Expert: Dr Eddy Cheong - 12/14/2008

Question
Is it ok to look at swimsuit models/do a pictorial timeline of them?  I also think of them as examples of beauty and would look at them in moderation or a little from time to time.  Nowadays it would be less often being so busy.  

I do know and agree that impure thoughts are wrong.  So, is there a line between enjoying and being careful and lusting?  

Next question would be about sex books.

Answer
The Bible is replete with Scriptures relating lust with the eyes...
Numbers 15:39
You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.

Job 31:1
"I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.

Proverbs 6:25
Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes,

1 John 2:16
For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.

Lust is an inordinate desire for something which would be wrongfully ours... eg lusting after somebody's wife. It is a form of covetousness of the eyes and heart. If we allow our eyes to feast on something inordinate, lust will grow in our minds and heart and this would translates to wrongful/sinful action..

Matt 15:17-20

17"Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "

Notice from verse 19 above that sexual immorality is birthed from the heart. Normally it goes from eyes to mind to the heart and incubates in the heart. Once it matures it may translate to action i.e. the actual physical act of immorality or adultery.

Phillipians 4:7 below is quite clear. It says to GUARD YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS.....not to open it to lustful and immoral sights.Playboy magazines and the like are obviously sources of great tempation and should be avoided. A mature christian may not be overtly tempted by pictures of skimpily clad women (not that I am advising mature christians to look at these) but he (the mature christian) may cause younger christians to stumble by doing so....

Philippians 4:7 (New International Version)
7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The verse in 1 Corinthians below says quite explicitly that we should "FLEE IMMORALITY" or run away from it... translated simply it means not to entertain these lustful thoughts that come in the form of newsprint or other media which would encourage us to indulge in these thoughts...

1 COR 6:18
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.