Anchor My Faith

Lustful Intent

Scripture: Matthew 5:28

In the previous lesson we introduced the topic of adultery and saw that it affects others and our relationship with God. Like murder, adultery is the outward act of a troubled heart. We ended that lesson with Jesus saying: ^{Mt 5:28} “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Jesus is not adding to Old Testament law, but is correctly interpreting it by understanding how the heart is involved in these matters. As we have said before, one’s outward actions reveal the condition of the heart. For example, later in the Ten Commandments we read: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17 ESV) and see that the heart is where our trouble begins. In 1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV) God points out the importance of the heart: “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”’ Even the meditations of the heart are important: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14 ESV).

The heart is the center of a person’s identity and that is where lust begins. It is not enough to maintain physical purity alone; one must also guard against engaging mentally in an act of unfaithfulness. The Pharisees were only concerned with the external act; that which they could see, but Jesus declares that even the secrets of the heart and the wandering of the eyes matter to God. Those who indulge in wanton desire, who look at a woman to increase their lust, have already, in the sight of God, violated the commandment and committed adultery in the heart.

A good example of this is found in 2 Samuel 11, where “late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful” (2 Samuel 11:2 ESV). Desire for her welled up within his heart and “David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her” (2 Samuel 11:3 – 4 ESV). As a result of his lust being acted out in adultery, Bathsheba becomes pregnant and as the narrative unfolds, David has her husband Uriah murdered by having Joab send him into battle at a point where he would be killed.

These actions of David, clearly extended from a sinful condition of his heart, as seen in Psalm 51. There David sees his actions as coming from a heart that needed to be cleansed. He knows his transgressions and that his sin is ever before him and that he had sinned before God (verses 3 – 4). David cries out: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (verses 10 – 12).

Prayer

Father, Jesus makes it so clear that “from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander” (Matthew 15:19 NLT). We should pray: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (Psalm 139:23 – 24 NLT).