Sexual sin is rampant.  The unprecedented, unequaled access to sexual images has only intensified the battle.  At times it can frankly be a bit overwhelming and discouraging to be a man daily attempting to navigate safely through the sexual minefields of our modern day world.  But there’s good news.  The same gospel power that forgave us of our past is power for the present and hope for the future.  We are more than conquerors (Rom 8:37) through Christ.

Men, here are twelve practical ways to protect yourself from sexual sin:

1. Respect And Honor Women

   The nature of lust is to degrade.  Therefore you’re less likely to lust after a woman you honor and respect. Good manners are sexual discipline.

2. Be A Man – Feel Like A Man

   When a man feels like a man, he tends to act like one.  Likewise, when a man knows he’s acting like a man, he feels like a man.  Feeling and acting like a man keeps a man from sexual sin, because man is the glory of God (1 Cor 11:7).  When a man acts and feels like he’s the glory of God, he abstains from sexual sin, because the glory of God doesn’t sin sexually.

3. Be With Masculine Alive Men

   You’re a lot more likely to act like a man and abstain from sexual sin when hanging around masculine, alive men.  Bad company corrupts good morals (1 Cor 15:33).  It’s inspiring to hang around masculine, alive men.

4. Fear The Lord

   To fear the Lord is to hate evil (Prov 8:13).  Your much more likely to abstain from something you hate than from something you love.  The fear of the Lord causes you to hate porn, lust, adultery, and fornication, because it’s evil.  The fear of the Lord kept Joseph from committing adultery with Potiphar’s wife because he asked, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Gen 39:9)

5. Wear Your Belt Of Truth

   Belts are worn to keep your pants up. Ephesians 6:14 says that the belt that’s part of the armor we wear as followers of Jesus is called the “belt of truth”.  John 17:17 says God’s word is truth.  A lot of sexual sin requires pulling our pants down.  Storing God’s word in our hearts acts like a chastity belt (Ps 119:11) protecting us from sin.

6. Get A Vision For Greater Pleasure

   We are creatures of pleasure who do things because we believe it will give us the most pleasure.  Sin is pleasurable (Heb 11:25).  The power that a particular sin has to tempt me is directly related to whether or not I believe that there is anything else at that particular time that would give me more pleasure.  As John Piper says, “spiritually satisfied people sin less.”  Regular access to and experience of superior pleasure, lessens sin’s power to tempt.  Sin is satisfaction with lesser pleasures.

7. Get A Wife

   Getting a wife will certainly not save you from every sexual sin- but it can help. The bible says that if a single person cannot exercise self-control then they should marry, because it’s better to marry than to burn with passion (1 Cor 7:9). Being horny isn’t exactly on a woman’s top ten list of reasons she’ll want to marry you though, so you better man up and give her some other reasons.

8. Fight To Increase Your Wife’s Beauty

   1 Peter 3 says that the women of old made themselves beautiful by not fearing that which is fearful.  When a man loves his wife in an understanding way and fights for her to be unafraid, she becomes more beautiful.  In this way, a man loves himself by loving his wife (Eph 5:28).  The more beautiful your wife is to you, the more you’ll enjoy her, and the less likely you’ll be to look elsewhere (Prov 5:18-20).

9. See Women As Someone’s Sister, Mother, Or Daughter

   Perverts try to invade someone’s sister, mother, or daughter’s privacy in an attempt to see them as some sexual object.  The woman on the movie screen, computer screen, phone screen, or magazine, is someone’s sister, mother, or daughter.  She’s more than individual body parts.  She’s a woman and treating her with dignity as a person, lessens the likelihood of lusting after her.

10. Think Generationally

    The bible speaks of sins and blessings in generational ways.  The same window of hell you open to yourself, you open to your sons and daughters.  Likewise, the same window of heaven you open to yourself, you open to your sons and daughters as well.

11. Go To Battle

    David committed adultery with Bathsheba because he stayed home at “the time when kings go out to battle” (2 Sam 11:1).  This is the same reason many men sin sexually today.  If you are not battling to advance the kingdom of God (Matt 11:12) and storming the gates of hell (Matt 16:18), you’ll eventually end up sleeping with Bathsheba, or fornicating on the battlefield.

12. Fill Your Time With Treasuring Jesus

    Whatever you treasure the most, your heart will be most into (Matt 6:21).  If your time is spent enjoying Jesus, loving Jesus, living and giving for Jesus’ mission, serving Jesus’ people, your heart will follow. If you are not treasuring Jesus, then your heart will go in silent search of other lovers.  Put your time, talents, and treasure where you want your heart to go and it will follow.

(Image Credit: National Library of Scotland)