had done. But, the gun was right there handy, he had never learned to control his angry thoughts, and before he knew it he was a murderer. I think this tells us that you and I, given the right circumstances, really can’t say what we would do if we don’t learn to get victory over our thoughts.

Pornography leads us into a world of fantasy that prepares our mind to give in to immorality when we are convinced that there will be no consequences. The religious leaders of Jesus time found a way to get around the command to not commit adultery by simply liberalizing divorce. A Pharisee could change wives often and still serve in good standing in his religion because all he had to do was say to his wife, “I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you”, and that was it. He was free then to bring in the next victim of his lust. The rejected wife goes out the back door and the new wife comes in the front door. Moses tried to slow things down by requiring written documents, but the Jews even ignored their pretended love for Moses. Adultery became non-existent in their minds because divorce was so easy. Even the tenth commandment, not to covet your neighbor’s wife, nor God’s explanation to Adam and Eve that the man and woman in marriage become one flesh and man should not attempt to tear the two apart was not sufficient to motivate them to reject their lustful thoughts that can easily cause us to give in to acts of immorality.

3. Immoral thinking can cause us to become judges and critics of those who commit adultery. The Pharisees despised tax collectors and sinners and complained against Jesus for eating with them. They were very critical of those who did not maintain the standard of “ritual holiness” that they pretended to maintain. In Luke 7:39 Simon, a Pharisee, complained against Jesus for allowing a woman who was known to be immoral to touch Him by washing His feet with her tears and drying them with her hair, but Jesus accepted her repentance and encouraged her to change. In Romans 2:1 Paul tells us that when we judge others we condemn ourselves because we do the very same things. We are critical of people who do outwardly that which we are ourselves are fighting a losing battle against inwardly. In John 8 we read that the Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman taken in adultery. The law said she should be stoned. Jesus said, “He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.” They all quietly slipped away, one by one. Every one of those men realized that in his own heart, he had committed that same sin. Condemned by their own conscience not one of them threw a stone. People who radiate condemnation are precisely the ones who in their own hearts are fighting a losing battle. Jesus simply told her that He did not condemn her either, but she should go and sin no more. Jesus had absolute personal, inward victory and He could be loving and accepting of those who acknowledged their sin and by His very acceptance people were drawn to Him to accept Him and believe the gospel.

Do you know what we are doing when we hold back acceptance from people? We think we are going to make them feel a little more repentant for what they have done before we can accept them completely. We have no right to do that. When I sin, God punishes me. When someone else sins, God punishes them. I have no right to add to their punishment by withholding my acceptance from them.

There are some people who are very hard to go to for counsel because we feel they would be judgmental of us. Some people are easy to go to because we feel they would be accepting of us. The wonderful thing about Jesus Christ is that He is accepting of us and we always feel welcome. We always feel that we can go to Him and draw near to Him, and that He will accept us and encourage us. He will help us win the battles we are facing to keep our eyes on people’s faces and our hands turning the pages or changing the channels. Satan will toss wrong thoughts into our mind, but we don’t have to let them stay there. “You can’t keep the birds from flying overhead, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.” As we immediately cry out to the Lord He will remove those thoughts and cleanse our mind.