Fighting the Flesh #8: Lust
“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”—Matthew 5:28
Lust. It’s easy to lust. It doesn’t matter where you are or what you are doing. You can be in the checkout line at the grocery store, the waiting room at the doctor’s office, or simply driving down the street, when seemingly out of nowhere, someone beautiful (or handsome) is standing right in front of you and the longer you maintain your gaze, you begin to desire that person sexually.
Jesus called the act of staring lustfully at someone as adultery in the heart. Some don’t think “looking at the menu” is all that bad, but Jesus equated “looking at the menu” with the act of eating. Jesus didn’t mince words when he equated lusting with adultery, “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart”—Matthew 5:28.
Lust is so easy because it is seemingly a sin without a victim. At least we like to think so. The real victim is not just the person we stare at, but ourselves. The person lusting may not actually engage in the physical act of adultery, but in their heart they have. Jesus wants to protect our hearts as well as our bodies, because what we endeavor to do in our heart will find its way out in the body. Lust is powerful because it fills the mind with lies, enabling the lusting person to construct a fantasy world, whereby all of their sexual desires are able to thrive and grow. But, lust never stays in the mind. Lust traps the person doing it, dulling them to the beauty of life and love, turning the desire for a real love relationship between a husband and wife, into a degrading sexual act devoid of the intimacy meant for those who are united as one flesh.
No one is exempt from lust. It doesn’t matter if you are old or young, we must all be on guard against it. Even the godliest saint struggles with lust. Consider the righteous Job. Even he had to learn how to defend himself against lust, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman”—Job 31:1 (NIV). And if Job needed to guard against it, so do we.
How can we guard against lust? I encourage you to bounce your eyes. Billy Graham once said that we can’t help the first look in seeing someone beautiful, but we can sure help the second. That’s where the “bounce” comes in. Whenever we see someone that is beautiful and the temptation to lust is prevalent, we make sure that our gaze doesn’t linger. We bounce our gaze off of them onto something else. I have trained my eyes over the years to do this so that wherever I go, as soon as I see someone beautiful, I bounce my eyes. I refuse to take notice of them, or let my gaze return to set upon them. I may not have been able to help the first look, but I can definitely control the second. And as long as I keep this thought before me, I continually “bounce” my eyes so that I might not sin against God.
How about you? Do you feel trapped by lust? Know that Christ paid the price for that sin too. His death on the cross paid the price for the sin of lust and His resurrection enabled us to be free of lust’s pervasive and manipulating grip. He gives freedom and we must learn to walk in it, training ourselves to renounce our old ways of life, while guarding ourselves in a world that is at war against God. Amen.
Lust. It’s easy to lust. It doesn’t matter where you are or what you are doing. You can be in the checkout line at the grocery store, the waiting room at the doctor’s office, or simply driving down the street, when seemingly out of nowhere, someone beautiful (or handsome) is standing right in front of you and the longer you maintain your gaze, you begin to desire that person sexually.
Jesus called the act of staring lustfully at someone as adultery in the heart. Some don’t think “looking at the menu” is all that bad, but Jesus equated “looking at the menu” with the act of eating. Jesus didn’t mince words when he equated lusting with adultery, “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart”—Matthew 5:28.
Lust is so easy because it is seemingly a sin without a victim. At least we like to think so. The real victim is not just the person we stare at, but ourselves. The person lusting may not actually engage in the physical act of adultery, but in their heart they have. Jesus wants to protect our hearts as well as our bodies, because what we endeavor to do in our heart will find its way out in the body. Lust is powerful because it fills the mind with lies, enabling the lusting person to construct a fantasy world, whereby all of their sexual desires are able to thrive and grow. But, lust never stays in the mind. Lust traps the person doing it, dulling them to the beauty of life and love, turning the desire for a real love relationship between a husband and wife, into a degrading sexual act devoid of the intimacy meant for those who are united as one flesh.
No one is exempt from lust. It doesn’t matter if you are old or young, we must all be on guard against it. Even the godliest saint struggles with lust. Consider the righteous Job. Even he had to learn how to defend himself against lust, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman”—Job 31:1 (NIV). And if Job needed to guard against it, so do we.
How can we guard against lust? I encourage you to bounce your eyes. Billy Graham once said that we can’t help the first look in seeing someone beautiful, but we can sure help the second. That’s where the “bounce” comes in. Whenever we see someone that is beautiful and the temptation to lust is prevalent, we make sure that our gaze doesn’t linger. We bounce our gaze off of them onto something else. I have trained my eyes over the years to do this so that wherever I go, as soon as I see someone beautiful, I bounce my eyes. I refuse to take notice of them, or let my gaze return to set upon them. I may not have been able to help the first look, but I can definitely control the second. And as long as I keep this thought before me, I continually “bounce” my eyes so that I might not sin against God.
How about you? Do you feel trapped by lust? Know that Christ paid the price for that sin too. His death on the cross paid the price for the sin of lust and His resurrection enabled us to be free of lust’s pervasive and manipulating grip. He gives freedom and we must learn to walk in it, training ourselves to renounce our old ways of life, while guarding ourselves in a world that is at war against God. Amen.
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