A WAYWARD LOOK IS VERY DANGEROUS
Matthew 5:27-30

In the previous section of this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus express His understanding of the sixth commandment – Do not commit murder.  You will remember that Jesus included the expressions of anger to be included in this commandment. 

Now Jesus turns His attention to the area of sexuality.  It does not take a person with an advanced degree in sociology to understand that our society today intently worships at the altar of sexuality.  Movie and television programs need either violence or heavy doses of sexuality in order to be appealing.  View the many ads on television or in magazines and you will discover that sex sells anything from Coke to cars.  Modern music seems to croon one sexual affair after another.  For many people, sex has become the chief goal in life.

The seventh commandment stated that it was God’s desire that people were not to commit adultery (Exodus 20:14).  In the Mosaic law, adultery was one of the most despicable of sins, punishable by death.  We read in Leviticus 20:10, If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.  The Bible makes it very clear that regardless how much a couple may care for each other and be deeply in love, sexual relations outside of marriage are forbidden.

But, just as He did with the commandment about murder, Jesus expands our understanding of the intent of the commandment against adultery but focusing upon the internal desires of lust.  He states, But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28).  Now lust is not that casual glance at a beautiful woman or at a handsome man.  It is that long, lingering look that says, “I wish…”  The Greek phrase used by Jesus here in this text indicates a goal or an action that follows in time the action of looking. 

David looked with lust upon Bathsheba as she bathed that warm spring evening.  Then David devised a strategy so that he could bring his lust into reality.  And, well, you know the rest of the story.  Jesus said that the act of the lingering gaze meant that the act of adultery had already been committed in David’s heart even before the actual sexual act occurred between Bathsheba and him.

In our next study we shall discover what Jesus states as the cure to the problem of lust.

Father, I want to thank You for creating us as sexual beings.  Thank You for the beauty of that act of intimacy between a husband and a wife.  But, Father, we are living in a time where that beauty has been defaced with the wanton display of sexual perversion around us.  Yes, Father, lust is a problem that many face each and every day.  I pray that that area of our lives might be totally surrendered to You.  This I pray in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

 

Return to Sermon on the Mount Overview