Covenant Eyes
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Job 31:1
I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman
(v.1).
A study published by the American Academy of
Pediatrics in 2006 revealed that children who
watch media with high levels of sexual content
tend to be more sexually promiscuous. Researchers
studied 1,017 adolescents, ages 12 to 14, over a period
of 2 years. During that time, the teenagers were tracked
as they took in varying amounts of sexual content in
movies, TV shows, music, and magazines.
The survey found that teens exposed to a high amount
of sexual content were 2.2 times more likely to have had
intercourse between the ages of 14 and 16 than other teens
with less exposure. This research confirms what Augustine
said long ago: “By one’s gaze . . . lustful . . . desires
arise.” I believe this is the reason Job made a covenant
with his eyes not to go there.
Job believed that he was living before a holy God who
numbered his steps and ordered his life. For him, this
meant living a life of purity and the pursuit of personal
holiness. He affirmed his moral purity by recalling a
personal commitment that affirmed what he would and
would not look at. In particular, he professed moral
purity in guarding his eyes and avoiding sexual lust.
Jesus taught this same principle in the New Testament
(Matthew 5:28).
Because our eyes can be channels of sexual temptation
and lust, like Job, we need to make a covenant with
them. This means guarding our eyes against all kinds of evil (Psalm 101:3),
living lives of discipline and self-control (1 Thessalonians 4:4-5), and submitting
to the Holy Spirit for direction and empowerment (Galatians 5:16-21). It also
includes living like “temporary residents and foreigners” who are waiting for our
endtime inheritance (1 Peter 2:11), and fighting temptation and pursuing what is
right in community with other committed believers in Jesus. —Marvin Williams
more›
Read Genesis 39:6
to see how one young
man handled sexual
temptation and lust.
next›
Why is it so important to
guard our eyes against
sexual temptation? What
do you need to do to
make a covenant with
your eyes, so that you
live a life of moral purity
before our heavenly
Father?
