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Read: Matthew 5:27-30
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” Matthew 5:27-30Recap:
Yesterday, Pastor Reyan talked about anger. As Christians, we are called to be peacemakers.Jesus continued His sermon talking about something very important. I think this topic is the most crucial sin. And this sin is somewhat secretly lurking in our lives. At times, we even intentionally permit it.
In the passage that we’ve just read, Jesus talks about adultery. Adultery is even mentioned in the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament. According to the 7th Commandment: "You shall not commit adultery." (Exodus 20:14). So let's dig deeper into the meaning of adultery.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, adultery is a voluntary sexual activity (as sexual intercourse) between a married man and someone other than his wife or between a married woman and someone other than her husband.
Some of us might say:
"That can’t be me because I don't have relationships to people who are already married." or maybe,
"I did not commit adultery because its definition is sexual intercourse.”
“I didn’t commit adultery because it’s the act of having sexual intercourse with someone who is already married. I'm not that one."
Before our main Bible verses, Jesus said:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Matthew 5:17 NIV)
When Jesus met Israel, He was questioned why he came to this world. They misunderstood Jesus Christ as the one who will abolish the Law; the one who will destroy the Law given by Moses. But Jesus introduced Himself as someone who will accomplish the purpose of the Law and to give a better understanding of it.
Now, Jesus entered in verse 28: "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:28 NIV)
Jesus explains that looking at a woman lustfully is already adultery in one’s heart. Through His words, Jesus gave a better understanding that the act of adultery is a matter of the heart and it’s not just the action itself. Many of us will say, "No. I'm not like that. I don’t do that. I did not commit adultery because I did not have any sexual intercourse with someone who is married or with someone out of the context of marriage." But it's much deeper into the condition of our hearts. In Jesus’ words, He explained that if we look at a woman (or man) lustfully, we are already committing adultery in our hearts. It's as grave as the action itself.
Now, let’s go to the book of James.
“But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (James 1:14-15)
Through these verses, we will know the desire due to the condition of the heart. Even if we did not do the sexual act itself, lustfully desiring someone is just as severe and immoral. Jesus even called it adultery as well.
There is one common story in the Bible that portrays death being conceived from the sin caused by temptation: the story of David and Bathsheba in the 2nd book of Samuel chapters 11 and 12.
“But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed”
One evening, King avid was roaming at the rooftop of the palace and he saw the beautiful Bathsheba taking a bath. He was tempted. He gave in to the desires of his flesh and summoned Bathsheba to sleep with her even when she’s already married to Uriah.
“Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” –
As a consequence of King David’s actions, Bathsheba got pregnant and his reputation was compromised. To cover up his mistake, he made another grievous sin by sending Uriah into the frontline of the battle so he could get killed, making it acceptable for him to marry Bathsheba being freed from the law of marriage. King David’s adulterous and murderous actions led him into spiritual death, and even his son from Bathsheba had to die. David, being the man before God’s own heart experienced the darkest days of his walk with God, and it’s all because he gave in to temptation from spotting Bathsheba taking a bath.
This scenario is no different from the Christian life we pursue in the present time. We are always one click away from giving in to temptation. Temptation is everywhere. In this time of pandemic, we get a lot more screen time on our computers and mobile devices. The internet is flooded with a lot of temptations ranging from sinful languages to pornographic media. Even if we don’t have the intention to see such things, we will always end up being fed with it and that is when temptation creeps in.
Temptation is not a sin. Even Jesus Christ, though He is God, was tempted in the wilderness but He never fell into sin. Sin comes in when our fleshly desires lead into the action of sinning; concerning what Jesus said in our text, it starts with the act of lustful glance on somebody.
With simple browsing on the internet, we can unintentionally see photographs depicting sexual stimuli. With just a glance, our attention can be caught almost immediately. Sexual desires can arise straightaway. With just one click to see it better, we can end up sinning with adultery.
Job 31:7 says that there’s a connection between our eyes and our hearts.
"if my steps have turned from the path,
if my heart has been led by my eyes,
or if my hands have been defiled, " (Job 21:7)
Our minds process what we see through our eyes. What we see gives us the pleasure of sexual stimuli. Our bodies want it so our brains start to simulate the scene in our imaginations. The pleasure goes on. Until then, we will end up acting upon those imaginations. Shameful acts always start from shameful thoughts.
As seafarers, especially us men, we are very visual when it comes to such shameful thoughts. With our eyes we feed our thoughts with sinful kinds of stuff, ending up in doing something not pleasing to God.
Colossian 3:2 NIV
"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things "
So, we have to think about the things of heaven and not of earth. We must feed our eyes and minds, not with things of this earth such as pornography; not immorality, but the things that are in heaven. Such things are pure and good in the eyes of the Lord.
At times we allow ourselves to take in lust secretly. At times we allow the sin of lust to secretly lurk in our lives. We end up defeated. We end up guilty. We end up crying to God again asking for forgiveness. Then, as we continue our works, we do the same things again. The cycle goes on and on.
Jesus elaborated the heaviness of having lustful thoughts by saying it’s no different from doing the common acts of adultery. When did King David commit adultery? Was it during the night he slept with Bathsheba? No. The moment he saw Bathsheba and desired to sleep her, he already committed adultery. Jesus explained that adultery is not just the act of being intimate with somebody’s spouse, but it all starts from the heart.
Matthew 5:29-30 NIV says,
“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”
In these texts, we will get to know the magnitude of committing adultery through our lustful thoughts. Jesus said it’s better for us to cut-off a part of our body that causes to sin than for our whole body to be thrown into hell. The NIV Bible uses ‘right eye’ and ‘right hand.’ If we will check out the NLT Bible, it uses ‘good eye’ and ‘stronger hand.’ It’s more like Jesus us talking about the most preferred or used eye and hand. His point is, even if our best strength and most valued pieces will cause us to stumble into sin, we have to get rid of it. It’s not limited to our body parts. It can be our relationships or our careers. If these kinds of stuff cause us to sin in any other way, we have to let them go. It’s better to lose one important aspect of our life than to have our whole life destroyed. Jesus wants us to see the magnitude it the sin because it’s a matter of life in heaven and death in hell. Many times we take the sin lightly, but upon reading the Word, we should realize that it’s not just about the consequences that we can get on here on earth. The consequences of our actions echo beyond that. We have to remember that life doesn’t just end when we die on our fleshly bodies. It goes beyond that and our destination will be determined by how we lived our life here on earth. The Lord doesn’t take our sins lightly. He even had His own Son die because of our sins.
I remember one demonstration of sin: it’s like you are holding an unpinned grenade. The grenade will not explode as long as you don’t loosen your grip on the striker lever. But the moment you loosen it, the short countdown to an explosion will start without any chance of stopping it. The same happens in our spiritual warfare. Many times we neglect these spiritual battles by just giving in to the temptations. At times we serve in the ministries while we are soaked in the dirt of these hidden sins. I am not excluding myself here.
The way Jesus tells of gouging out our eyes or cutting off our hands may seem horrible. But Jesus is actually emphasizing how sin is a major concern in the Christian living. Figuratively speaking, if social media causes us to sin, then we have to cut it off. If a relationship causes us to sin, then we have to cut it off. We have to cut off everything that causes us to sin. Jesus tells us that as much as possible if we know that something will cause us to sin, we should flee away from it. Another good reminder: however we manage to hide it from everyone, we cannot hide it from God who sees everything.
Jesus is somehow asking us: how much do we care about sin? How much does sin matter to us? How much do we care about our walk with Jesus Chris? If sinning will compromise our relationship with God, then it must matter the most. So we have to get rid of those things that cause us to sin: pornography, masturbation, premarital sex, lust, and any other forms of sexual immorality.
Jesus wants us to take the leap of faith right now. He wants us to take the radical step. How far can we go for the Lord? The only thing He wants us to do right now is to take the leap of faith in surrendering this issue of lust and adultery in our hearts. We need to take concrete actions to run away from temptation and sin. Jesus wants us to be free from this sin, and remind ourselves of the new nature that He has given us.
“I am a follower of Christ and I am a new creation.”
“My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.”
“I belong to Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior and I’m going to live under His dominion.”
“I belong to Jesus’ royal priesthood.”
“I am done with sin. Jesus is done with my sin.”
“I cannot do it on my own will and power and I need God. I need the Church.”
That is why God established the Church: the Christian family, the Ship Missionary Fellowship, so we can have our accountability partners and pastors who are Jesus’ helping hands in battling lust in our Christian lives. If a Christian brother or sister is struggling with lust, then those who are strong have to help them with their weaknesses.
It is written in 2 Timothy 2:22, “Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.”
Let us read the final verses of our main Scripture:
I'll just read the last part of this verse
“It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Matthew 5:30)
Jesus is telling here that eternity is important. In the popular culture we are living in, it’s very common to hear the acronym Y.O.L.O. which means “You Only Live Once.” The world is pushing us to maximize the pleasure that we can get in this short life on earth, saying there’s no second life coming. This terrible lie encourages us to live life in complacency and pleasure, while Jesus actually says the truth that we have to suffer and endure in this short time for it will greatly affect the way we will live in eternity. Our short life here on earth is nothing compared to the eternity that awaits us.
So, what are we doing today in preparation for our eternity? We have to change our mindset of Y.O.L.O. We have to broaden our perspective about life. If we will change the way we see life and realize that something immeasurable awaits us after this short life on earth, our sufferings in our pursuit of righteousness will seem nothing.
Job 31:1 says, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman.”
We need to have this covenant with our eyes as Job did. I invite everyone to have a covenant to run away from this lustful sin and the destruction it causes in our faith.
Photo by: Nathaniel Callanta
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