“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. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” (Matthew 5:27-30 ESV)
This was Jesus speaking. When he was on the earth, and when he was teaching, he did not lighten God’s commandments, his moral laws, but he extended them or he brought true reality to them. And we would all do well to take his words seriously, for they are truth. And the truth is that adultery begins in the mind and in the heart before it ever gets acted out in the flesh. The moment that you choose to take that second look, to not look away, but to lust after another, you have committed adultery.
So, adultery extends far beyond just having sexual relations with someone to whom you are not married while you are married to someone else. Adultery takes place as soon as you lust after another who is not your spouse. So this can extend into so many different areas. So, if you are someone who is entertained by pornographic images or movies which are sensual in nature and which promote adultery and sex outside of marriage, and extra-marital affairs and flirtations with others, that is adultery.
Now, you may choose to disagree with me, but being entertained by these images engages your mind and heart in participating with them in some respect and in feeling with them what they are experiencing. And especially if nudity is involved, that stirs the lusts of the flesh. So we have to be people of God who guard our hearts and minds against such things and who use spiritual discernment with regard to what we choose to watch or to listen to, for even song lyrics can stir the mind and heart to lust after another.
So, if we want to keep our hearts and our minds morally pure and free from sensual lust, we must take serious steps to remove from our lives all that would lead us mentally, emotionally, and/or physically in the wrong direction. For the more of this world that we choose to take into our minds and our eyes on a daily basis, the more of the world that will remain inside of us and will be acted out by us in how we live. For flesh gives birth to flesh, and if flesh is what we desire, it will produce more flesh.
There was a time in my married life when I was much less discerning about the kinds of things that I watched and listened to, so I know of what I speak from personal experience. I had been much more strict, but over time I made little compromises for the sake of being entertained, and then more compromises until I was way beyond where I thought I would ever be. But the Lord convicted my heart of sin, and so I had to do a spiritual house cleaning and rid my life of all that might lead me in the wrong direction.
For we live in a world, even within the gatherings of the church (or of what is falsely being called “church”), where sensuality and sexual immorality and seductiveness are running rampant and where so many professing Christians are being caught up in all this sensuality as though it is just commonplace and not as something that should have no part in our lives. But what we choose to take into our ears and eyes and minds is then reproduced in our attitudes and words and behaviors. For it is garbage in and garbage out.
So, what is Jesus’ counsel to us? If our right eye causes us to sin, we are to tear it out and throw it away. And if our right hand causes us to sin, we are to cut it off and throw it away. Do you think he meant this literally? He may have. I don’t know. But he could have been speaking in figurative language, which he sometimes did. And so what’s the lesson? Whatever we are allowing in our lives which is leading us into sin, we are to get rid of. Many people keep going back to the same sins for they won’t cut off the source.
But… the Scriptures teach that it is out of the human heart that come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person (Matthew 15:17-20). So, even if we cut out an eye or a hand or any other kind of physical object out of our lives, if our hearts remain the same, our hearts are still going to lead us into sin because of what is stored up in our hearts. But again, what we choose to take into our minds, eyes, and ears, is what gets stored up in our hearts, too.
So, we must throw out of our lives all those things which are leading us into sin, and then we must refuse to allow those things back into our lives. But that will only take us so far. For without a change of heart and mind, those who take such steps are likely to go right back to where they were, time and time again. For the heart, if not changed, will continue to crave those sins and so will entertain those thoughts which will then lead right back to the same sinful behaviors. So a spiritual heart housecleaning will be in order.
But then pay close attention to Jesus’ deeper message here. He said, in reference to getting rid of whatever leads us to sin, that it is better that we lose an eye or a hand than for our whole body to be thrown into hell. So, what is he saying? If adultery is what we practice, and not obedience to our Lord, and not walks of holiness and righteousness, then we are in danger of hell as our final destiny if we do not repent and if we do not change course and if we do not take the steps necessary to get rid of the sin and to now follow our Lord in surrender to his will and in obedience to his commands.
And please know that our Lord’s apostles taught the same thing, that if sin is our practice, and if righteousness, godliness, and obedience to our Lord are not what we practice, that we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what our lips profess. For it is not a profession of faith in Jesus Christ that results in eternal life with God, but it is a walk of faith and obedience to our Lord in the forsaking of our sins and in holy living that results in us having salvation from sin and eternal life with God.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Lead Me Gently Home, Father
By Will L. Thompson, 1879
Lead me gently home, Father,
Lead me gently home;
When life’s toils are ended,
And parting days have come,
Sin no more shall tempt me,
Ne’er from Thee I’ll roam,
If Thou’ll only lead me, Father,
Lead me gently home.
Lead me gently home, Father,
Lead me gently home, Father,
Lest I fall upon the wayside,
Lead me gently home.
Lead me gently home, Father,
Lead me gently home;
In life’s darkest hours, Father,
When life’s troubles come,
Keep my feet from wand’ring,
Lest from Thee I roam,
Lest I fall upon the wayside,
Lead me gently home.
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