“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery. ’But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Matthew 5:27-28
Here Jesus takes aim at the very foundation of life. I love a list of rules like the Ten Commandments. While Protestants and Catholics disagree on what exactly the Ten Commandments are (they each have their own list if you were unaware.) they both agree that we should be following them.
Some have aimed to minimize the importance of following such ancient rules. They might say well the men of that era often had multiple wives and concubines. Certainly, they could not have meant that a man and woman must be faithful to each other for their entire lives. In 2002 I was working at a shelter in Washington state. My wife and my two oldest children were visiting me at work. (My youngest Benjamin was not yet born.) As I introduced my little family to shelter guests one of the ladies looked confused. She pointed to my children and said, “Both of these are yours?” I nodded. “And you two are married?” I nodded again. “But the kids are several years apart.” What she was saying is that she had never seen a married couple stay together in the real world. Her mother had gone man to man until she had this woman. She had followed the lessons of her mother and never had a stable relationship. Literally, she had never seen a couple that stayed together and had a family outside of episodes on television. Even on television they almost always get rid of one of the parents.
If we simply follow this commandment, then the family has stability. Children can feel safer in their homes. Hope breeds security.
Everyday living in the modern era makes this a very difficult commandment to follow. Advertisements can often be pornography light. But then I read history and discovered that leaders that I thought of as honorable and heroic, were controlled by their private organs and were consistently unfaithful to their marriage. Yet, they would write and speak in public that they could be trusted. How can we trust someone to be faithful to the welfare of our nation or community who cannot even be faithful to their spouse?
There are stories that show that at least part of the reason the colonies were able to defeat the mighty British Army was due to the fact that British officers were busy committing adultery and lost their passion for winning the war. I read that history and I realize that maybe things have not changed that much.
Our standard for acceptable moral behavior has shifted dramatically. Today as long as they have the appropriate letter behind their name(R) or (D), we will vote for them. We need to ask them if they are faithful to their family?
My friends, it is time for us to examine our hearts. Do we lust and look at people as mere objects to be used for our pleasure? Do we parade around encouraging people to look at our bodies and desire us? When we watch a movie or television do we find ourselves lusting over the latest superstar on the screen? It is time to guard our hearts. There is a thin line between admiring the beauty of God’s creation and lusting for it. Jesus is calling us to a higher standard. Let’s live up to it.
