|
Lust And The Sermon On The Mount
In the "Sermon On The Mount" in Mathew 5: 27-28, Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, "You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
In these two verses Jesus makes a connection between two of the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament.
The Seventh commandment found in Exodus 20: 14 says; “You shall not commit adultery.” And the Tenth commandment found in Exodus 20:17 says; “"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
The Hebrew word for “covet” in Exodus 20:17 is the transliterated Word “Chamad” which can mean, “to desire, covet, take pleasure in, delight in.” Bible scholars have translated the Hebrew word “Chamad” as the English word “covet” which means “to wish for enviously; to desire (what belongs to another) inordinately or culpably; to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another.”
When Jesus points out in the Sermon On The Mount that “whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart”, He uses the Greek transliterated word, “epithumeo” which means, “to turn upon a thing; to have a longing desire for; covet things forbidden.”
Bible scholars have translated the Greek word “epithumeo” to the English word “lust” which means, “intense or unbridled sexual desire; an intense longing.”
A better translation for the word “epithumeo” would be “covet” instead of “lust”, because Jesus was not referring to having “sexual desire” from looking at a woman, but rather he as referring to the Tenth Commandement, “Thou shall not covet thy neighbors wife.”
“Sexual desire” is an emotion, not an act of the will.
The word Jesus uses, “epithumeo”, does not mean “sexual desire” but rather means having a desire or longing for something that is not yours – “coveting”.
Jesus was not saying it is sin to have an increase in the emotion of sexual desire from looking at a woman. He was saying it is sin to covet and wish you could have sex with a woman you are looking at.
God does not condemn humans for having emotions. Emotions are “not right or wrong – they just are.” People today love to experience varied emotions. That is why they love the roller coasters that give them a thrill of fear. And they love movies that cause them to experience fear and love and sexual desires. Click here to read more about how movies and stories can cause us to experience emotions.
Since God does not condemn people for having emotions, and an increase in “sexual desire” is an increase in an emotion, it does not make sense that Jesus would be condemning married men for looking at women.
Again, the word Jesus used is “epithumeo” which means, “to turn upon a thing; to have a longing desire for; covet things forbidden.” Jesus was speaking to men, pointing out that if they are wishing they could have sex with the women they see, they are guilty of adultery.
The word “epithumeo”, does not mean “to have an increase in sexual desire” or, “to think a woman is attractive”.
Jesus makes a connection between the seventh and tenth commandments that the Rabbis should have already figured out. Jesus combines these two commands to reveal, “Coveting your neighbor's wife” is “adultery”.
In the Jewish culture, possibly “adultery” was considered much worse than “covetousness”. Now Jesus comes along and points out that “coveting” and “adultery” are equal sins.
If we go back to the Tenth Commandment, we see that it is not only sin to covet your neighbor's wife but it is also wrong to covet your neighbor's donkey, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to his neighbor.
Jesus was drawing from the Old Testament and Jesus intent was to point out to his audience that coveting a woman is a form of adultery.
The emphasis Jesus was making was not on admiring a beautiful woman, but rather on having a discontent heart.
It is not sin for a man to find a woman beautiful or attractive. I own a nice car and it is ten years old. When I see my friend's brand new car, I can find it attractive and I can even think about buying one. But if I stop there I'm not coveting. If I decide, “I have to have a one of those”; then I begin to covet.
The reason coveting is sin, is that God gives us everything to be used as tools to serve Him. All our money and time and possessions are to be used to glorify God and to further His kingdom here on earth.
And so God wants us to be happy with what we have. If we use most of our money and time on things that do not further God's kingdom, then we are cheating God.
God does not want us to have a bad attitude of not being content with our spouse or with the material possessions He has given us.
Jesus was not introducing a new standard that admiring the beauty of the female is sin. The original Greek makes this clear. It is unfortunate that the word “epithumeo”, has been interpreted in English as “lust”. Because the word “lust” has two meanings in English.
The first English use of “lust”, is not the meaning Jesus was talking about. This “lust” means having an increase in “sexual desire”. Sexual desire is an emotion. It is not a conscious act of the will. Having “sexual desire” is not sin. Click here to read more this.
The second meaning of “lust” is “to lust after, or covet things forbidden.” This is the kind of lust Jesus was referring to when he used the Greek word “epithumeo”, and it is better translated as “covet”.
If Jesus had been preaching against looking at women, wouldn't He have preached to single men also, and not just married men? Wouldn't he have forbidden looking at the nude women in the society he lived in? Jesus could have preached directly against looking at females and against public nudity. Click here to see that nudity was common in Jesus day.
Let us back up and look at the culture Jesus was teaching in when he said it was adultery to look at a woman to covet her. In Bible times a man could marry as many wives as he wanted. Please remember that in Bible times, a wife was not allowed to tell her husband that he could not marry an additional woman. And to marry an additional wife a man would have to be thinking romantically about the new woman he planned to marry.
A man with multiple wives would have had to look at each of them romantically and to marry an additional wife the man would be looking at additional women.
Let us also remember that to be an elder in the New Testament church, a man could only have one wife. Here we can see that having multiple wives was still permitted in the New Testament but not God's best.
This concept of multiple wives in the Bible, teaches that God values marriage so much, He is willing to give a husband much latitude, freedom and broad discernment in the marriage, in order to allow the husband and wife to be happy.
Jesus is not intending to condemn men for looking at women. Instead Jesus wants husbands and wives to be committed to each other and not have a cheating heart.
In the Sermon On The Mount, Jesus also said that anger is murder, He said to not make pledges, He said to lend to those who ask, He said to give to those who ask, He said to not defend yourself, and He said to never divorce and that if you remarry you commit adultery with your new spouse.
All these other things that Jesus said in the Sermon On The Mount, are taken as words of wisdom, instead of harsh commands that are to be applied legalistically in every situation.
We do make pledges, we don't accuse each other of murder when we get mad at each other, we don't lend to everyone who asks, we don't give to everyone who asks, we do defend ourselves, we do divorce and get remarried in the church, and we don't say that those who get remarried are committing adultery.
Many marriages end in divorce due to intimacy problems. And many husbands and wives end up doing secret sexual sins because of a lack of passion in the bedroom.
We believe that a married couple should commit to each other to stop doing sexual related activities alone, such as looking at porn, reading romance novels, going to topless bars, watching soap operas, flirting, going out alone at night, etc.
Instead, we recommend the couple plan exciting activities in the bedroom together. Reading or listening to our marriage love stories can be fun.
|
|