Sin Sells: Part 1 Men's Lust and the Market of a Fallen World

Sin Sells: Because the Problem Isn’t the Product, It’s the Customer

Part 1: Men’s Lust and the Market of a Fallen World

James 1:14-15 “…each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully matured, it brings forth death.”

I saw an advertisement on a particular financial Facebook page the other day. It was a colorful meme designed to entice readers to join a growing community of entrepreneurs in pursuit of wealth that promised to fill their bank accounts.

The post read, “You will never go broke if you sell these 6 things.” It made the prospect of becoming rich sound simple and achievable. Part of the irony of this post is that it is doing one of the six things it tells others to do, which is to “sell to poor people’s desire to get rich quick.”

The idea of having wealth and excess money appeals to those who do not have it because they believe it will solve all of life’s problems, and it appeals to the rich because many have fallen into the trap of believing that no amount is ever enough.

Rockefeller was once asked, “How much money is enough?” to which he responded, “Just a little more.”

Selling advice on how to get rich to poor people is last on the list, of course, so readers will not realize that they, too, are being targeted by the ad they are reading about how to gain wealth.

1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evils, and some by aspiring to it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

I felt the need to write a six-part blog series addressing this. The image is titled “You will never go broke if you sell to these six things” and lists:

1. Men’s lust

2. Women’s desire for beauty

3. The elderly’s health

4. Children’s education

5. Rich people’s fear of loss

6. Poor people’s desire to get rich quick

   
   

The list consists of things that are difficult for people to resist. These are the services you can provide to fill your bank accounts because people just cannot resist the temptations. I will write a blog addressing each of these.

First on the list, and probably the most lucrative, is selling to men’s lust. The global pornography industry generates billions of dollars each year. In fact, market research estimates $51.8 billion in 2026. The same report estimates $97 billion worldwide. With the internet and websites like OnlyFans, to which “fans” gave $7.8 billion in 2025 and which has 437 million registered accounts, we see that the money is there for those who do not care about sin or tempting others with sin, essentially ruining other people’s lives through addiction.

Jesus warns us in Matthew 5:28 that if you lust after a woman in your heart, it is the same as committing adultery. Looking, watching, and lusting are all as sinful as participating. Actually, you are participating in an emotional way, with your mind and heart.

Lust is a moral matter of the heart. In fact, Paul commanded believers to “flee” sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 6:18.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;”

Sexual immorality has no place among God’s people (Ephesians 5:3). Galatians 5:19 reveals that it is a work of the flesh. Paul identifies it specifically as an expression of the fallen flesh, a fruit, warning that those who practice such sins will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

So, yes, one of the sins you can sell so you will never go broke is to cater to the lust of men (and women). Lust sells. But it corrupts not just the one buying; Scripture warns against selling it as well.

What of those who sell lust or tempt others with sin?

Jesus actually warns those who cause others to sin in Matthew 18:6-7 “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 ‘Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; nevertheless, woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!’”

Jesus makes it clear: woe to those who sell sin and tempt others to sin. Jesus warns that there is a punishment awaiting the one through whom the stumbling block (temptation to sin) comes that is much worse than having a heavy rock tied around their neck and drowning in the sea.

So, not only is lust terrible for those who are tempted by it, but it is far worse for the one who brings that lust to tempt others to sin.

"Then she seized him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” And he left his garment in her hand and fled and went outside."

Enticing others into sexual sin while motivated by greed, as with those on OnlyFans, actors and actresses in pornography, or prostitutes, is addressed in 2 Peter 2:14 “having eyes full of adultery and unceasing sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed—they are accursed children.”

Peter brings three things together in this verse: sexual immorality, deliberate enticement, and greed. The subject of the verse is corrupt false teachers, but the underlying warning is relevant to people who exploit sexual temptation for personal gain. In 2 Peter 2:18-19, Peter describes those who “entice by sensual lusts of the flesh.”

Paul also speaks about those who encourage and approve of the sins of others in Romans 1:32. This reveals more than condemnation for personal participation in sin; it shows the moral responsibility of encouraging and approving of sin in others. Those who do so are held responsible.

Jesus rebuked the church in Thyatira for tolerating a woman identified as Jezebel in Revelation 2:20-22 “I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and deceives My slaves so that they commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21 And I gave her time to repent, and she does not wish to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.”

There are plenty of warnings, including Revelation 2:14, 2 Peter 2:3, 1 Corinthians 6:15-18, and Revelation 18:3, that make it clear that not only is lust a sin for those committing it, but it is just as sinful, and in some cases worse, for those who entice, tempt, encourage, or exploit sexual temptation for personal gain.

The world is continually telling us what we need, money, lifestyle, temptations, but they are all saying the same thing, surrender to the desires of the flesh and be satisfied. Even Rockefeller in all his wealth was not satisfied, because that is the essence of sin. Sin promises all the pleasure and satisfaction, telling you “this is what you want, this is what you need,” and then upon delivery, a moment of gratification, and then emptiness. You will never be satisfied in life as long as you are chasing things to feed your flesh.

What does it profit a man to gain the world, yet, lose his soul?

The question is not whether or not you can make fortunes selling to the weakness of the flesh, rather, are you ready for the day you stand before the Lord to answer, not only for purposefully corrupting yourself, but to also answer for the souls you worked to lead away from the Lord.