LUST (snapshot)
Disclosure
This reflection is written from a woman’s lived perspective. I’ve chosen this not only because I am a woman, but because women disproportionately bear the cost of lust-driven harm.
But to be very clear: lust is not exclusive to men, and harm is not limited to women. Women can and do lust. Men, women, and children can be, and are, victims.
But Scripture places responsibility for lust where it belongs.
The geography of lust is the heart. You don’t leave it at home. When it’s poisoned, you bleed it into every space you enter. Your whole body becomes a delivery system for harm.
The Fracture
Before the Fall:
“The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.”
— Genesis 2:25
After the Fall:
“I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
— Genesis 3:10
Shame is not original.
It is introduced.
The Exposure
Jesus did not condemn desire.
He exposed entitlement.
“Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
— Matthew 5:28
Lust is not attraction.
Lust is consumption.
Know the difference.
The Lie
What people think lust means:
• “I’m married, not dead”
• “Appreciating what the good Lord made”
• Proof you’re a “real” man
• “Every man’s battle”
• A strong sex drive
• What women “cause” by how they dress
These are excuses. They are not definitions.
The Reality
What Scripture actually reveals:
• Lust is taking without covenant
• A violation of personhood
• A consequence of the Fall
• The reduction of a human being into a product
• Desire detached from responsibility
• Imagination that consumes what it has no right to possess
• A corruption of the image of God
Lust is not about sexuality. It is about power.
It is a generational corruption, inherited through legacy and sustained by distorted systems.
Truth be told: it infects the bloodstream of a culture.
The Source
“Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own desire and enticed.”
— James 1:14
Women do not create lust.
Abusers do.
Nearly one in three women experience sexual violence.
Ask the honest question: Who is assaulting them?
The taker takes without permission. Temptation is the excuse.
The Cost
“If your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out.”
— Matthew 5:29
Not because the body is evil,
but because unchecked entitlement destroys.
Lust is a spiritual disease,
camouflaged by tradition,
protected by religious language,
and excused as “male nature.”
Welcome to a culture of willful blindness.
Lust is a failure of self-governance. Self-discipline is abandoned and then baptized.
A craving that prioritizes personal gratification
over God’s will and other people’s humanity.
Abuse does not begin with hands.
It begins with permission.
The Chain (Tearing the Veil)
Lust leads to objectification.
Objectification breeds addiction.
Addiction fuels pornography.
Pornography enables exploitation.
Exploitation leads to abuse.
Abuse feeds human trafficking.
There is no neutral ground.
You either interrupt the chain, or benefit from it.
Are you part of the problem?
The Verdict
Hugh Hefner is to intimacy what patriarchy is to equality.
Both profit from degradation.
Both rebrand exploitation as freedom.
Both trap the female image of God in a dungeon of shame, silence, and control.
Read between the lines of the propaganda.
It’s plastered in broad daylight on billboards and written in the fine print of church sermons.
Self-control is not repression.
It is discipleship.
I said what I said.
Final Note
Before responding, read carefully.
This is not an attack on men.
It is a confrontation of lust as a system that normalizes entitlement, objectification, and abuse, and then spiritualizes it.
Attraction is not sin.
Temptation is not sin.
If your response shifts blame onto women, children, clothing, culture, or “male wiring,” you are proving the point of this post.
If your response reframes abuse as biology, or accountability as oppression, I will not engage it.
This space is for honest dialogue, not deflection, minimization, or theological gaslighting.
-RJB
Disclosure
This reflection is written from a woman’s lived perspective. I’ve chosen this not only because I am a woman, but because women disproportionately bear the cost of lust-driven harm.
But to be very clear: lust is not exclusive to men, and harm is not limited to women. Women can and do lust. Men, women, and children can be, and are, victims.
But Scripture places responsibility for lust where it belongs.
The geography of lust is the heart. You don’t leave it at home. When it’s poisoned, you bleed it into every space you enter. Your whole body becomes a delivery system for harm.
The Fracture
Before the Fall:
“The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.”
— Genesis 2:25
After the Fall:
“I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
— Genesis 3:10
Shame is not original.
It is introduced.
The Exposure
Jesus did not condemn desire.
He exposed entitlement.
“Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
— Matthew 5:28
Lust is not attraction.
Lust is consumption.
Know the difference.
The Lie
What people think lust means:
• “I’m married, not dead”
• “Appreciating what the good Lord made”
• Proof you’re a “real” man
• “Every man’s battle”
• A strong sex drive
• What women “cause” by how they dress
These are excuses. They are not definitions.
The Reality
What Scripture actually reveals:
• Lust is taking without covenant
• A violation of personhood
• A consequence of the Fall
• The reduction of a human being into a product
• Desire detached from responsibility
• Imagination that consumes what it has no right to possess
• A corruption of the image of God
Lust is not about sexuality. It is about power.
It is a generational corruption, inherited through legacy and sustained by distorted systems.
Truth be told: it infects the bloodstream of a culture.
The Source
“Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own desire and enticed.”
— James 1:14
Women do not create lust.
Abusers do.
Nearly one in three women experience sexual violence.
Ask the honest question: Who is assaulting them?
The taker takes without permission. Temptation is the excuse.
The Cost
“If your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out.”
— Matthew 5:29
Not because the body is evil,
but because unchecked entitlement destroys.
Lust is a spiritual disease,
camouflaged by tradition,
protected by religious language,
and excused as “male nature.”
Welcome to a culture of willful blindness.
Lust is a failure of self-governance. Self-discipline is abandoned and then baptized.
A craving that prioritizes personal gratification
over God’s will and other people’s humanity.
Abuse does not begin with hands.
It begins with permission.
The Chain (Tearing the Veil)
Lust leads to objectification.
Objectification breeds addiction.
Addiction fuels pornography.
Pornography enables exploitation.
Exploitation leads to abuse.
Abuse feeds human trafficking.
There is no neutral ground.
You either interrupt the chain, or benefit from it.
Are you part of the problem?
The Verdict
Hugh Hefner is to intimacy what patriarchy is to equality.
Both profit from degradation.
Both rebrand exploitation as freedom.
Both trap the female image of God in a dungeon of shame, silence, and control.
Read between the lines of the propaganda.
It’s plastered in broad daylight on billboards and written in the fine print of church sermons.
Self-control is not repression.
It is discipleship.
I said what I said.
Final Note
Before responding, read carefully.
This is not an attack on men.
It is a confrontation of lust as a system that normalizes entitlement, objectification, and abuse, and then spiritualizes it.
Attraction is not sin.
Temptation is not sin.
If your response shifts blame onto women, children, clothing, culture, or “male wiring,” you are proving the point of this post.
If your response reframes abuse as biology, or accountability as oppression, I will not engage it.
This space is for honest dialogue, not deflection, minimization, or theological gaslighting.
-RJB