More than twenty years ago, Steve Jobs stood on a stage in California and changed the world.
Speaking before a group of reporters and Apple devotees, Jobs calmly pulled a tiny device out of his pocket that must’ve looked foreign to anyone sitting in the room. He called it an iPod and famously claimed that with it, you could have “1,000 songs in your pocket.”
And thus began the digital revolution. But while most of us were absolutely enamored with the idea of not carrying around compact discs or tape players anymore, there was an even more insidious idea floating around: What else could you fit in your pocket?
The answer to that question was just a few years away with the introduction of the iPhone. While it wasn’t the first smartphone, it was absolutely the most widely-adopted. Hosting a plethora of apps that spanned everything from cameras to video games, the iPhone put everything else in your pocket, alongside your music.
Unfortunately, that also included pornography. What used to be relegated to magazines and paid, after-hours television was now easily accessible by anyone at any time.
The link is inescapable. The iPhone was released in June of 2007, but just a few months before, articles began appearing online touting the advent of mobile porn. According to most analysts, the market was “set to explode.”
They weren’t wrong. In 1975, the total retail value of pornography was around ten million dollars. Today, the estimated value of the pornography industry is close to twenty billion. That’s a 200,000% increase.
What’s the problem with pornography? It’s certainly the fulfillment of a lustful attitude, but according to Leviticus 18, part of the issue with these types of sexual deviations is actually more nuanced: theft.
There’s a phrase that keeps repeating through this chapter: “uncover their nakedness.” It’s literal application appears over several verses in regards to sexual relationships, but it’s also applied metaphorically, as in Ezekiel 22:10.
The term has strict application to some kind of sexual activity—most likely intercourse itself. But since it’s also used when Noah’s nakedness was uncovered by his son Ham in Genesis 9 (and it’s definitely not a given that Ham raped his father when Noah was drunk), the definition has to be broader.
Go back to the Garden of Eden; what did it mean for them to be naked? In that moment (after their sin), it meant shame—they were totally exposed for the world to see.
In the sanctity of marriage, though, nakedness isn’t something to be ashamed of. But outside of that world, it’s immoral. Your body is yours and your spouse’s—not everyone else’s (1 Corinthians 6:12-7:7).
When someone views porn, they’re taking honor from that person. It doesn’t matter if that person is willingly giving it up, because sexuality, according to Leviticus 18, is regulated by God. It’s only appropriate within certain boundaries.
Sex is designed to draw two people closer together. That’s part of what makes marriage so strong.
But when people “uncover nakedness” of other people through a website that can be accessed in seconds from a phone that is already in their pocket, it weakens that bond. I can’t have as strong a connection with my spouse if I’m creating artificial connections with people online.
Pornography shows us what we’re not allowed to see. It uncovers others’ nakedness in a way that is sinful, and even though iPhones weren’t a thing in the wilderness with the Israelites, the temptation has always been there. We just have to have the willpower to keep our bodies sacred.
