A Bible Study on Making a Covenant with My Eyes

Job’s words are direct: “I have made a covenant with my eyes.” The line has become a useful Christian expression for sexual purity, especially in a culture where a private screen can deliver an endless stream of images. Yet the verse is sometimes handled so loosely that its force is weakened or its application becomes cruel. Some hear it as though every involuntary sight were already adultery. Others treat it as an inspiring slogan while keeping every doorway to deliberate lust open.

Scripture gives a clearer path. Job is not afraid of created beauty, and he is not pretending that a righteous person never experiences temptation. He is describing a settled policy for his own attention. He refuses to grant his eyes permission to linger for the purpose of feeding desire. In the rest of Job 31, he joins the eyes to the heart, the heart to conduct, and every step to the God who sees.

This distinction is pastorally necessary. Merely noticing that someone is attractive is not the same as choosing to turn that person into material for fantasy. An unwanted thought is not the same as inviting it to remain. Temptation is not identical to consent. Jesus was truly tempted and remained completely sinless. At the same time, temptation is not a harmless guest. When desire is welcomed, rehearsed, and pursued, it conceives and produces sin.

A covenant with the eyes therefore belongs within a life shaped by grace and truth. It also requires wise action. This covenant is not a payment for salvation or a vow that human willpower can never break. It is the practical obedience of someone who belongs to Jesus Christ. That person wants to see others as image-bearers rather than objects. He also knows that secret habits must be brought into the light. The aim is not fear of the body. It is love governed by holiness.

Job 31 is the closing movement of Job’s long defense before the LORD answers from the whirlwind. Job has suffered the loss of his children, possessions, health, and public honor. His friends insist that such suffering must prove hidden wickedness. Job denies their accusation and calls for God to weigh him in a just balance.

The chapter is shaped by solemn statements of innocence. Job names sins that would deserve judgment and, in several cases, invokes consequences if he is lying. His first subject is the use of his eyes.

Job’s question in verse 4 governs the entire chapter because God sees his ways and counts his steps. This is not merely a rule about what enters the eyes. It concerns integrity before an all-seeing Judge. Job denies walking in falsehood or allowing his heart to follow his eyes into sin. He refuses adultery and insists that he has not despised a servant’s case. He has not withheld help from the poor or placed his trust in gold. Job also denies worshiping the sun or moon. He has not rejoiced over an enemy’s destruction. Hidden sin and exploitation of the land are brought under the same examination.

The breadth of Job 31 corrects selective purity. A man may boast that he avoids pornography while mistreating his employees. He may also ignore people in need or conceal dishonest conduct because he loves money. Job would not call that integrity. A woman may enforce strict rules about dress while feeding resentment and manipulating other people. Greed and secret fantasy both expose a divided life. Job therefore brings the whole person before God. Sexual purity is essential, but it never excuses injustice or pride. Cruelty remains evil even when it is concealed.

Job also connects the first look to later action. In verse 7, the heart can walk after the eyes. In verse 9, the heart can be enticed toward another man’s wife. In verses 11 and 12, adultery is wickedness, a judicial offense, and a fire that destroys. Job’s covenant is preventive wisdom. He refuses to nurture at the beginning what would burn through a household at the end.

The Masoretic text reads berit karati le-enay. The ordinary Hebrew idiom behind “made a covenant” is literally “cut a covenant.” Scripture uses that expression for a binding commitment. Job does not say that his eyes made an independent promise. He speaks as the responsible person who has established what his eyes will and will not be permitted to do.

We should not invent an ancient ceremony behind the line. Job does not describe a ritual, a written contract, or a repeated formula. The force lies in settled resolve. This is more serious than hoping to make a better choice when desire is already inflamed. Job has decided beforehand that his gaze will not be governed by opportunity.

The second clause contains a form associated with attending to, considering, or fixing the gaze. The NKJV reads, “Why then should I look upon a young woman?” The context supplies the moral direction. Verse 7 warns of a heart walking after the eyes, and verse 9 speaks of a heart enticed by a woman and lurking at a neighbor’s door. Job is not claiming never to recognize a young woman. He is refusing the considered gaze that turns sight into inward pursuit.

A careful distinction protects both holiness and conscience. Human beings see one another and naturally notice another person’s appearance. Scripture itself can describe someone as physically attractive without treating that observation as sin. Attraction may also arise before a person consciously chooses it. None of this gives permission to cultivate sexual desire outside marriage. The first awareness, however, is not automatically the moral equivalent of adultery.

Lust is not simply strong appreciation. In a sexual context, it is a covetous desire that seeks what God has not given. It mentally uses another person for gratification. The imagination may rehearse possession or seek access contrary to God’s boundaries. Lust can develop through a deliberately lingering gaze or an imagined scene. Repeated visits to a person’s profile may feed it. Private messages and emotional pursuit can carry the desire further. The search for increasingly explicit material reveals the same direction.

This distinction is especially important for tender consciences. A believer may be assaulted by an unwanted image, memory, or thought and immediately turn away, yet then spend hours asking whether the temptation itself proved guilt. Scripture does not call Jesus sinful for being tempted. The faithful response is not to inspect the temptation until it becomes the center of attention. Refuse it, redirect the mind, and continue walking with the Lord.

The same distinction prevents carelessness. Someone may say, “I was only looking,” even though the look was intentionally prolonged. A repeated or concealed gaze tells a different story, especially when fantasy follows it. The heart knows the difference between seeing what is present and returning in order to consume it. God knows the difference as well. A covenant with the eyes refuses false guilt over an involuntary sight. It also refuses dishonest excuses for a chosen gaze.

The viewer bears responsibility. Jesus does not tell a man that a woman’s body forced him to lust. Job does not accuse the young woman for being visible. Modesty is a real biblical subject, but another person’s failure in modesty cannot transfer your choices to that person. Victims of harassment, stalking, assault, or exploitation are not responsible for the offender’s gaze or conduct.

Job’s later words explain the danger of an undisciplined gaze. Sight can become a path the heart chooses to follow.

The sequence is concrete. The eyes lead, the heart follows, the feet turn from the way, and the hands become stained. Job is not teaching that every sin follows this exact timeline, but he shows why early obedience is merciful. A person who waits until a private meeting, explicit exchange, or physical opportunity has already allowed several earlier decisions to shape the moment.

Job calls adultery a fire because fire is not satisfied with the first object it burns. Sexual sin regularly harms spouses and children, and the damage can spread into congregations and friendships. Workplaces and finances may also bear the consequences. A person’s health and public witness can suffer as well. Digital secrecy may feel detached from these effects, but the open screen is already training the heart. Trust is being spent even before another person discovers the habit.

The chapter also refuses a double standard. Job invokes the devastation he would have brought upon his own marriage. He does not treat another man’s wife as available because he can hide the encounter or because he has power. Biblical purity honors the covenant and dignity of other households as well as one’s own.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus exposes the heart beneath outward adultery. He does not weaken the seventh commandment. He shows that God’s holiness reaches the inward purpose from which the outward act grows.

The wording describes looking for the purpose of lusting. Jesus is not condemning the biological fact of sight. He is condemning the intentional use of sight to possess another person in the heart. The woman is not charged with the viewer’s sin. The viewer is addressed directly.

The language about the eye and hand is deliberately severe. Jesus requires the removal of anything a person treats as indispensable when it repeatedly serves sin. He is not commanding physical mutilation. Removing an eye cannot cleanse the imagination, and removing a hand cannot regenerate desire. He is commanding decisive action. No application or device is more valuable than obedience to God. The same is true of a friendship or source of entertainment that repeatedly feeds sin. A private routine or professional convenience must also be surrendered when it becomes an excuse for disobedience.

This is the opposite of bargaining. Bargaining asks how much access can remain without a visible fall. Jesus asks whether the access repeatedly leads toward sin. If it does, remove it. A person may protest that a restriction feels embarrassing, inconvenient, or excessive. The better question is whether preserving convenience has become a polished name for preserving temptation.

The warning about judgment keeps the gospel serious. Jesus does not present lust as a harmless habit for religious people. Every sinner needs rescue. No list of boundaries can erase guilt or produce the new birth. The same Lord who exposes adultery in the heart went to the cross as the completely sinless Savior. In His innocent body, He physically bore the punishment for our sins. He endured real torture and shed His blood. He died and then rose bodily. Holiness begins with Him rather than with confidence in our own record.

James 1 explains the inner progression without blaming God. God may test faith, but He never entices anyone to evil. Temptation uses desire as its point of entry.

Desire can refer to a longing that is good in its proper place or twisted toward what God forbids. Sexual desire within God’s design for marriage is not dirty. Temptation detaches desire from love, covenant, truth, and obedience. It offers pleasure on self-chosen terms and asks the heart to call taking a form of freedom.

James describes conception before birth, using the picture to identify a moral threshold where desire is welcomed and joined to the will. An unwanted solicitation can be refused, and a flash of attraction can be redirected. The situation changes when a person begins savoring the desire or planning around it. Searching for the image and returning to it feed the intention. Once concealment begins, desire is no longer merely knocking at the door. It has been invited inside to shape the will.

Believers should neither panic nor play. Panic treats temptation as proof that Christ has abandoned the believer. Playing treats temptation as entertainment until the last possible moment. Scripture calls for sober refusal. Name the invitation, reject its lie, and take the next obedient action quickly.

Jesus is the decisive proof that temptation is not itself sin. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. His temptations were real, and His obedience was perfect. He is therefore both the sinless substitute and the compassionate High Priest. Christians resist from dependence on Him, not from the claim that mature people stop needing grace.

Joseph gives a concrete picture of refusal. Potiphar’s wife speaks to him repeatedly. Joseph answers that yielding would betray his master and be great wickedness against God. He does not accept her framing of the encounter as private pleasure. Covenant loyalty and the presence of God define it.

Joseph first refuses the argument, then refuses unnecessary proximity, then physically flees when seized. Flight is not weakness when remaining would preserve danger. He leaves the garment and accepts the cost of being misunderstood. His obedience does not produce immediate comfort. He is falsely accused and imprisoned. Purity is right because God is worthy, not because obedience always produces an easy week.

Second Timothy joins flight to pursuit. The Christian life is not an empty room in which desire is the only subject. Paul tells Timothy to flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with believers who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Leaving the screen, room, conversation, or relationship is only half the movement. The heart needs a faithful direction and faithful company.

Second Samuel 11 presents the opposite pattern by tracing David’s deliberate choices. He remains in Jerusalem when kings go to battle and sees a woman bathing from his roof. David first sends someone to inquire about her, then sends messengers and takes her. When he learns that she is pregnant, he abuses his power and resorts to deception in an attempt to conceal the adultery. His effort to protect himself eventually leads him to arrange Uriah’s death.

The narrative assigns responsibility to David. It does not blame Bathsheba for his decision to remain on the roof or continue looking. David chose to inquire about her and then summoned her. The violence that followed belongs to him. He was the king, while she was the wife of one of his soldiers. Teaching this account as though Bathsheba caused David’s fall obscures the inspired emphasis. It also hides the abuse of royal power.

David’s sin also shows why the phrase “just looking” can be dishonest. The first sight becomes investigation, investigation creates access, access becomes taking, and taking requires concealment that expands into destruction. Not every deliberate look will follow David’s exact path, but every cultivated lust trains the heart to regard another person’s dignity and God’s command as obstacles.

God later sends Nathan to expose David’s sin. When David confesses, God forgives him, although grave consequences remain within his household. Forgiveness and consequences are not opposites. Christ’s blood fully answers the believer’s guilt before God, but repentance may still require honest disclosure and concrete safety measures. Restitution or church discipline may also be necessary, and rebuilding trust can require patient evidence over time.

Paul grounds sexual holiness in redemption and bodily dignity. Corinthian culture offered many ways to separate appetite from covenant, but the apostle refuses the claim that the body is morally unimportant.

The body is not a disposable shell. It is for the Lord and will be raised by His power. In the believer, it is also indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Sexual purity is therefore not hatred of embodiment. God created humanity as male and female. He established marriage and calls the marriage bed honorable. Sin lies in using the body against its Creator. It also lies in using another person’s body apart from truth and covenant love.

“You are not your own” does not give a spouse, pastor, ministry, or accountability partner ownership over a believer’s body. Paul says the believer belongs to God because Christ purchased him or her at a price. Human authority cannot turn that verse into permission for sexual coercion, invasive control, or spiritual abuse.

The purchase price is not a metaphor for cheap forgiveness. Jesus physically bore the punishment for our sins in His innocent body on the cross. His blood was truly shed, He truly died, and He rose bodily. The believer does not glorify God in order to become purchased. He glorifies God because Christ has redeemed him.

Sanctification joins divine work and responsible obedience. The Holy Spirit sets believers apart and produces His fruit, including self-control. The believer then learns to possess his or her vessel in sanctification and honor. This is neither raw self-salvation nor passive waiting for desire to disappear. It is Spirit-enabled obedience expressed in practiced choices.

A plan built only around the word “no” can remain preoccupied with the forbidden subject. Scripture commands both removal and renewal. Romans 12 calls believers to present their bodies to God and be transformed by the renewing of the mind. Second Corinthians 10 speaks of bringing thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Philippians 4 gives the mind positive material for sustained attention.

Renewal does not require pretending that an impure image was never seen. It means refusing to keep displaying that image in the imagination. The believer turns attention toward what is true about God. He remembers the dignity of the person who was viewed and the cost of Christ’s redemption. Then he returns to the faithful work immediately before him. A mind filled with Scripture learns to recognize the lie within the invitation.

Replacement should be concrete. Read Scripture and take time to meditate upon what God has said. Pray before the old pattern becomes urgent. Serving someone without seeking recognition can redirect the heart toward love, while useful work gives the mind a worthy task. Care for your body with sober stewardship and build honest friendships. Practice gratitude for the good gifts God has already given. None of these activities earns purity or acts as a magic distraction. Together, however, they help form a life in which lust is not allowed to occupy the center.

Philippians 4:8 does not tell believers to call corrupt things lovely. It trains discernment toward what is worthy of sustained thought. A person cannot continually feed the mind degrading material and then expect a momentary prayer to erase its influence. Grace supplies forgiveness, and wisdom changes the diet.

Job did not own a smartphone, but his covenant applies directly to modern technology. A device is not morally guilty. It can, however, remove physical distance and delay from temptation. It also allows a habit to remain hidden from public view. Search engines and social feeds may become personalized pathways into repeated lust. Streaming platforms and private messages can serve the same pattern. Even games and ordinary advertisements may provide an entry point.

Pornography is not merely a collection of pixels or a private fantasy. It teaches the viewer to consume people as bodies arranged for appetite. The viewer usually cannot know whether an image involved coercion or trafficking. Claims of consent may have been manipulated through intoxication or economic desperation. Abuse may remain hidden, and material can be shared without permission. Even when performers claim consent, the viewer is still cultivating sexual desire outside the covenant of marriage. He is participating in the commodification of people who bear God’s image.

Technology also remembers and recommends. A single search can influence what a platform suggests in the future. A hidden account can gradually become a separate life. Short videos train the hand to keep seeking novelty, and increasingly explicit material dulls the conscience. A platform may present content automatically, so its first appearance is not necessarily chosen. The decision to continue watching is a choice. So are following an account or saving the material for later. Repeated searches and deliberate returns reveal an established direction.

Wise safeguards should match the actual pattern. A person may need to delete an application or unfollow accounts that repeatedly feed temptation. Private browsing can be disabled where possible, and content restrictions may provide another useful barrier. Moving devices out of bedrooms and bathrooms can reduce private access. The phone may also need to stay out of bed. For some people, replacing a smartphone with a simpler device is the wisest choice. Others need to avoid unstructured internet use during predictable hours of weakness. Business needs do not justify unlimited private access.

Filters can reduce exposure, but they cannot regenerate the heart. Every technical barrier can eventually be tested or bypassed by someone committed to secrecy. The purpose of a safeguard is to support honest obedience, slow the path to sin, and create an opportunity to choose light. It must be joined to truth, prayer, renewed thinking, and accountable relationships.

Parents should protect children without teaching them that an accidental exposure makes them dirty. Respond calmly, tell the truth at an age-appropriate level, remove access, and invite future disclosure without panic. Children who have been exploited or shown sexual material need safety and care, not interrogation or blame. Suspected abuse or illegal material requires appropriate civil reporting and professional help.

Marriage does not cure lust. A spouse is a covenant partner to love, not a treatment supplied to manage appetite. Habits of secrecy, fantasy, entitlement, and objectification often follow a person into marriage unless they are confronted. The presence of lawful sexual intimacy does not make every desire loving or every demand righteous.

Within marriage, husband and wife owe each other fidelity and tenderness. Truth and mutual care should govern their sexual relationship. Neither spouse may use Scripture to demand particular sexual acts or punish a refusal. One spouse must not blame the other for a pornography habit. Disclosure should never be forced in a threatening setting. Sexual coercion is neither marital leadership nor biblical submission. Threats and stalking require immediate attention to safety. Violence and assault may require help from police, medical professionals, legal counsel, and pastors trained to respond safely.

A spouse wounded by secret sexual behavior is not required to announce instant trust merely because the offender apologized. Forgiveness before God and restored relational trust are related, but they are distinct. Trust is rebuilt through sustained truth and verifiable change. This process requires patience and acceptance of appropriate boundaries. Blaming the wounded spouse must end. Graphic details that serve only to deepen injury should not be forced. At the same time, facts necessary for health, safety, and informed decisions must not be concealed.

Single believers are not incomplete Christians waiting for marriage to make holiness possible. Jesus was perfectly pure and unmarried. Paul commends singleness as a real field of service. Sexual desire can be strong, but no desire makes sin necessary. The church should offer friendship, family life, service, and honest support rather than treating single people as problems to be paired off.

Men and women both need this teaching. Patterns may differ from person to person, and applications should be honest about those differences without making caricatures. Women can cultivate lust, pursue emotional or visual fantasy, and use pornography. Men can be victims of coercion and abuse. Every person is accountable for personal choices, and every victim deserves protection rather than suspicion.

Trauma can complicate memory, bodily response, fear, and intrusive thoughts. An involuntary bodily reaction is not consent. A survivor should not be told that unwanted memories prove participation in the abuse. Scripture, wise pastoral care, and competent trauma-informed counseling can work together without surrendering biblical truth. Safety is not a lack of forgiveness, and reporting a crime is not gossip.

A practical covenant begins with truth about the actual pattern. A general promise such as “I will try harder” does not identify where obedience is needed. Name the route without romanticizing it. The pattern may involve explicit websites or particular social-media profiles. Television scenes and private messages can also feed it. For another person, the danger may be fantasy about a coworker or deliberate visual scanning in public. Late-night browsing and repeated returns to old memories should be named honestly as well.

Next, identify the conditions in which temptation usually gains force. Isolation and fatigue can weaken attention. Resentment, rejection, and boredom may also create a desire for escape. Travel or conflict can disrupt ordinary safeguards. Alcohol and drug use make sober resistance more difficult. Unstructured time and access to a private device provide further opportunity. These conditions do not cause sin or excuse it. They show where foresight can make obedience more immediate.

Then decide what your first faithful action will be. You may need to close the page immediately or put the device in a shared room. In another situation, the right response may be to stand up and leave. End a private conversation that is moving in the wrong direction, and refuse to visit a dangerous location alone. Call a mature believer if you need help. You can also pray aloud and turn your attention to a task you planned in advance. Take action at the first recognized invitation rather than after a long inward debate.

Remove whatever repeatedly serves sin, because Jesus’ eye and hand language permits no treasured exception. If an application is a reliable doorway, delete it. If a work arrangement creates unnecessary private intimacy, establish a transparent boundary. If travel removes ordinary accountability, create a plan before departure. If entertainment repeatedly awakens the same pattern, stop consuming it even if other Christians claim freedom.

Add what supports faithful living. Schedule sleep, keep devices out of private nighttime spaces, and plan Scripture reading and prayer before predictable pressure. Fill evenings with useful work, fellowship, service, and healthy recreation. Seek same-sex Christian friendship in which weakness can be named without theatrical shame. A covenant should make the next obedient step clearer rather than merely producing a longer list of prohibitions.

Review the plan after failure without softening the truth. Ask where the route began, which warning was ignored, whether access was preserved under a respectable excuse, and what new boundary is now necessary. Repentance is not proved by dramatic language, but becomes visible in a changed direction.

Secrecy strengthens sexual sin, so honest accountability can be a gift. James tells believers to confess trespasses to one another and pray for one another. Second Timothy places pursuit alongside those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Mature fellowship helps a person reject the fantasy that private choices affect no one.

Good accountability asks specific questions and expects truthful answers. It points the struggling believer back to Scripture and includes prayer. The helper also assists in establishing safeguards that match the actual danger. Accountability should not depend upon shock or mockery. Public humiliation has no place in the process. The aim is repentance and restoration rather than making the helper feel powerful.

Accountability software can provide useful information when everyone understands what data is collected and why. It does not give a pastor or spouse permission to seize unrestricted access to another person’s life. The parent of an adult or a ministry leader has no automatic right to every private message. Location information and financial accounts require appropriate limits. Confidential conversations involving other people must also be protected. Monitoring should address the actual need, remain lawful, and respect the privacy of everyone affected.

A controlling person may use the language of purity to isolate a spouse or forbid ordinary contact with other people. He may demand constant proof of the spouse’s location and threaten exposure as a form of punishment. Even an innocent glance can become an excuse for retaliation. That is not Job’s covenant, because Job governs his own eyes. Biblical leadership never authorizes coercive control. When accountability becomes frightening or retaliatory, seek help outside that relationship. The same is necessary when it becomes sexually invasive or otherwise unsafe.

Pastors should recognize the limits of pastoral care. Persistent compulsive behavior may require qualified counseling. Trauma and abuse can also call for specialized care. Criminal conduct and threats may need to be reported to civil authorities. When children are at risk, safeguarding professionals may need to become involved. Appropriate medical care can address concerns outside a pastor’s competence. Referral is not abandonment. The church remains responsible to speak truth, protect vulnerable people, and refuse every cover-up.

Confidentiality is not absolute secrecy. A mature helper should explain when information must be shared to protect a child, address credible danger, report abuse where required, or involve appropriate church discipline. Surprises in those situations can deepen harm. Clear expectations allow accountability to remain truthful rather than manipulative.

The God who sees every way is not fooled by deleted history, hidden accounts, or carefully limited confessions. Hebrews says all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. That exposure should end excuses. For the believer, it is immediately followed by the ministry of the great High Priest.

Jesus sympathizes with human weakness without sharing our guilt. He was tempted and never consented to sin. He welcomes His people to the throne of grace because His own blood opened the way. This boldness is not casualness about sin. It is confidence in the sufficiency of the Savior’s finished work. His help is available before temptation gains force. It remains available during the struggle and after a failure.

Confession agrees with God by naming lust and deceit honestly. Adultery and exploitation must also be called what they are, as must every effort to conceal them. Stress cannot be blamed for the sin, and neither a spouse nor another person’s clothing is responsible for it. Loneliness and technology may describe the circumstances without removing moral responsibility. Repentance turns from sin toward God and accepts the practical changes that truth requires. Confession and repentance do not purchase cleansing; they are the honest response of a believer who trusts Christ.

A truly born-again person is a new creation, indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit, and eternally secure. Security does not provide permission to make peace with lust. It means the believer does not crawl back to God as though Christ must be sacrificed again. He comes as a child under correction, trusts the sufficient blood of Christ, tells the truth, and resumes obedient fellowship.

Progress may include a long rebuilding of habits and trust. Immediate repentance does not guarantee immediate freedom from every learned response. A setback should never be excused as inevitable, but neither should it be declared proof that grace has failed. Return to the light promptly, strengthen the neglected boundary, and continue walking by the Spirit.

The unbeliever’s first need is not a better filter. It is reconciliation to God. Jesus Christ died for the whole world, and God’s offer of salvation is genuine. A person may resist and reject that offer, but anyone who turns to Christ in faith receives forgiveness and eternal life. Purity grows from new life; it cannot substitute for new life.

A sound covenant with the eyes must be strict where Scripture is strict and careful where Scripture is careful. The following claims either loosen God’s command or add burdens the text does not place on the conscience.

One more error deserves direct correction: temptation does not prove that a person is beyond grace. Jesus was tempted without sin. Believers still experience the pull of the flesh and attacks from the world and the devil. The question is whether temptation is being refused in dependence on Christ or welcomed as a protected pattern.

The opposite error is equally dangerous. A repeated profession of faith cannot be used to declare settled rebellion harmless. Eternal security is the security of the person who has truly been born again, indwelt, and sealed by the Holy Spirit. It is not a theological hiding place for someone determined to preserve sin without repentance.