SOTM 15—Lust

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/som-15-adultery/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><p><strong>27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, 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. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell (Matt 5:27-30).</strong></p><p>Introductory matters:</p><ul><li>Lust is not only sexual—though it is in this passage. (See, for example, 1 <strong>John 2:15-17.</strong>)</li><li>Lust is the evil root from which the bitter fruit of adultery grows.</li><li>There is an element of hyperbole (deliberate overstatement for effect) in parts of the Sermon on the Mount—yet still we are to take Jesus’ teaching seriously. As Athenagoras told the pagans, “We are so far from practicing promiscuous intercourse that it is unlawful among us even to indulge a lustful look.” <i>A Plea for Christians</i> 32. Such an attitude was as rare back then as it is today.</li><li>The early church contended for the faith in a sexually saturated society – pornography, prostitution, theatre, art, the baths, orgies, dinner parties, sex with slaves, homosexuality, pederast, bestiality, mistresses, x-rated poetry…</li></ul><p><strong>Solutions</strong></p><ul><li><strong>Do not look at unclothed / immodestly dressed persons</strong>.<ul><li>Early Christian writings contain numerous warnings against going to the public baths when members of the opposite sex were present. “What of those virgins who patronize indecent baths? .... They who disgracefully look at naked men and are seen naked by men—do they not afford enticement to sin?” <i>ANF 5.435</i></li><li