Should
Both Heart and Eye be Right?
27
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say
to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already
committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to
sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your
members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right
hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you
lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Matthew
5:27-30
In
his book The Obedience Option, David
Hegg, brings out a beautiful illustration about passion. He was talking to a
young man who claimed that he couldn’t stop his pattern of sleeping with
different women. The young man knew it was wrong, but he also claimed that his
sexual lust was inevitable. Therefore, he would say it wasn’t his fault, since
God had created him with such strong desires and urges.
Hegg
interrupted the young man and said, “Suppose that I came into your room and
caught you and your girlfriend as you were just starting this ‘inevitable
process’. Suppose I took out one lakh dollars and told you that they were yours
if you [stopped]. What would you do?”
The
young man at a spur of a moment said that he’d keep the cash. Hearing this Hegg
asked, “So what happened to the irresistible force of lust?”
V.
27-30 Jesus is giving another illustration of how people had lowered the law of
Moses. When the rabbis taught them that they should not commit adultery Jesus
tells them that they had lowered the standard from God intended position. Jesus
is putting it back to where it was intended. God never was really concerned
about the act only but the attitude behind the act.
Jesus
goes beyond the letter to the spirit of the law. The heart of human is the
problem according to Jesus. Lust too is a thing of the heart.
In
the earlier verses that we meditated (v.21-22) it was Jesus’ illustration for
the 6th commandment. Here Jesus illustrates the 7th
commandment. Jesus brings out the real intention behind these commandments. He
says that the underlying principle of “Thou shall not kill” is the sacredness
of life and that of “Thou shall not commit adultery is the sacredness of basic
unit of life which is marriage.
Anger
in the earlier illustration and sex in the present one are two powerful things.
They reach deep down into the human experience and perfectly illustrate the
sinfulness of humans.
The
natural desire for the opposite sex is normal and necessary. That is what God
intended. But like any good gift, the Devil is quick to pervert or twist it
into something God didn’t intend.
What
did Jesus mean when he said to cut off the eye and throw it away? Was Jesus
serious. Jesus many a times speaks statement in hyperbole to bring out the gravity.
When Jesus speaks of a camel going through the eye of a needle (Mat. 19.24) it
to was an indication of impossibility.
Saints
and hermits throughout the ages have discovered that while you can blind
yourself or isolate yourself from women, you cannot isolate yourself from your
own mind and heart.
Rather
than pass off lust as a common denominator of males, Jesus intended that we
flee from lust with as much determination as we flee from adultery.
A
recent survey in the Hindustan Times shows that the rate of children watching
pornographic videos has increased by 27% in the last 5 years.
This
lent can we pray to God to train our eyes? Also, can we pray for those who have
fallen prey to the habit of pornography? May we break the habit of lust and
learn to look with love.
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