This week Tim Challies wrote an article that I wish nobody needed, but that many people do: “Is It a Sin to Use AI Porn?” His answer is plain: “The simple answer is yes: it is as sinful to look at AI-generated porn as it is to look at human-created porn.”
I want to add a few reflections of my own, because this temptation is not coming; it is here. The same tools our children use for homework can now produce whatever a lustful heart asks for, instantly, privately and at no cost.
The argument people are making
The argument usually goes like this: “No real woman was exploited. Nobody was trafficked or filmed. It is just pixels, so where is the harm?” It sounds almost ethical, and it can feel like a loophole.
But Jesus never located the sin of lust in the camera. He located it in the heart: “but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28, NASB 1995). Whether the image was photographed or generated, the looking and the lusting are the same. The sin is not made acceptable because the object of it is artificial. If anything, AI pornography is worse in one respect. It is endlessly tailored to the user’s own desires, which means it trains the heart ever more deeply in self-worship.
What stood out to me
The line from Challies that has stayed with me is this: “You are giving yourself over to a sin that wants not just some of you, but all of you.” That is exactly right. Pornography never stays in its box. It reshapes how a man sees his wife and how a young woman sees herself. It changes how we see our sisters in Christ, how we use our evenings, and how honestly we can pray. It isolates, because it must be hidden. It deadens, because it makes conscience a nuisance to be managed.
Challies draws on Psalm 101, and earlier in that same psalm David makes this resolve: “I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not fasten its grip on me” (Psalm 101:3, NASB 1995). Notice the last line. Sin wants to fasten its grip. The time to fight is before the grip closes, which means guarding what we set before our eyes.
The way of escape
The good news is that no Christian is trapped. “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13, NASB 1995).
Often, the way of escape is literally a way out: get up, put the phone down, leave the room. “Flee immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18, NASB 1995). Some practical steps:
- Bring it into the light. Confess to God and to a mature believer of the same sex. Hidden sin grows; confessed sin loses its power.
- Remove access. Use accountability and filtering software, and keep devices out of bedrooms at night. Be honest that AI apps and chatbots now need the same scrutiny as the browser.
- Replace, don’t just resist. Fill your evenings with the Word, prayer, people and useful work. An empty house does not stay empty.
- Parents, talk early. Your children will hear about these tools from friends. Let them hear what God says from you first.
- Look to Christ, not just to rules. Filters help, but only the gospel changes the heart. Jesus bore the guilt of this sin for those who trust Him, and He gives His Spirit to make us holy.
A book that helps
The book I would put in a struggling friend’s hands is Heath Lambert’s Finally Free. The book’s description says he “lays out eight gospel-centered strategies for overcoming the deceitful lure of pornography.” It is available at Good Neighbours (R270 at the time of writing).
Learn – Grow – Change
- Learn: Read the whole Challies article, and then read Matthew 5:27-30 slowly.
- Grow: Ask a trusted brother or sister to check in with you regularly, and give them permission to ask the hard question.
- Change: This week, take one concrete step to make sin harder and obedience easier in your home.
New technology, old sin, same Saviour. There is grace for the fallen and a way of escape for the tempted.
