Television And Adultery
There are many ways to examine each of the Ten Commandments. As we have seen over the years, every commandment has a vast range of applications. When considering the sixth commandment, for instance, we saw that indifference toward murder does not free us from guilt. In the same way, the seventh commandment reaches much further than the physical act of adultery.
One application of the seventh commandment is particularly necessary in our day.
We live in a media-saturated world, and the storytellers of our culture are no longer primarily bards, poets, playwrights, or novelists. Today, our stories are told by videographers, special-effects artists, lighting designers, actors, and directors. Movies and television miniseries have become our modern novels.
What is appalling is how much sexualized content has been forced into these stories. It often seems as though every production must include the obligatory topless woman, homosexual relationship, or transgender character. In the cultural checklist of what makes a “mature” or “serious” production, nudity has become almost mandatory.
This places Christians in a difficult position. If we want to experience the stories of our age, follow their narrative arcs, feel their emotions, rejoice in their triumphs, and weep over their tragedies, we are expected to accept the flagrant sexualization of human beings as part of the price of admission.
To the secular mind, this makes perfect sense. If human beings are merely animals, why not film them behaving like animals?
But Christians know better. We understand that human beings are made in the image of God. We understand the covenantal nature of marriage. We understand that sexual intimacy and nudity are gifts to be shared between one man and one woman within the safety and faithfulness of the marriage covenant.
How, then, can we excuse placing such things before our eyes?
We say, “I am only watching it for the story.” We say, “I will close my eyes during that part.” We say, “That kind of content does not affect me.”
But how can we deliberately watch an unmarried man and woman publicly performing sexual acts against one another and pretend that our willing spectatorship is morally neutral? Would you pay money to stand in the middle of your city and watch two people having sex in the street? Then why do you watch it on Netflix? Would you subscribe to a service that allowed you to stand inside a couples bedroom so that you could watch them fornicate with each other? Would you pay to see your neighbor naked? Then why do you pay to see another human being, your neighbor in the Biblical sense, who is made in the image of God, exposed in one of the most self degrading ways possible?
How is that not sin?
The consequences are significant. If you indulge in this content, are you not tarnishing your soul? Are you not drinking from the bottom of a septic tank because you hope to find some small kernel of enjoyment buried within it? Are you not willingly participating in something God despises and even spending money to do so?
Of course, refusing to watch such things will cost us. We may miss some of the stories and cultural epics of our age. Obedience will deprive us of certain experiences.
But obedience has always been costly.
Jesus said that if our eye causes us to sin, we must pluck it out. It is better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to be cast into hell with two polluted eyes. Christ is not commanding casual self-mutilation. He is commanding ruthless repentance. Anything that repeatedly leads us into sin must be treated like a diseased limb threatening the entire body.
If your laptop causes you to sin, and you lack the self-control to use it purely, would it not be better to throw it away than to let it become a millstone around your neck? If you cannot control yourself with a smartphone, would it not be better to downgrade to a brick phone than to carry a portal to sexual corruption in your pocket?
Our eyes are windows into our souls. Therefore, we must ask what we are allowing through them. What are we feeding our souls? What condition are they in because of that diet? What responsibility do we have to stop drinking Hollywood’s sludge, stop making excuses, and do the hard thing that holiness requires?
May we repent of the ways we have violated the law of God with our eyes. May we cut out everything that is clearly evil. And may we learn to obey God with every part of ourselves.
