The Pornographic Bargain

There is a story called Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe where Faust sells his soul to the devil (Mephistopheles). (Source, Source)

Faust. What is your name?
Mephistopheles. The question seems but cheap
From one who for the Word has such contempt,
Who from all outward show is quite exempt
And only into beings would delve deep.
Faust. The being of such gentlemen as you, indeed,
In general, from your titles one can read.
It shows itself but all too plainly when men dub
You Liar or Destroyer or Beelzebub.
Well now, who are you then?
Mephistopheles. Part of that Power which would
The Evil ever do, and ever does the Good.
Faust. A riddle! Say what it implies!
Mephistopheles. I am the Spirit that denies!
And rightly too; for all that doth begin
Should rightly to destruction run;
‘Twere better then that nothing were begun.
Thus everything that you call Sin,
Destruction – in a word, as Evil represent-
That is my own, real element.

For Faust, the bargain was for his soul. If you recall the story of Ulysses and the Sirens, the bargain was for Ulysses’s life. For us, the bargain is for both our life and our soul. However, the point of this is that like the Sirens, there is something that whispers in our hearts and our ears trying to draw us back. Whether it be our flesh, our sin, or even something spiritual or even demonic, it is there. While I am not going to go into the details or the debate over spiritual things here, suffice it to say that thoughts of sinning can originate from three primary places: (1) Satan and his cohorts (Eph 6:12), (2) other people (Matt 18:6), and (3) my own personal flesh (1 Jn 2:16; Rom 7). So though I don’t necessarily want to enter the debate, I do believe that pornography is an idol and behind every idol is something demonic (1 Cor 10:19-20; cf. 12:2).

And in every addiction, there is immense denial, me included. And denial is the first step that we must deal with if we ever want to break out and break free. Yet, this step is also not something that once we accomplish, it’s done, that we are immediately passed it. No, rather it is something that we must do every day because there is a spirit of denial that beacons us and bids us to come.

For me, what I need to do is to make sure that I reach out to someone when this happens at the beginning…something that I have never done before. I cannot do this alone, and people will fail me as they have done in the past. However, I need people however faulty they may be. And because of this, I must have a strong support system with a variety of people that I can lean, so whenever one of them is not available, another is. So unlike Faust, we must not sell our souls to the devil and give in to the spirit that denies.

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Tagged as: Denial, Faust, Mephistopheles