You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Jesus continues to take the expectation of Godly living from a rule book to be followed to a condition of the heart to be lived.
We live in a culture that encourages the pursuit of happiness and prescribes hyper-sexuality as a legitimate path to happiness. Visual and audio media portray others as objects of pleasure; the objectification of humans into mechanisms of happiness exposes an unquenchable thirst in the soul.*
This is the story of lust. Lust objectifies another into a prostitute of pleasure. It looks at others as a means to an end called self-gratification. This rages against love. Love seeks the best for the other, placing the other’s needs beyond one’s own. Love self-denies and self-sacrifices to the point of death.
Adultery breaks up families, injuring spouses and children. The ripple effect of adultery wounds friends and extended family. It rips apart societies and cultures. According to Jesus, lust has this power too.
The activity of the heart that deeply desires to use another for pleasure breaks up families, injuries spouses, children, and friends. Lust rips apart societies and cultures. Heart matters.
The answer to the illness of our culture today does not come from bandaids over wounds. More rules and regulations on actions do not address the matters of the heart. Only a pursuit after God through Jesus Christ will do this. Only those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied (Matthew 5:6).
Has lust found a way into your heart? Does lust lurk in the shadows of your home? Does the darkness of the night, the silence of solitude, or the passing of time fill with lust in your life?
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to ask for a pure heart? Perhaps God wants you to view others as mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers before you view them as sexual beings? Perhaps God wants you to value others as His children above all else. Maybe today God wants you to see yourself as something more than a sexual being looking for satisfaction? Only in righteousness will we be satisfied.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.
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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 117-119, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 5:27-30) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).