“Overcome Lust!”

“Overcoming Lust!”(Mt. 5:27-30).
Yesterday we said, “While your physical eyes can lead you into sin, the eyes of your heart leads you away from sin.”
An adage says, “What the eye does not admire, the heart does not desire.” This is to say whatever you look at, and which grabs your attention can easily affect your direction.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfilly has already committed adultery with her in his heart…”
The first ever sin that led to all human predicament was attraction, caused by looking. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it…”(Gen. 3:6). This is how destructive the physical eyes can be!
Undergirding the discussion on enticing inappropriate dressing by women is lust.
However, we must note that inappropriate dressing is not the only thing that can raise admiration and arouse the libido. It can be the physical features and the body language of the opposite sex that prompts the other gender to look lustfully. I hired some stone crackers to produce some gravel. There was an old man among them whose output was always the least; not because of his age, but because as soon as any woman passes by, he will abandon his work and go after her. It is not as if he has anything further to do with them, but his lust propels him to such actions.
The command, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” has never been obsolete. Adultery and fornication has been the bane of many marriages.
However, Jesus is saying that those who judge adulterers are incapable of casting the first stone. Those who look at the opposite gender lustfully are as guilty of adultery or fornication; because lust means intention without possibility or opportunity to engage in the act.
What solution does Jesus offer? He says, “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…”
Ghandi once said, “An eye for an eye and half the world goes blind.” If we were to understand Jesus literally, then half the world would have gone blind for looking at the opposite sex lustfully. Some people would’ve been totally blind because after gouging one eye, they would still have used the other one to look at the other gender lustfully.
It is obvious that Jesus is not teaching self-mutilation. Blind people can also lust.
Our Lord wants us to deal drastically as necessary with sin – and in this case, lust and adultery!
In this regard we should use the eyes of our heart to see beyond what our physical eyes looks at lustfully.
Prayer of the day and week: Holy Spirit give me sight that see just what glorifies the LORD. Amen!
Welcome back to a new day and week! Have a blessed day and week!
Rev Babila Fochang.