Elder Holland said: “Lust is an unsavory word, and it is
certainly an unsavory topic for me to address, but there is good reason why in
some traditions it is known as the most deadly of the seven deadly sins.2
Why is lust such a deadly sin? Well, in addition to the
completely Spirit-destroying impact it has upon our souls, I think it is a sin
because it defiles the highest and holiest relationship God gives us in
mortality—the love that a man and a woman have for each other and the desire
that couple has to bring children into a family intended to be forever. Someone
said once that true love must include the idea of permanence. True love
endures. But lust changes as quickly as it can turn a pornographic page or
glance at yet another potential object for gratification walking by, male or
female. True love we are absolutely giddy about—as I am about Sister Holland;
we shout it from the housetops. But lust is characterized by shame and stealth
and is almost pathologically clandestine—the later and darker the hour the
better, with a double-bolted door just in case. Love makes us instinctively
reach out to God and other people. Lust, on the other hand, is anything but
godly and celebrates self-indulgence. Love comes with open hands and open
heart; lust comes with only an open appetite.
These are just some of the reasons that prostituting the
true meaning of love—either with imagination or another person—is so
destructive. It destroys that which is second only to our faith in God—namely,
faith in those we love. It shakes the pillars of trust upon which present—or
future—love is built, and it takes a long time to rebuild that trust when it is
lost.” (General Conference, April, 2010)
