The root words for holiness are connected to the origins of our terms for health and wholeness. God’s desire to share His very nature with us is always for our best. He wants us to be complete in every way. I love that our tenth doctrine, quoting 1 Thessalonians 5:23, includes the entirety of the human person, “May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless.” Jesus became a human being to offer us a comprehensive healthfulness in every area of life. He only offers holy wholeness.

Pornography is sinful and destructive. Any research into the devastation porn produces reveals the tentacles of sin, which eviscerate personal life and all social interaction. At base, sin is the grasping of one of God’s gifts out of His time and place for that gift to be used (Genesis 3:6). Sex in all its power is created with beauty and purpose. However, self-giving intimacy and pleasure are at the very center of our greatest weakness. To grasp for self-pleasure by viewing porn is tantamount to trying to tame a vicious beast. The havoc that ensues threatens to overwhelm everyone. Temptation is always an allure to play with something that will produce death if it is removed from God’s perfect purposes. There are no strong people in the area of sex—only wise and unwise.  

The statistics are undeniable. Porn use damages men and women, adults and children, secular folks and church people, pastors and lay persons. No one is immune to its power. The horrific effects of viewing porn are spiritual, emotional, relational and neurological. But if a person is willing to look beyond their damage, shame and embarrassment, it is even more astounding how cruel the entire demonic realm of porn is. If a person could see the cancerous perversion of the effects of the porn world on those caught in its treacherous web, they would pause on that next click.  

Notice that it is exactly when we turn inward that our very demise begins to erode the healthiness of holiness. Until the Church offers the nonjudgmental, radical commitment to the wholeness of every person, we will never be free of our addiction to porn. I know a group of godly men who met for 20 years, and the first question they asked as they began a new season of fellowship had to do with adultery and pornography. 

I believe that the major way by which a person can be free of pornographic allurement is entire sanctification. I am intrigued by how many books I have read on sexuality that reiterate the call to be holy but never disclose how a person can experience that holiness daily. If you walk with Jesus, you know there was a moment when you were not saved, and then, by relinquishing all self-salvation, you were alive in Him. His love brought life. Entire sanctification, I believe, involves the same kind of “death” as my self-grasping for sexual pleasure, and it occurs by His grace. Holy Love frees us from self-will. But, that experience of victory can never be divorced from the reality of patterns that have produced incredible damage to us and others. All of us need to be surrounded by the bold, unrelenting encouragement of the body of Christ. Healthy relationships are the only means of holy living. We push through shame, embarrassment, dishonesty and excuse-making together. No one is meant to be holy alone, just as none of us is ever healthy alone.  

If we truly want to be healthy, we must be holy. Holiness is both personal and social. The Holy Spirit can sanctify my sexual passions, but only as I continually am unreservedly open to look into the eyes of another person who truly loves me and discuss whether resentment or lust is residing in my heart and search history. We Salvationists have given up our birthright. Comprehensive salvation is the answer to the most devastating area of sin in the world. We often quote Booth’s famous dictum regarding fighting for the weakest. The enemy knows if he can keep us weakened by our chains of sinful, sexual self-fulfillment, we will never be able to offer redemption. You can’t give what you don’t have.

Holiness means death to my way of fulfilling my life. The Holy One took on flesh to show us that He would never “grasp” for Himself. A truly holy, healthy salvation is both the loving acceptance of provision through the nail-scarred hands of Jesus and the power of the holy, health-producing Spirit that pervades all of my inner life. As anyone who is winning the battle against sins like pornography will tell you, we must submit the fulfillment of all of our needs to our Maker. He knows what we need and He can supply us completely. His means of sustaining purity of heart, mind and body is always by His grace and through His Church. 

Questions to ponder

• Do your heart and life align with what the Holy One desires and enables?
• How does seeing the Bible’s big picture of holiness change how you see your relationship with God?

This article was originally titled “Pornography and the “Wholeness” of Holiness” in the October 2024 issue of The War Cry.