If your right eye causes you to sin, 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 sin, 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 5:27-30
Instructions:
- Read the passage
- Read the devotional
- Spend time in prayer
- Leave a comment
To defend his claim of living a righteous life, Job says, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl” (Job 31:1). For men at least the temptation of lust remains untamed territory. James tells us that no man has been able to tame the tongue, but taming the wandering eye of a guy is probably even more difficult. I have even known a number of men who have justified lustful patterns of behavior by saying they are simply appreciating the beauty that God created.
Well, appreciation and lust are two different things. Appreciation says, “I’m glad that’s there.” Lust says, “I want that here.” Lust is the desire to possess, control, and gain pleasure from another person specifically in an intimacy that God ordained solely for the covenant of marriage. And lust attacks women just as well as men. Of course some women aren’t as stimulated by physical appearance as men can be, but many women are highly stimulated by images of romance especially as portrayed on TV and in movies.
Isn’t that okay? After all, there’s no harm done by looking. A man looking at the Swimsuit Edition? A woman watching When Harry Met Sally? They aren’t doing anything wrong, are they? Even if they look “lustfully” at one of the models or at a situation on screen, it’s not like they’re actually having an affair.
This is exactly why Jesus says what he says. Looking with lust is as bad as doing. See, the point Jesus is making throughout this chapter is that God’s Law was never intended to be taken literally in the sense that following it by the letter is all we need to do. In fact, God’s Law was always intended to be taken to the heart. Therefore, if adultery is wrong, there must be a heart principle behind it—perhaps the intimacy of marriage is so sacred that even the thought of violating it should be demolished. It is the higher principle of the heart to which we should be committed. These higher principles will always express themselves in the way the Law prescribed, but God has always looked for the heart.
That’s why Jesus doesn’t stop with the statement on lust. It would be too easy for us to now treat his lust command as the new limit of morality without letting it actually sink into our hearts. Jesus is trying to get us to realize that all sin is so utterly terrible we must avoid it at all costs, even at the cost of personal pain and loss, even at the cost of a limb or an eye.
The sad truth is that I know I could lose both my eyes, and I’d still be able to formulate lustful thoughts in my heart, so getting rid of an eye or hand or foot won’t actually make me sinless, but if it could, I should be willing to go there for the sake of purity.
BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY:
- Is “lust” an issue for me? What will I put before my eyes today, and how will I respond to what appears before me?
- What is the condition of my heart? Considering my eyes, my heart, and my hands, am I living a life characterized by purity?
