We commit adultery by harbouring lustful thoughts

These teachings speak directly to our hearts to give us life, wisdom and to bring about maturity in our lives. 

The fact that Jesus is taking the time to teach us behoves us take the time to listen and put it into practice. 

Jesus’ teaching is unlike most of the teaching these people have ever experienced up to this point. If you graduated from high school or university, you later realized that you had to labour, read and study many subjects you had very little interest about and to make matters worse . . . you probably never used them again. 

However, the principles of Jesus’ teaching can be applied during your entire life because Jesus wants consistent application of His Word until it becomes a lifestyle. 

Let’s look at the shocking teaching of Jesus on the matter of adultery found in Matthew 5:27, 28.  You have heard it said, ‘do not commit adultery’. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 

Now we must understand that this teaching was so powerful in Jesus’ time as it is today. The reason why so many were shocked was because of the heart of the command that Jesus is emphasizing. 

This is because there were so many people that would conclude that God’s commands should be interpreted to see how close you could get to the sin without actually “doing it”. 

However, Jesus is emphasizing that sin starts from the inside out. Jesus is actually raising the bar on our interpretation of this subject. 

Up to this point, many, including the teachers of the law, thought it was okay to let your mind wander about another woman, just as long as you did not act on it. 

However, this is not what Jesus taught. He did not teach that men can ‘window shop’ as long as they did not take what was in the ‘store’. 

Quite the contrary, God is very concerned about what is actually going through our minds, our fantasies . . . our thoughts! 

How radical is the Christian life that God wants more than our actions . . . He wants our surrendered hearts. 

This is what integrity is all about. In fact if our hearts and minds are surrendered to Jesus, so will our will and our body (actions).

I heard a really good definition of integrity many years ago. “Integrity is honesty when no one else is looking.”

How’s that for an understanding of what it means to be upright in our hearts. 

With the divorce rate being 50 per cent, how much more should we as men and women guard our hearts against lust? 

A definition of lust is ‘a desire that is out of control’. 

Can you say, like Job, when he shared that he made a covenant with his eyes not to look lustfully after a woman. He knew he had to be faithful to his wife.

In order for this to happen in a real practical sense he knew that sexual sin starts with lust and lust starts with a wandering eye and a wandering imagination.

Don’t misunderstand what Jesus is saying here either. To misunderstand this would be to conclude. . . “Well if I have lusted then I might as well do the action because I have sinned anyway”.

There is a whole different level of consequences and pain for those who think it and those who do it.

Rather what Jesus is teaching is what will stop you from doing it is not allowing yourself to think it. This is a preventive measure here.

Keep your marriage intact by not allowing people into your “romantic space” other than your spouse. 

Guard your heart because those who commit adultery will be reduced to the value of a loaf of bread (Proverbs 6:26). No one who does it will go without consequences. 

Proverbs 6:27-29: Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

May God give you the grace to have a strong marriage and if you are single. . .  to stay pure and if you desire marriage then wait until God provides the one He wants for you.

Life is too short to waste it on a brief pleasure that will produce consequences that will last a lifetime.