I have made a covenant with my eyes;
Why then should I look upon a young woman?
Job 31:1
I will set nothing wicked before my eyes;
I hate the work of those who fall away;
It shall not cling to me.
Psalm 101:3
You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
And cannot look on wickedness.
Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he?
Habakkuk 1:13
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.
Matthew 5:29
Job vowed to his eyes that he would not lust after young women. Thus saith television, if thou shalt look young, thou shalt be beautiful in the sight of man.
The psalmist said that he would set no wicked thing before his eyes, and that such wickedness would not cling to him, or come to his mind. Isn’t it interesting that it is easier to quote television and recount how enjoyable scenes of violence, anger, hate, and lust are? I’ve heard the deaths portrayed in some movies called “satisfying.”
Habakkuk declares that God is too holy to even look at sin, and we are commanded to be just as holy as God (1 Peter 1:16) in all that we do (v.15).
Judging from the above, can we not reasonably conclude that it is a sin to set something sinful before our eyes? Is it not sinful to put ourselves into situations–such as television generously provides–in which young women of all sorts are put before our eyes that we may lust? (If you think they are on television for any other reason, you are either willfully ignorant or blissfully deceived.)
Jesus said that it would be better for us to remove our eyes than to continually sin by them.
I myself am a television viewer with a pretty hefty investment in movies on DVD. I go to the movie theater, and I rent movies. It can be accurately said that how I respond to this will determine whether I am a hypocrite–seeking to remove the speck from my brother’s eye while I have a steel girder stuck in mine–or a man willing to let my mind be renewed, that I “may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).
I know and tremble before the truth that each of us shall give account of himself to God (Romans 14:12).
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Isaiah 5:20
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things.
Philippians 4:8