"But I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart."
— Matthew 5:28
Quick Answer
The Bible does not mention sexting by name, but its teaching on lust and sexual purity applies directly to it (Matthew 5:28, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5). Sexting manufactures lust and treats another person's body as an object rather than a gift reserved for marriage, so Christians are called to flee it, seek forgiveness where needed, and pursue real purity (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).
A New Temptation, an Old Sin
Sexting feels like a modern problem because the technology is new, but the sin underneath it is ancient. Long before smartphones, people struggled with lust, with using another person's body for private gratification instead of honoring it as God's design intended. A phone simply makes that struggle faster, more private, and easier to hide than it has ever been. That is exactly why so many Christians, including sincere ones, find themselves wrestling with it, in a dating relationship, a texting friendship that got too familiar, or a moment of loneliness that felt harmless at the time.
Because Scripture never mentions phones or screenshots, some assume the Bible has nothing to say here. It actually says a great deal, because the issue was never really about pixels on a screen. It is about lust, about how you view and treat another person's body, and about what you allow your mind to feed on. Those are subjects the Bible addresses directly and repeatedly.
What Jesus Said About Lust
Jesus went further than the Pharisees' external rule-keeping when he taught that “everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Sexting is lust made deliberate and requested. It is not an accidental glance but a planned exchange, images and words created specifically to provoke sexual desire outside the marriage covenant. That makes it, if anything, a more calculated version of exactly what Jesus warned against.
This applies to both people involved, the one who sends and the one who asks for or receives. Both are participating in cultivating lust rather than fleeing it, and both are treating a body meant for the Lord as raw material for private fantasy (1 Corinthians 6:13).
Your Body Was Bought With a Price
Paul told the Corinthians to flee sexual immorality, reminding them that their bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit and that they were bought with a price, so they should honor God with their bodies (1 Corinthians 6:18-20). That truth cuts in two directions. It means your own body is not yours to hand out digitally for someone else's gratification, and it means another person's body is not yours to request or consume that way either.
Paul also wrote that God's will is your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality and learn to control your own body in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion like those who do not know God (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5). Sexting runs directly against that call, dressing up lust as affection or as harmless fun between two people who supposedly trust each other.
The Illusion of Privacy
Job made a striking vow: “I made a covenant with my eyes; how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?” (Job 31:1). He understood that guarding the eyes, and what they were fed, protected the whole heart. Digital images are far harder to guard than a glance, because once sent, they are effectively out of your control forever. Screenshots, shared devices, hacked accounts, and broken relationships have turned countless private exchanges into public humiliation, sometimes years later.
Proverbs warns to guard your heart above all else, for everything you do flows from it (Proverbs 4:23). Sexting bypasses that guard entirely, inviting images straight into the heart and mind that can never truly be unseen, and creating a paper trail that can be used to shame, manipulate, or hurt you long after the relationship ends.
If You Have Already Done This
If you are reading this with a familiar sense of shame, know that grace is real and available. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). This is not a sin too shameful for God to forgive; it is exactly the kind of sin Christ's blood was shed to cover.
Practically, that forgiveness should lead to action: delete what needs deleting, end the exchange, tell a trustworthy Christian friend or mentor who can hold you accountable, and if images have already been shared without your consent or used to pressure you, seek help rather than hiding in isolation and fear.
Building a Different Kind of Intimacy
The deeper answer to sexting is not simply more willpower but a different vision of intimacy, one where physical desire is honored inside the covenant of marriage rather than manufactured through a screen beforehand. Song of Songs pictures desire that is patient, exclusive, and unhurried, warning three times not to stir up love before its proper time (Song of Songs 2:7).
That kind of patience is countercultural, but it is not repression; it is trust that God's design for sexuality, saved for a covenant of lifelong commitment, is genuinely better than what a phone screen can offer. Pursue real conversation, real accountability, and real waiting, and let your body's desires point you toward the kind of covenant love that was always meant to hold them.