A Covenant With My Eyes

I made a covenant with my eyes

not to look with lust at a young woman.

For what has God above chosen for us?

What is our inheritance from the Almighty on high?

Isn’t it calamity for the wicked

and misfortune for those who do evil?

Doesn’t he see everything I do

and every step I take? Job 31:1-4

JOB WAS EVIDENTLY a realist about sexual temptation. He realized he could not take a casual approach to such a powerful desire, which could lead him into ruin and break the heart of the God he loved. So Job entered into a solemn and binding covenant with himself not to look with lust at a young woman. He determined not to indulge in an imaginative fantasy with her, which could lead to adultery or sexual immorality.

But notice that he didn’t just say he was going to try really hard not to do this. The key is his use of the term covenant. Making a covenant often involved cutting animals in half, which was a way of saying, “If I don’t live up to my covenant commitment, I should be cut in half like this animal.” The kind of commitment Job made went deeper than restraint imposed from the outside or even self-imposed accountability. It was a rigorous internal commitment to purity solemnized by a verbal or written vow. The Bible does not require that we make this eye covenant. But it does command complete purity (Colossians 3:5). Job established an eye covenant as a means of fueling his own purity.

Perhaps a carefully considered covenant like Job’s could be a tool to empower purity in your home and family too —not just for the kids but for the parents. In encouraging this level of commitment, we’re not expecting perfection, but eliciting a promise to fight, a plan of escape, and a strategy of avoidance. And we don’t expect that anyone will live up to this covenant through sheer willpower, but only by grace through faith in God’s promised help.

Lord, let me lead the way in the battle for purity in our home. When I encounter a seductive person or image unexpectedly, I will look away, turn it off, or walk away. Grant me the grace to live this way day in and day out. I throw myself upon your mercy and strength.