.
Before we can even begin to apply what Christ said about adultery in Matt
5:27-28 we first have to categorize the "woman" about whom he spoke.
Well; she's obviously somebody's wife because adultery is defined as
voluntary carnal activity between a married man and someone other than
his wife, or between a married woman and someone other than her
husband. In other words; in order for an incident to qualify as adultery, at
least one of the participants has to be married.
The Greek word for "lust" is epithumeo (ep-ee-thoo-meh'-o) which means:
to set the heart upon.
Setting one's heart upon something is a whole lot different than merely
liking something and wanting it. The one whose heart is set upon something
is in the process of finding a way to get it; and as such comes under the
rules that control covetousness; which read:
• Ex 20:17 . .You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet
your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything
that belongs to your neighbor.
In other words; when Jesus said "but I say to you" he wasn't introducing
something new. The rule was a standard in the covenant that Moses' people
agreed upon with God back in the Old Testament but the religious authorities
of his day were interpreting it incorrectly.
Coveting, per se, isn't a sin. Paul encouraged the Corinthian Christians to
"covet earnestly" the best spiritual gifts (1Cor 12:31) and to covet prophesy
(1Cor 14:39). To "covet earnestly" means you go after something with the
full intention of possessing it, i.e. to set one's heart upon obtaining it.
Nor is lust per se a sin. For example: the prodigal son's longing for
something to eat (Luke 15:16) the beggar's hunger (Luke 16:21) a spiritual
man's ambition for an office in the church (1Tim 3:1) the angels' curiosity
(1Pet 1:12) and Jesus' desire for a final dinner with his freinds. (Luke 22:15)
Ex 20:17 doesn't condemn erotic fantasies nor a healthy male libido, no, it
condemns scheming to take something of your neighbor's instead of getting
your own.
So then, are Ex 20:17 and Matt 5:27-28 saying that a man can't look across
the street at his neighbor's Harley and drool over it, turning green with
envy? Or that a man can't gape at his neighbor's buxom wife, undressing
her with his eyes, and having erotic fantasies about her? No, the kind of lust
we're talking about here doesn't imply that at all. It implies a man going
after the neighbor's Harley and the buxom wife instead of the man acquiring
his own.
Coming at this from the opposite direction: in the movie "The Bridges Of
Madison County", there's a precise moment when a married Francesca
Johnson makes a definite decision to initiate an affair with free-lance
photographer Robert Kincaid. Francesca was okay with Robert up till the
moment of her decision.
Now, supposing a man was brought up in a strict religion wherein he was
taught to believe that it really and truly is adultery to entertain carnal
thoughts about women-- any woman, whether married or unmarried. Well;
too bad for him because if that is one of his personal moral values, then
whenever that man longs for intimacy with a women, he's an adulterer.
• Rom 14:14 . . To him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is
unclean.
• Rom 14:23 . . If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.
That is indeed unfortunate because there are perfectly decent men out and
about stacking up piles of unnecessary sins against themselves due to their
perfectly normal, God-given feelings for women.
_
Before we can even begin to apply what Christ said about adultery in Matt
5:27-28 we first have to categorize the "woman" about whom he spoke.
Well; she's obviously somebody's wife because adultery is defined as
voluntary carnal activity between a married man and someone other than
his wife, or between a married woman and someone other than her
husband. In other words; in order for an incident to qualify as adultery, at
least one of the participants has to be married.
The Greek word for "lust" is epithumeo (ep-ee-thoo-meh'-o) which means:
to set the heart upon.
Setting one's heart upon something is a whole lot different than merely
liking something and wanting it. The one whose heart is set upon something
is in the process of finding a way to get it; and as such comes under the
rules that control covetousness; which read:
• Ex 20:17 . .You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet
your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything
that belongs to your neighbor.
In other words; when Jesus said "but I say to you" he wasn't introducing
something new. The rule was a standard in the covenant that Moses' people
agreed upon with God back in the Old Testament but the religious authorities
of his day were interpreting it incorrectly.
Coveting, per se, isn't a sin. Paul encouraged the Corinthian Christians to
"covet earnestly" the best spiritual gifts (1Cor 12:31) and to covet prophesy
(1Cor 14:39). To "covet earnestly" means you go after something with the
full intention of possessing it, i.e. to set one's heart upon obtaining it.
Nor is lust per se a sin. For example: the prodigal son's longing for
something to eat (Luke 15:16) the beggar's hunger (Luke 16:21) a spiritual
man's ambition for an office in the church (1Tim 3:1) the angels' curiosity
(1Pet 1:12) and Jesus' desire for a final dinner with his freinds. (Luke 22:15)
Ex 20:17 doesn't condemn erotic fantasies nor a healthy male libido, no, it
condemns scheming to take something of your neighbor's instead of getting
your own.
So then, are Ex 20:17 and Matt 5:27-28 saying that a man can't look across
the street at his neighbor's Harley and drool over it, turning green with
envy? Or that a man can't gape at his neighbor's buxom wife, undressing
her with his eyes, and having erotic fantasies about her? No, the kind of lust
we're talking about here doesn't imply that at all. It implies a man going
after the neighbor's Harley and the buxom wife instead of the man acquiring
his own.
Coming at this from the opposite direction: in the movie "The Bridges Of
Madison County", there's a precise moment when a married Francesca
Johnson makes a definite decision to initiate an affair with free-lance
photographer Robert Kincaid. Francesca was okay with Robert up till the
moment of her decision.
Now, supposing a man was brought up in a strict religion wherein he was
taught to believe that it really and truly is adultery to entertain carnal
thoughts about women-- any woman, whether married or unmarried. Well;
too bad for him because if that is one of his personal moral values, then
whenever that man longs for intimacy with a women, he's an adulterer.
• Rom 14:14 . . To him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is
unclean.
• Rom 14:23 . . If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.
That is indeed unfortunate because there are perfectly decent men out and
about stacking up piles of unnecessary sins against themselves due to their
perfectly normal, God-given feelings for women.
_
