John Piper urged Christians to embrace what he called “radical purity” in a culture saturated with sexualized images, saying believers must resolve never to intentionally view nudity in movies, television or online media.
“The closer I get to death and meeting Jesus personally face to face and giving an account for my life and for the careless words that I’ve spoken — and how much more for intentional stares — the more sure I am of my resolve to never intentionally look at a TV show or a movie or a website or a magazine where I know I will see photos or films of nudity. Never,” the 79-year-old chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota, said in a recent episode of his “Ask Pastor John” podcast.
“And the closer I get to death, the better I feel about that and the more committed I become.”
Piper, an author and founder of the Desiring God website and ministry, said his stance is not about legalism but about living in the freedom Christ secured through the cross.
Citing Titus 2:14, he said: “Jesus died to purify me. He died to purify his people. It is an absolute travesty of the cross to treat it as though Jesus died only to forgive us for the sin of watching nudity and not to purify us for the power not to watch it.”
At the heart of his argument, Piper emphasized the biblical sequence of justification and sanctification.
“Step one: Sin is canceled by the blood of Christ. We are justified before God. Step two: That forgiven sin is then purged from our lives by the Spirit as we grow in holiness. We must never reverse the order. First, sin is canceled — then, sin is conquered,” he said.
That truth, he added, motivates Christians to fight sin in all areas of life, but especially “sins of the eyes and heart.”
Western media normalizes lust, Piper acknowledged, pointing to advertising, music videos, social media influencers and streaming platforms that present sexualized images as entertainment. But Christians, he said, are called to stand apart.
“I want to invite, frankly, all Christians to join me in this pursuit of greater purity of heart and mind,” he said. “In our day, when entertainment media is virtually the lingua franca of the world, this is an invitation to be an alien. And I believe with all my heart that what the world needs is radically bold, sacrificially loving, God-besotted freaks, aliens.”
He added, “If we choose to endorse or embrace or enjoy impurity, we take a spear and ram it into Jesus’s side.”
Piper offered 12 reasons why he refuses to watch anything containing nudity.
Among those reasons, he said, is that “holiness is commanded,” citing 1 Peter 1:15 and saying that nudity in entertainment is “unholy and impure.” Referencing Matthew 5:28-29, Piper stressed that “lust equals adultery.”
“Seeing naked women causes men — and women seeing naked men — to sin with their minds and their desires and often with their bodies,” he said. “If Jesus told us to guard our hearts by gouging out our eyes to prevent lust, how much more would he say, ‘Don’t watch it’?”
Piper stressed that “true freedom is finding Christ,” rejecting the notion that “abstaining from impurity leads to a constrained life.” He said purity “fosters intimacy with God,” citing Matthew 5:8. Watching nudity, he added, “dulls the heart’s ability to see and enjoy God.”
While some erotic content is scripted, Piper stressed that the “nudity on screen is not fiction.”
Unlike violence in films, Piper said “these actresses are really naked in front of the camera, doing exactly what the director says to do with their legs and their hands and their breasts.”
“They’re standing there, and they’re naked in front of millions of people — for the world to see,” he said.
The author further argued that sex is “not a spectator sport” but rather a “holy joy that is sacred in its secure place of tender love.”
“Men and women who want to be watched in their nudity are in the category with exhibitionists who pull down their pants at the top of escalators,” Piper said.
No great film requires nudity to achieve artistic merit, Piper argued, saying that Christians often act hypocritically by watching scenes they would never want their daughters to perform. Many believers avoid radical purity out of fear of appearing “freakish,” he said.
He pointed to a biblical test from Romans 14:23: “If you doubt, don’t.”
Though productions featuring erotic scenes are becoming increasingly rare in film and TV, 2022 research from the Parents Television and Media Council found the practice of portraying male genitalia on shows like HBO’s “Euphoria” is on the rise. Popular shows like “The White Lotus,” Netflix’s “Hunting Wives” and “Game of Thrones” also featured several explicit nude scenes.
Some, like writer and cultural commentator Andrew Klavan, have leaned toward a more permissive posture when it comes to nudity in media and defended the use of nudity and sex scenes in his own work.
“Modern Christian art is very bland. I have nothing against family-friendly art, but if that’s all you ever consume, you’re not prepared for the world. The arts should fill your heart with all human experience, so when you confront real darkness, you’re not surprised by it,” he told The Christian Post of why he’s OK with controversial content in a March interview.
In a 2015 interview with Desiring God, pastor and artist Trip Lee urged Christians to refuse exposure to explicit sexual content, no matter how culturally acclaimed the work.
“It really can harm our souls,” he said of viewing nudity. “It can provoke lust in our hearts and desires in our hearts. And that can lead to even kind of more explicit things. And so, for me, when I think about pop culture and explicit sexuality, it is just not a risk worth taking. I just don’t want to leave space for that in my life. I want to make sure I don’t have space to take those kinds of risks.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
