I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. For what is man’s lot from God above, his heritage from the Almighty on high? Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong? Does he not see my ways and count my every step? Job 31:1-4, NIV.

More than 60 percent of the cranial nerves, which enter and leave the brain directly, have to do with the eyes. Visual input exceeds all the other senses combined, explaining the eyes’ profound influence. Even the amount of light seen has a powerful effect on the body. Poultry farmers use fluorescent lights at night to fool a chicken’s hormones, through its eyes, into thinking that it is still summer and to continue producing eggs. The chicken simply cannot help it. Humans seem to respond more to a lack of light. The short days and gloom of winter in northern countries make many people depressed and even suicidal, a condition known as “Seasonal Affective Disorder.” They simply cannot help it.

The content of what we see is even more influential. Our age is spectacularly visual, assaulting our eyes and therefore the mind with almost overwhelming propaganda. Large-screen cable TV, computerized video games with virtual reality headsets, 3-D IMAX movie theaters with screens 10 stories high, glossy full-color magazines, and books with more illustrations than print all continue the barrage. Permitting the eyes to dwell on what is wrong or evil will overcome any restraints. Only after Eve looked again, and saw that the fruit was “pleasing to the eye,” did she sin (Gen. 3:6).

As a visual reminder of guarding their eyes, God instructed the Jews to sew blue tassels to the corners of their garments. “You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commandments of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes” (Num. 15:39, NIV). It was the lingering glance back to the condemned cities that cost Lot’s wife her life.

The revealing fashions so provocatively flaunted by many women are powerful visual stimuli. These, and magazines or videos with suggestive material, make men respond with their hormones, just like a chicken under light. They simply cannot help it.

If only the chicken realized it did not have to look at the light, but could close its eyes.

Are you sometimes like the chicken? Lord, give me the willpower to shut my eyes to the temptations of the world.

Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.