Monday I began this series talking about that if you’re allowing unrepentant sexual sin to exist in your life then you’re probably not saved. Yesterday, I posted about “A Sure-Fire Way to Stop Looking at Porn.” In that post I shared how I discipline myself not to lust. But, there’s so much more than that. Today I’m going to talk about what is most important in controlling our lusts.
I’ve often looked at audiences and said, “There’s something I know absolutely for sure about every single one of you. There are no exceptions.” Then after a pause, I say, “You are all full of lust. Every one of you is full of lust.” When I say that, I’m not kidding or exaggerating. You see, the Lord created us as beings with strong desires, or lusts (both English terms used in the New Testament are from the Greek word epithumeo).[1] He could have made us beings with weak desires. He could have made us so that if someone told us our house was on fire, we’d reply, “Oh, so it is.” But He made us with strong desires. We were born to lust, and we’re either going to lust after people, possessions, positions, or pleasures or we’re going to lust after God and His kingdom—but either way, we were born to lust. We need to choose what we’re lusting after.
The Sirens and Odysseus
In mythology, there’s the story of the Sirens, creatures (think mermaids but part bird instead of part fish) that care “only for the destruction of men.”[2] The Sirens live on an island, and when ships pass by, they come out and sing to the men on the ship. Bewitched by their song, sailors turn the ship toward the island—only to have the boat dashed on the rocks, and everyone dies. We are told that around the Sirens “lie great heaps of men, flesh rotting from their bones, their skin all shriveled up.”[3] One ship’s captain wants to hear the music of the Sirens, so he puts wax in his men’s ears and has himself securely tied to the ship’s mast. As expected, the Sirens call out, “Odysseus! Come here! You are well-known from many stories! Glory of the Greeks! Now stop your ship and listen to our voices. All those who pass this way hear honeyed song, poured from our mouths. The music brings them joy.” Odysseus writes, “Their song was so melodious, I longed to listen more. I told my men to free me. I scowled at them, but they kept rowing on.”[4] In fact, as instructed, when he begs them to stop, they only add more ropes and tie the knots tighter. Finally, the island is out of earshot, so the men untie him.
Most Christians Live Like Odysseus
Many Christians live their entire lives like Odysseus. They listen to the music of this world and struggle against the bonds of their Christian commitment. But too many escape their bonds, and their lives are destroyed. I’m reminded of Solomon’s counsel to his sons about avoiding the adulterous woman. In Proverbs 7:21-23, we read about the foolish man: “With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him. All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.” We’ve all heard the Siren’s song. I’ve certainly heard the Siren’s song countless times and have felt like I’m tied to a mast by my commitments (like fasting for two days if I intentionally click on porn). This is in essence what I was talking about in yesterday’s post: I’ve put restraints in place to keep me for blowing it with porn. But we can do better!
Captain Orpheus Played Better Music
There’s another story about the Sirens, this one more hopeful. One day, a ship called the Argo comes near, and the Sirens, “ever on the watch to draw mariners to their destruction…sang all together their lulling song.” The “Sirens sang a clear, piercing song that called to each of the voyagers. Each man thought that his own name was in that song. ‘O how well it is that you have come near,’ each one sang, ‘how well it is that you have come near where I have awaited you, having all delight prepared for you!’” Enticed, the wearied voyagers let their oars go with the waves and drift toward the Sirens.[5] But on board was Orpheus, who “knew all the stories of the gods,” and “when he sang to his lyre the trees would listen and the beasts would follow him.”[6] Knowing the danger, Orpheus takes up his lyre and sings, and “his voice and the music of his lyre prevailed above the Sirens’ voices” and the men were saved.[7] Orpheus played a more alluring song.
Similarly, the world plays a piercing song, and if you follow its song throughout your life, then it will draw you to your death and destruction. But there is a better music!
Porn In My Hotel Room
In the mid-1980s, I worked for a large corporation, and my territory consisted of the San Francisco Bay area. While watching TV one night in a Burlingame hotel, on came a commercial for hard-core porn that would begin in just 20 minutes on the station I was watching. I was torn! I wanted to see it, but I turned off the TV and, feeling desperate, got out my Bible and turned to a passage I’d memorized because I’d read it so many times.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:3-7).
I read this passage quickly, urgently. When I finished, I read it again. And again. And again. I don’t know how many times. But as I kept reading it, a calm came over me. I never turned the TV back on, and I went to sleep. I had refocused my desires onto something glorious: “An inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade—kept in heaven for you.” I was enamored by the better music. We were born to lust but we can focus our lust (aka strong desire) on God and His Kingdom. We’re going to live forever, after all!
This is one of the reasons we named our ministry Live for Eternity!
If you’d like to read more, this was adapted from my book Immortal: How the Fear of Death Drives Us and What We Can Do About It.
[1] Of course, by “lust,” I mean “strong desire” (“lust” doesn’t always have a negative use in English), and that’s what it really means in the NT. For example, when Jesus warns about looking at a woman lustfully (epithumeo), He uses the same Greek word as Paul does in Galatians 5:17: “For the desires [epithumeo] of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires [epithumeo] of the Spirit are against the flesh.”
[2] Padraic Colum, The Golden Fleece: And the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles (Mineola, NY: Dover, 2018), 120.
[3] Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Emily Wilson (New York: W.W. Norton, 2018), 302.
[4] Ibid., 307.
[5] Colum, Golden Fleece, 120.
[6] Ibid., 16.
[7] Ibid., 121. The story also tells that “only one of the Argonauts, Butes, a youth of Iolcus, threw himself into the water and swam toward the rocks from which the Sirens sang.” Some might wonder why I would need constraints like fasting for two days if I intentionally click on porn. It’s because sometimes, sadly, I stop listening to the better music and the music of this world begins to tempt me. On those occasions I’m thankful to also have the constraints.
