Technology and the Deadly Sin of Lust

Authors are paying more attention to the sin of lust. While not the most cited, lust comes up third most often in Google’s Ngram (behind anger and pride) and third most often on the Internet Movie Database. In this article, we will define lust, look at some underlying temptations that lead to lust, and focus on how technology can amplify this sin.

Google Ngram of Seven Deadly Sins

Lust is a strong desire or craving for someone or something. It is a desire so strong that it becomes wrong. It becomes sinful because we do not prioritize our loyalties properly.

The word thirst is sometimes slang for lust, such as the phrase “thirst trap” coined in the last decade to describe selfies posted with the intent to visually attract sexual attention. Thirst, however, is a euphemism that downplays the caustic nature of lust. We would not fault someone for thirst if they were parched with dehydration after exercising. We may even admire someone for thirsting in an abstract sense, such as thirsting for knowledge. Desire by itself is not inherently sinful. For example, we can rightly thirst for water, knowledge, or God. We can appropriately have a lust for life. On the other hand, thirst for violence or drugs is patently sinful. The difference is in the object of the desire. 

When I first started working on this article, I thought that the difference might also be in the strength of the desire. However, when I thought about strongly desiring a good thing, it was hard to imagine how this might turn into sin. I came up with two possibilities. First, the desire for a good thing could become a sin if it causes us to adopt the wrong priorities. We might mistakenly put something good above the ultimate good of God, thus idolizing it. We might mistakenly prioritize a benefit to ourselves over the well-being of our neighbor. Desire that becomes lust causes us to no longer prioritize the two great commandments to love God and love our neighbor. A second way that desire for a good thing could become sin might be when another object slips in that is not as noble. If I thirst for knowledge strong enough that it could be called lust, then I suspect that the desire is no longer pure. It is no longer simply knowledge that I want, but also power. When Adam and Eve desired the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they rationalized that the fruit was pleasing to the eye and good to eat. However, they did not solely wish for the satisfaction of their physical hunger. There was something else they began to desire. It became sin because the serpent also tempted them with the desire to be like God. I suspect that strong desire for a good thing may blind us to the sinful lust that slithers in to hide alongside an innocent yearning. 

Lust is Unhealthy Sexual Desire

Lust is typically associated with desire of a sexual nature. Is sex what makes desire a sin? Not by itself. God’s original creation was good. He created humans, including their sexual nature, and called them very good. Thus, the object of our desire is inherently admirable. 

Scriptures mention sinful lust thirty times. A few times it is used without further clarification. Where some additional context is provided, twelve times it refers to promiscuity and prostitution, four times it refers to adultery. These additional clues help distinguish that desire for sex outside of marriage is the root of the sin of lust. 

One might think that this illicit desire is temptation, but not yet sin. Jesus sets us straight, that lust is indeed sin: “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28)

Of all the seven deadly sins, the impact of technology is perhaps most obvious with lust. Although pornography has existed since the earliest technologies of sculpture and painting, during the last century the technologies of photography, magazine printing, and film have amplified this sin with mass marketing. Today’s digital technologies have made it even more prolific through porn web sites. Porn is not the only aspect of technology-enabled lust. We also have dating websites enabling adultery, and private chat services enabling illicit emotional affairs. So-called “thirst trap selfies” are an enticement to lust, and some even make a business out of it with an OnlyFans site promising further titillation for a fee.

One of the remedies for the sin of envy is contentment. So too for lust. Contentment can tame desires that are going into hyperdrive, keeping them balanced so that we keep proper priorities. The apostle Paul writes that “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.“ (Philippians 4:12-13)   We try to fill the emptiness of our soul with pleasure or power, but it is never enough, our lust remains unsated. It is because our yearning is ultimately for God. That hole of emptiness in our hearts is infinitely deep and can only be filled by God. 

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end….

And yet, after such a great number of years, no one without faith has reached the point to which all continually look.…while the present never satisfies us, experience dupes us and, from misfortune to misfortune, leads us to death, their eternal crown.

What is it, then, that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings? … But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.” 

Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII

What Paul and Pascal both realized was that true contentment did not arise from the right circumstances or by satisfying our earthly desires. True contentment only comes from God. 

If you want to keep yourself accountable to avoid greed, look at your checkbook, or even share it with a trusted mentor. If you want to keep yourself accountable to avoid lust, look at your browser history. The perceived anonymity of the web emboldens us to look at things we ought not view, but anonymity is an illusion: we are always accountable for our actions.

What if we cannot convince ourselves to be content? What if technology continues to trigger unhealthy desire? Jesus prescribes a radical remedy for temptation: amputation. “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.” (Matthew 18:8-9)  If you cannot remain content, then remove the temptation. Suppress ads that tempt you. Many social media platforms allow you to mark ads that you don’t want to see anymore. If that is not enough, then remove that app entirely. 

Lust is not Solely Unhealthy Sexual Desire 

The apostle John distinguishes two kinds of lust: “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” (1 John 2:16)   The first type "of the flesh” refers to sexual sin, but possibly other unbridled bodily desires. For example, the lust for food that goes beyond satisfying hunger to gorging becomes the sin of gluttony. The second type of lust is “of the eyes.”  Since it is not bodily desire, then perhaps it is intellectual desire.

Lust need not be sexual in order for it to distract us from that which should remain the object of our desire. Adultery not only occurs with sexual infidelity to one’s spouse but also when emotional affairs divide our loyalties. Following after other gods is likewise dividing our loyalty. Though the Bible most often associates lust with sexual sins, it also mentions lust six times in connection with idols, i.e., an intellectual type of lust.  Ezekiel describe idolatrous lust, prophesying that God says “how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols.” (Ezekiel 6:9)  Today we may not have graven images on our mantle place, but we might lust after power or wealth that takes the place of God for our highest fidelity.

When our desire for something becomes so strong it displaces God from the throne, then it has become the sin of lust. In fact, four of the other deadly sins can be viewed as a type of lust:

• Gluttony: Lust for food
• Envy: Lust for possessions
• Pride: Lust for power and reputation 
• Greed: Lust for money

Technology can empower or amplify these types of lust. 

This article is part of a series on Technology & the Seven Deadly Sins 

Lust  Greed Gluttony Sloth Anger Envy Pride