Be Perfect Sexually-Matthew 5:27-30

Be Perfect Sexually (powerpoint) Be perfect sexually and when you’re angry (video1)  Be perfect sexually (video2) “…anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:28). As murder begins with anger (Mt 5:22), so adultery begins with lust. Jesus teaches that the lustful look itself is a form of adultery (Mt 5:28). Though adultery has far more serious consequences, the intentional desire to awaken lust is equally sinful in God’s sight. As a child of the kingdom of God there is no well-marked boundary between the desire and the deed. A most misinterpreted Bible passage-Matthew 5:27-28.

Arizona seeks to declare pοrn a public health crisis (2/9/19): Legislators are seeking to declare porn a public health crisis, stating that pornography is a crisis leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts. Like the tobacco industry, the pornography industry has created a public health crisis. Pornography is used pervasively, even by minors. This leads to low self-esteem, eating disorders and an increase in problematic sexual activity at ever-younger ages. Pornography normalizes violence and the abuse of women and children by treating them as objects, increasing the demand for sex trafficking, prostitution and child porn. It has a negative effect on on the traditional family structure, causing a decrease in young men’s desire to marry, and ultimately leading to dissatisfaction with marriage and infidelity.

Inward purity is so important (Mt 5:8) that Jesus demands transformation by urging his followers metaphorically to remove the source of desire (Mt 5:29-30). Jesus does not accept the ancient world’s view where adultery was excusable for the husband but not the wife. A second century writer wrote: “If you should take your wife in adultery, you may with impunity put her to death without a trial; but if you should commit adultery or indecency, she must not presume to lay a finger on you, nor does the law allow it.”

Lust goes both ways. “…looks at a woman lustfully” (Mt 5:18 can also be translated “to cause her to lust” for him. The Greek verb translated “causes (you) to sin” stands for the bait in a trap that when sprung closes the trap and secures the animal. It is ironic that the eye, which is supposed to prevent stumbling, becomes that which causes one to stumble.

What is the will of God with regards to sexual purity? Jesus is giving a new Torah for the new people of God, the community of Jesus. In the Bible sex is for procreation (Gen 1:28) and pleasure (Songs 7:1-8:7). Sexual pleasure described poetically in the Song of Songs stands in bold contrast to the vulgarity of contemporary erotic literature. Solomon, in spite of his early yearning for wisdom (2 Chr 1) and his privilege to build the temple (2 Ch 3-7), falls into the traps of erotic desire without boundaries (1 Kg 11:1-13). Unboundaried desire, male and female, seizes opportunities for scheming and rationalizations (Job 24:15; Prov 30:20). Adultery became the codeword for religious infidelity because of the depth of the pain in the experience of infidelity (Jer 3:8-9; 9:2; Hos 1-3).

What’s wrong with the lustful look? Does it matter how long you look? Adultery in Jesus’ world and today is having sex with someone other than one’s spouse. Jesus opposes adultery and supports Moses’ laws about adultery (Mt 5:27, 32; 15:19; 19:9). But to Jesus, Moses’ law is not enough because to Jesus sex and purity begin in the heart or in one’s desires (Mt 5:28). Adultery is deepened or redefined to the level of desire, a desire fertilized by the gaze, which “kindles the furnace within you” (Chrysostom). Sex begins in the eye (Job 31:1), which fosters arousal through the imagination. Jesus is against sexual fantasizing with an inappropriate person, for it will eventually lead to its destined end (Jas 1:15). Jesus ramps up his rhetoric in order to force his followers to see the gravity and potential long-term danger of sexually intended staring. Though Jesus approves the old law, which condemns the external act as evil, he declares that no less evil is the intention that brings it forth (Exo 20:17).

Is the woman at fault? Some blame women for sexual temptations, so the authorities suppressed their freedom of dress and segregated them from men. The expectation of women was to wear head coverings and to dress modestly. This was designed to prevent men from leering and being tempted. But Jesus lays full responsibility on the male and expects males to be able to control their desires. A woman may indeed lead men’s minds astray, and by a look implant their poison and finally in the act they take men captive. But Jesus prevents a blame-her-looks or but-she-enticed-me approach. The problem in the text is male desire (Mt 5:28). What Jesus is against is not desire–such as desiring one’s spouse–but rightful desire spent wrongfully.

Is the Bible against the beauty of a woman?  The problem is not beauty but objectification of women and the female body so that women become sexualized objects of self-satisfying pleasure for the male. Today, unlike in Jesus’ time women too express their own sexual needs and wants, so that women also objectify males and the male body. Jesus’ words prohibit objectification of any sort because the female form and the male form are fitted for one another only within the bounds of a married relationship.

How does one overcome inappropriate desires? Eliminate what tempts the gaze that prompts lust. Jesus again uses exaggeration as he did with leaving one’s sacrifice at the altar and making peace while on the road to the judge (5:23-26). This time Jesus is even more graphic: gouge out your eyes and chop off your hands (Mt 5:29a, 30a). Why so drastic a measure? The consequence of sinner is to be thrown into hell (Mt 5:29b, 30b).

Jesus’ teachings matter and they matter eternally. What Jesus doesn’t have in mind is a singular trip-up, but of someone whose life is wrecked by lust and sexual temptation–though his is not to excuse even a momentary indiscretion. Jesus is pressing his followers about the seriousness of the sin of lust. Many have softened the potency of Jesus’ words, but Jesus’ words are meant to be taken seriously by his followers who are expected to follow his teachings (7:21-27). John Calvin wrote, Jesus “means that however difficult, arduous, troublesome, or painful God’s rule may be, we must make no excuse for that, as the righteousness of God should be worth more to us, than all the other things which are chiefly dear and precious.” It seems obvious that eternal life with God is worth more than momentary pleasure—but it’s not always obvious in the moment!

Should this text be taken literally or figuratively? A steady diet of the “means of God’s grace” can be transformative for “plucking out the eye” and “cutting off the hand” of inappropriate desire and lust. They are our personal responsibility that involves self denial and taking up our cross (Mt 16:24; Mk 8:34; Lk 9:23). When Bonhoeffer was once asked if this text should be taken literally or figuratively, he replied, “Neither option offers us an escape. We are trapped and must obey.”

Jesus teaches control of desire not suppression of sexuality. Luther, who knew celibacy, properly interprets the text: “You have no call to pick up your feet and run away, but to stay put, to stand and battle against every kind of temptation like a knight, and with patience to see it through and to triumph.” Many like the disciples thought it would be easier not to marry (Mt 9:10-12), or that it would be more manageable (and devoted) to abandon the society of women and protect oneself in a monastery, which many have done. But that’s not what Jesus is teaching. There is no way for humans to avoid sexual temptation. Jesus teaches control of desire not suppression of sexuality.   We are personally responsible for protecting our eyes to be sexually redeemed. We will be tempted, but there is no reason to nurture a temptation or to dally around an image that incites sexual arousal. John Stott, who never married and lived a celibate life, said, “Our vivid imagination … is a precious gift from God… Imagination enriches the quality of life. But all God’s gifts need to be used responsibly; they can readily be degraded and abused.”

The science behind sexual pleasure. Sexual arousal can be explained as the neurochemical anticipation of sexual pleasures, and that explanation can help train us to become more pure. The brain is wired for both sexual pleasure as well as for sexual fidelity and rugged faithful commitment. With sexual arousal and intercourse the brain releases dopamine–the neurochemical that says, “Wow, this is pleasurable.” Dopamine creates brain pathways, tunnels of sexual pleasure if you will, that tell a person to do this again, and those neurochemical passages make it easier to do again. Thus, any kind of sexual arousal/contact begins to create the desire for more sexual connection.

The science behind exclusivity in sex. In addition to dopamine, the brain releases oxytocin and vasopressin, which tells a woman that the man is hers and the man that the woman is his. The feeling of “guilt” or “dirtiness” that arises in a person who experiences sex outside the bounds of biblical morals or fidelity is the brain’s way of saying, “I’m confused.” Jesus prohibits ilicit sexual encounters–whether physical or fantasy–because God has wired us for sexual fidelity and lifelong rugged commitments of love to one person. Hearst are wired to brains, and brains are wired to commitment.

What can be done with sexual lust and temptation?

• Confession
• Bible reading
• Listening
• Prayer
• Solitude
• Contemplation
• Fasting
• Do not neglect church worship, singing, sermons, listening to tapes/video, attending conferences.

Enlist an accountability partner with whom one can be honest and safe to confess (Jas 5:16). Bonhoeffer explained that in confession one is approaching not just a fellow Christian but the grace of God mediated through the other Christian: “When I go to another believer to confess, I am going to God.” He urged believers to pronounce the forgiveness as the word of God’s grace to the one who confesses. Breakthroughs occur when we confess to one another: to community, to the cross, to new life, and to assurance. If ineffective, seek professional therapy, knowing that God’s Spirit and the kingdom have been unleashed for transformation.

References:

1. Mcnight, Scot. Sermon on the Mount, the Story of God Bible Commentary. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2013.
2. Wright, N.T. Matthew for Everyone. Westminister John Knox Press, Louisville, KY.  2002.
3. Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament: community, cross, new creation: a contemporary introduction to New Testament ethics. Part One, 4. The Gospel of Matthew: Training for the Kingdom of Heaven. HarperCollins Publishers, NY. 1996.