That’s the title of my article (PDF | web version) for the latest issue of Themelios.

From the introduction:

My goal is to motivate you to say no to pornography by God’s grace. This article does not comprehensively address how to deal with pornography. Other resources do that well, and I recommend several of them below. My burden in this article is to motivate you not to indulge in pornography. I am particularly burdened to motivate people who habitually indulge in pornography and who are not killing their sin of lust. If that describes you, then this article is a way of metaphorically taking you firmly by the shoulders, looking you directly in the eyes, and soberly warning you, “Wake up! Do you realize what the consequences are for indulging in pornography?!”

I argue that you should not indulge in pornography for at least seven reasons:

1. It will send you to hell.

2. It does not glorify God with your body.

3. It is a poisonous, fleeting pleasure.

But the pleasures of God are infinitely satisfying.

Three of my students from Bethlehem College & Seminary collaborated to produce this 19-minute video (Brent Fischer, Chris Powers, and Ian Pitkanen). Watch it to fuel your desire to know and worship God:

4. It foolishly wastes your life.

5. It betrays your wife and children.

6. It ruins your mind and conscience.

7. It participates in sex slavery.

The first two minutes of Jefferson Bethke’s video “Porn: Human Trafficking at Your Finger Tips” explains the connection well.

Related: A few days ago Desiring God published an article by my colleague Jason DeRouchie: “If Your Right Hand Causes You to Sin (Ten Reflections on Masturbation).”

Update on 1/6/2016: See John Piper’s letter to the editor regarding salacious advertising: “When Unclothed Is Unfitting: Thoughts on Selling with Sex,” in A Godward Life: 120 Daily Readings (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1997), 117–19.