Justifying Self and Sex

 

These verses provide an exercise in learning how error functions. I want you to note four things about Jesus’ correction of the Scribes’ interpretation of the law.   

 

First, “anyone” refers to both male and female. Jesus intentionally phrases this commandment in gender neutral language so that it applies to both men and women. Neither gender is immune from this command, nor privileged to ignore it.

 

Second, note he uses the word “lust” to refer to all forms of sexual immorality. It is not just wrong for two people married to different spouses to have sexual relations, but also any two people not married to each other who commit sexual acts are guilty. Jesus covers all of the Scribes’ possible loopholes. His command is really quite comprehensive if we allow the meaning of this word to speak for itself. Only the casuistry of a lawyer seeking to avoid the truth or find a loophole could miss this. It would take real effort.

 

Third, the phrase “but I say” reiterates the law-giving authority of deity. He is, all by himself, capable of uttering divine law.

 

Fourth, Jesus focuses on the heart—on the internal. He says a person is just as guilty in God’s sight by craving another person as if he’d already committed adultery. The Greek of this verse is perhaps clearer than the English. What is forbidden here is not the mere sighting of a woman (remember: women can be guilty, too). What is forbidden is to look at a person with the purpose or object being to continue to visualize that person in a sexual view long after they’ve left the scene. To lust, then, is to look at a person other than one’s spouse and to continue to view them as a sexual object long after they’ve physically vanished. The person doing this in verse 28 does this intentionally and nurses these images. This is not accidental. One commentator compared an accidental or stray unpremeditated glance to a visual feast in this way: “You cannot help birds flying over your heads in the air, but do not let them alight and build their nests in your hair.”

 

Could Jesus here be dissecting the inner lives of some of us today? Does this ever happen on the street, on your phone, perusing the web, in movie selection? Jesus says all of this is forbidden by the 7th Commandment. The reason is because what is behind the 7th Commandment. Here we move to the true and positive thrust of the original law. The law was originally given to support the institution of marriage. Thus when we’re told by God not to commit adultery in act or in our hearts, he is really telling us that these relations are off limits. But within those limits is the proper place for human sexuality. Within the marriage relationship established by God is the place for truly beautiful and blessed sexual relationships. There is nothing wrong or dirty about sex within marriage. It is only when sexuality is expressed outside of the covenant of marriage that it is wrong. And Jesus omnisciently knew that many justifications for sin in this area would be crafted.

 

God originally intended for this kind of intimacy between one man and one woman to be the fullest expression of love. This is to be protected, and the Law serves the function of fencing around the sanctity of sexual fidelity. But humans in their selfishness try to destroy this fence either by kicking it down (adultery) or hopping over it in their minds (lust). So this Commandment had both negative and positive aspects. The Scribes focused only on negative, and Jesus seeks to return the positive aspect.

 

Finally on this paragraph: Note to what lengths Jesus goes to tell us to remedy this problem. Jesus realizes how exceedingly sinful this can be and tells us to go to radical extremes to cure the problem. Jesus says to take drastic steps to remove sin!

 

Verses 29-30 should not be applied literally. At one time, zealous persons mutilated themselves hoping to avoid this sin. Hermit monks who hoped to flee corruption, still had their hearts and could unfortunately still lust. Rather, Jesus is saying in these verses: So serious is this sin that it requires radical surgery. Anyone who wishes to defeat this temptation must be willing to give up something very precious—even the right eye (source of incoming stimuli) or the right hand (source of acts). What we must do is not allow these temptations to be nursed or encouraged. We must nip them in the bud. “No sacrifice is too great if it enables us to conquer a lust which cuts us off from Jesus,” commented Bonhoeffer. The gain of lust is trivial compared with the loss to prevent it. Practically, this means if an eye causes you to sin then don’t look. Behave as if it were cut out. If things you do with your hands cause you to sin, avoid those as if hands were amputated. “Paralysis of hand and tongue is better than loss of love for Zion, better than sin."¹

 

Turn briefly to James 1:13-15, which describes the process of lust. It applies to both of our paragraphs today. James 1 vividly teaches a Chain of events like this:  

 

• “vivid imagination can give rise to shameful fantasies = inflame lust = sin.

• Temptation = lust = enticement = sin = death. 

 

The only way to combat this is to stop the process before it continues. It must be stopped and stopped early on. Lust will lead to sin and death unless it is radically removed at an early stage. 

 

Have you ever hiked up to the top of a waterfall? If you do that, you may walk over a bridge and see underneath a tiny, slow trickle of water; it may not even be accurate to call it a stream—maybe only a dribble. However, then hike down the mountain following the source of water, and what was one-foot wide at the top, swells to a powerful waterfall cascading down at the bottom. The powerful waterfall began as a trickle. Where is the easiest point to stop the flow of water if one wanted to damn it up? The answer is where it is just beginning. It would, however, be virtually impossible to stop it after or during its rage at the bottom. That’s what we must do with lust. We need discipline in guarding the approaches of sin. An ounce of prevention need be applied in early stages. So with lust and before a divorce comes about. Eternity is more important than immediate gratification. It is better to be deprived and maimed from loss of evil than to risk final destruction in the world to come.

 

You will need, as in regard to all of these other instances of the law, to avail yourselves to the Holy Spirit. Don’t think that you can conquer this or any other temptation on your own. You must flee to a power greater than your nature to handle this. You must also stop trying to craft justifications for moral sin.

 

¹ J. B. Shearer, The Sermon on the Mount: A Study (1906; rpr Greenville, SC: GPTS Press, 1994), 36.