Seeds for 05/23/2023 - Matthew 5:27-30
Scripture: 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.”
Observation: A second time, Jesus presses beyond the letter to the spirit of the Law. So far, He’s working through bits of the Ten Commandments. Adultery is certainly a sin. Jesus ups the ante. A couple observations here:
“…anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” - Before any physical intimacy or emotional entanglement, the issue begins in one person’s heart. It isn’t something involuntary, like noticing or a simple step forward, like taking an interest. This is lustfulness. Love is shared between subjects, persons who treat one another as humans made in God’s image. Lust, however, entails one person (a subject) viewing another person as an object, something done with the heart, not with the eye. Adultery crosses a boundary, so also with lust. Adultery disregards a person’s covenant; lust disregards a person’s humanity. That’s tough, yes. But true. People are not objects and are not to be looked upon as such. To do so is sinful.
“If your right eye… right hand causes you to stumble…” - Jesus is serious about the problem of lust. To drive this home, He illustrates the need to deal with the root issue in the starkest of terms. Something important to note here is that, according to Jesus, one is accountable for his own temptations and the issues in his own heart (or her own, to extrapolate). Nothing in this clear and straightforward teaching of Jesus lays the responsibility at anyone’s else’s feet. A man is responsible for the care and keeping of his own heart. In like manner, a woman hers. There is no one else to whom the buck may be passed.
In our hyper-sexualized culture, objectification is normalized and even popularized. This has no doubt infiltrated the church as well, as headlines make plain. The disciple of Jesus, however, will resist floating along the current of culture. Disciples will dare to participate in a counter-cultural ethic of love over lust, honoring one another’s humanity over reducing a person to a thing, a subject to an object. And disciples will take responsibility for the mess in their own hearts, not off-load that responsibility to others.
Application:
How does the culture promote treating people as objects?
How can we resist and replace that attitude of the heart with one that reflects the love of God for all?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, work in my heart. Lead me to prize the humanity of all persons, that I may honor you and those you have made in your image. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
If you liked this post from Seeds of Faith, why not share it and/or subscribe?
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™