But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed ADULTERY with her in his heart. 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.
While driving down the road and listening to a teaching, my wife and I heard a prime example of taking lust far too lightly. The following dialog transpired between a phone caller [Archie] and the host [Gil] after the host presented a hypothetical situation involving lusting over a woman while driving. This is what Archie referred to when he told Gil that he used his "example of driving in the car."
Archie: "Gil, you used my example of driving in the car."
Gil: "Oh, so you been looking at [lusting after] women, too, huh?"
Archie: "Oh, yeah, all the time."
Gil: [an outburst of laughter].
Your Thought Life Is Very Important
He [the Prodigal] longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
And [Lazarus was] longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.The facts surrounding the sad circumstances of the Prodigal Son and Lazarus, two other places where Jesus also used the word rendered "lustfully" as mentioned in Matt. 5:28, help us to better understand its meaning. Regarding its usage by the Lord in Luke's gospel, it seems evident that this word carries a meaning with it that makes it much deeper than just a casual glance at a woman, as some wrongly think. To substantiate this, Strong's Concordance defines this word as "to set the heart upon, i.e. long for" (emphasis his, Greek Dictionary, p.31, no. 1937).
How awesome to ponder this fact in regard to all of the pornographic literature that can be found in this country, which generates lust. Mental adultery is rampant! Truly, this is an "adulterous generation," as Jesus said.
Recently, while waiting to see someone with whom I had an appointment, his office radio was tuned in to a secular station which had a "Penthouse Pet" on as a guest. This woman posed 60 times for Penthouse magazine, yet was hailed as some great celebrity and heroine. She showed no remorse for those sinful acts. Only on Judgment Day will it be revealed how many millions of men committed adultery through lust with that whorish woman. What a fine servant Satan has in that woman, who shamefully is the envy of many women in our country!
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Furthermore, it's a sad day when people who profess to be God's servants are ensnared by their TV as their precious free time is spent never to be regained!
Furthermore, to get victory over lust, you should START spending more time in the Bible
meditating on and memorizing certain verses! Hiding God's word in your heart will stop those mental temptations.
In summary, victory over sin (including lust) is not just what you do but also what you don't do! In other words, starve your sinful nature (by not thinking about how to gratify it) and feed your spirit with God's word (by meditating in Scripture). Your voluntary thoughts, that is, the thoughts you choose to ponder when free to think about anything you want, are extremely important. Relevantly, Rom. 8:5 says, "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires." The following poem states it beautifully.
Two natures beat within my breast.Similarly, Paul wrote salvation with these important words:
The one is cursed, the other is blessed.
The one I love, the other I hate.
The one I feed will dominate!
The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest IF we do not give up. (Gal 6:8,9)In the Old Testament, lust is referred to in passages like Prov. 6:25,26:
Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.Again, lust leads to disaster in this life and in eternity too! Therefore, do not take mental adultery through lust lightly. By the way, the word rendered "lustfully" in Matt. 5:28 is used in a good sense in 1 Tim. 3:1 and Heb. 6:11. This latter verse reads: And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.
Unlike the Calvinists, Paul emphasized free will and human responsibility. (He did this without contradicting his own grace message.) He wrote, "Keep yourself pure" (1 Tim. 5:22). Undoubtedly, many will have to make MAJOR TV changes to obey this command! Victory over TV and lust will benefit you and others in this life and throughout eternity, but get ready for the battle regarding it!
Job was the most righteous man on earth in his day -- being blameless, upright, a man that feared God and shunned evil (Job 1:8). This man said of himself, "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl" (31:1). This is also very important in our day in light of Matt. 5:28,29 and the rampancy of pornographic literature, movies and commercials in our vile country, which generate lust.
Paul wrote,
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry (Col. 3:5).Please note: it's your responsibility coupled with the power of God (Rom. 8:13) that is the victory over lust! It is a fight to the death! It might surprise some to learn that Jesus used the Greek word from which we get our word "pornography" in Rev. 22:15, and stated that along with some others, such are "outside" the city of New Jerusalem. (In that verse, the word is rendered "the sexually immoral," NIV.) If we compare Rev. 21:8 to this same verse, we know their specific location is clearly the lake of fire! Hence, lust in the heart equals adultery and will send the mental adulterers to eternal fire unless they get forgiven and set free through repentance!
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