The Tyranny of Lust & the Freedom of Christ (Matthew 5:27-30)

Tyranny of Lust

I was in my first yer of seminary when Dr. Heath Lambert was wrapping up his PhD. in Biblical counseling. He wrote a wonderful book called, Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace.” He wrote it because he recognized the tyranny of lust that have crippled and destroyed so many marriage and ministries.

In the second chapter of his book, he tells the story of two men; Ryan and Dave. he writes,

“Ryan sat in my office sobbing. Not crying, but sobbing. His hands were busy wiping oceans of tears from his face as he wailed confessions of sin and regret. His wife sat beside him with a face so hard it looked like it was chiseled in granite. Ryan and Lisa had been married for fifteen years and had three kids. They were meeting with me because their decade and a half of marriage was filled with Ryan’s love for pornography. After years of repeated discoveries, Lisa’s initial discouragement had spiraled into despair, and now her despair had twisted into disdain. Lisa was finished—she wanted to take the kids and get far away from Ryan. Ryan’s moaning and pleading for her to remain with him were so desperate and loud that it attracted the attention of people down the hall.

Dave had a similar story. He had been married to Marie for twenty years. He had periodically dabbled in pornography, buying a magazine every now and then. In the last year, though, he had discovered pornography on the Internet. When introduced to the ease and anonymity of viewing pornography on the web, Dave became totally enslaved. He spent hours looking at it and eventually became disinterested in his wife. Marie knew something was different but was not prepared when she discovered her husband was hooked on porn. Horrified, she left their house to stay with a friend. Like Ryan, Dave pleaded with loud tears for Marie to forgive him. He begged for forgiveness. He swore he would change. He vowed never to look at pornography again. He wept on his knees, crying at Marie’s feet in total brokenness.

Dave and Ryan do not know each other, but they have a lot in common. Both have serious problems with pornography and have had for some time. Both are “family men” with a wife and children. Both stand to lose their family because of their sin. Both are in desperate situations as they cry and plead for reconciliation. What are Ryan and Dave to do?

The Lies of Lust

Too many relationships have been broken by the lies of lust. Allurement is a type of seduction that tries to deceive you with the lie that sexual immorality is a better pleasure than God's sexual ethics, or even God Himself. For instance, lust may deceive you by saying that pornography will help you overcome loneliness. However, this is a lie. Loneliness is not overcome by merely having someone in your life. Many married people are still lonely in their marriages, and many single people are content with their singleness.

Lust may give you the illusion that you have more control because your immoral imagination (i.e., fantasy) gets you to use people as objects in your sexual delusion. However, the irony is that the more you allow your heart to use pornography, the more it controls you. Pornography is considered an addiction because of the grip it has on some people.

Lust deceives you by making you believe that someone makes you feel desirable. It lures you to pornography, where you are surrounded by beautiful people who entice you to join them in their sexual immorality through imagination. The lie deceives you into thinking that beauty is found in vanity and not character.

Lust lies to you by normalizing sexual immorality, a sexual ethic that is separate from God. We live in an overly sexualized society, where even a laundry soap commercial cannot be watched without lust making its way into the advertisement. Countless psychologists and doctors justify sexual immorality by claiming that pornography, even in moderation, is healthy and that the church's teachings on sexuality are outdated and even harmful. They normalize sexual immorality, and your heart is prone to believe it.

Ryan and Dave, and every other believer in Christ must forsake the lies of lust and find their rest in Christ.

Christian, you must overcome the allurement of lust with contentment in the attractiveness of in Christ.

The Heart of the Matter

It's important to note that in Matthew 5:20-48, Jesus establishes the moral standard for his kingdom. In the previous section (Matthew 5:21-26), he discussed the sixth commandment, which forbids murder. He emphasized that holding onto unrighteous anger in our hearts can lead to committing murder. Therefore, we should aim to reconcile with those who have wronged us and seek peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Similarly, Jesus looks beyond the physical act of infidelity and examines the motive behind it. He wants us to recognize the desires within us that lead us to commit adultery. Just as he revealed the motive behind murder as unrighteous anger, he now examines the motive behind infidelity, which is lust.

The Seventh Commandment and the Good Life (Matthew 5:27-28)

Jesus sets a high moral standard for fidelity and sexual ethics, which our culture often disregards. While murder is not an acceptable sin in our society, we tend to avoid confronting the immorality of adultery. Many of our political leaders, including U.S. presidents, senators, and congressmen, have had affairs with their spouses. However, we give them a pass, claiming that their private life doesn't affect their public life. I believe this way of thinking is shallow and ludicrous. If someone is willing to violate the sacred bond of marriage to the most important person in their life, how can they be trusted to effectively care for others whom they do not know?

The reason we give political leaders a pass is that we have a low moral standard when it comes to infidelity. We have sexualized everything to the point where nothing is sacred in the marriage bedroom. Jesus offers us a better way to live and think about sexual faithfulness.

The law says,

Exodus 20:14 ESV

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

But Jesus says,

Matthew 5:27–28 (ESV)

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’ primary concern in this text is adultery. According to the Jewish understanding of the law, adultery happens when one spouse physically breaks the marriage covenant with sexual intimacy with another person. Jesus says, however, that infidelity begins in the heart with lust.

Frederick Buechner says,

The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations Lust

Lust is the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst.

Frederick Buechner

The meaning of the word lust is a strong desire for something. It des not always have to be sinful. For example, hunger would be a natural lust. In the scriptures, however, lust most often describes the desires of the flesh such as gluttony.

In the context of our text, lust refers to a strong sinful desire for sexual intimacy that is outside the bounds of God’s design for sexual intimacy. If you have the ESV version of the Bible, it’s translation gives us more direction to what Jesus is referring to.

Matthew 5:28 ESV

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.

What does “lustful intent” mean? Well, there are two ways to read the original Greek. On the one hand, it could be translated “anyone who looks at a woman in order to lust after her” commits adultery. Its one thing, say as a man, to look at a woman and say she is beautiful. Beauty is a good thing and is ok to acknowledge a woman’s beauty. It’s another thing to lust after a woman. Lust lingers on the woman’s beauty in order to stir up sexually immoral thoughts.

The Greek text can also be translated, “anyone who looks at a woman so as to cause her to lust” commits adultery. In this case, a man looks at a woman, likely a married woman, in order to seduce her away from her husband. This man is an adulterous home wrecker.

What makes this translation appealing to me is it makes the tenth commandment make more sense. The tenth commandment says to not covet. Then it goes on to explain things not to covet, one of them being your neighbors wife (Exodus 20:17). The wife is mentioned along with a man’s property like his house and his donkey. The point is do not be so jealous over a man’s property that you want to break other commands, like theft, to have it. Lusting after a woman in order to entice her toward infidelity is like stealing her away from her husband.

No matter where you land on the translation, the application is the same. Jesus forbids all kinds of sexual immorality. Any sexual conduct outside of covenant marriage between a man and a woman is immoral, not just adultery (Matthew 15:19; 19:9).

Pre-marital sex is not only an offense agaisnt God, but agaisnt your future spouse. You have forsaken single minded, heart united loyal love that comes with covenant. Homosexual unions violate God’s sexual ethic. Do not be deceived, church. Nowhere in scripture does God ever endorse homosexuality, nor is it spoken of in light of marriage. It is always condemned (Gen. 19:4–11; Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Judg. 19:22–25; Rom. 1:24–27; 1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Tim. 1:10).

With a voice of commitment to the authority of God’s word and a sense of compassion, Daniel Doraini wisley says,

“Homosexual unions constitute an intimate relationship outside the bounds of marriage, so they also violate God’s will. Sexual expression belongs inside the love, the commitment, and the safety of marriage. We should have compassion for those who struggle with same-sex attraction, but we cannot bless homosexual unions without doing violence to Scripture.” Daniel Doriani

This goes both ways. Women need to be just as concerned about lust that entices men away from their families. This is why the church disciples young men and women in modesty. It’s not that we do not appreciate beauty. It’s that we know that every human heart desires forbidden relationships. We also know that our eyes inflame our heart. What we see and how we see can stir up lust. Jesus alludes to when he says,

Matthew 5:29 ESV

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.

Careful little eyes what you see

William Shakespeare is attributed to saying,

“The eyes are the window to the soul.” William Shakespeare

It is likely that Shakespeare was thinkig of Jesus’ teaching on the eye being the light of the body. Jesus says,

Matthew 6:22 ESV

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,

Matthew 6:23 ESV

23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

So, when Jesus references the eye in Matthew 5:29, he has more in mind than an organ of the body. If Jesus was merely thinking of human organs, why wouldn’t he eliminate other organs that play a more prominent role in sexual immorality? Its because the eye has a direct link to your heart, and Jesus is most concern with your heart. Jesus clearly says,

Matthew 15:19 ESV

19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Notice in verse 19, from the heart comes evil thoughts like murder, adultery, and sexual immorality. What is the connection between the eyes, the mind, and heart? How your heart functions.

Your Heart is dynamic

Your heart is dynamic. What that means is your heart can change. It can respond to changes such as regeneration and faith, light and darkness, good and evil. There are three functions to your heart. Your heart functions on a volitional, emotional, and cognitive level. The Bible says your heart has the ability to think.

For example, when the Pharisees accused jesus of blasphemy in Matthew 9:3, Jesus said

Matthew 9:4 ESV

4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?

When Jesus’ disciples were arguing about who is the greatest in the kingdom,

Luke 9:47 ESV

47 But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side

Luke 9:48 ESV

48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”

Paul connects your heart to your imagination when he says,

1 Corinthians 2:9 ESV

9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—

Your heart has the ability to fell strong emotions. Jesus says

Matthew 6:21 ESV

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

You worship in your heart what you treasure, what you love deeply. Your heart can burn with passion for good things. After Jesus’ resurrection, he met up with his disciples on a road discussing the scriptures. After Jesus left,

Luke 24:32 ESV

32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

Your heart can burn with evil passions. Regarding lust, Paul says

Romans 1:24 ESV

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

The people in Romans 1:24, were given over to the lusts of their heart to dishonor their bodies with sexual immorality. Meaning, their internal passions move them to external immoral actions like adultery, homosexuality, or consuming pornography.

Your heart moves you to do things. Jesus says

John 14:15 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Your heart functions cognitively, emotionally, and volitionally. All three work in tandem together, which means what you think affects what you feel, which affects what you do, and what you feel can affect what you think which works itself out to what you do. Your eyes are directly connected to your heart. So what you see affects your imagination and your passion.

If your heart is filled with lust you will turn your eyes toward sexual immorality because your heart thinks about it (fantasizes-imagination) and burns with passion (feelings emotions) for it. If your eyes turn toward sexually immorality you will inflame your thoughts and feelings toward sexual immorality. Be careful little eyes what you see.

The allure of lust is intense. If you go back to the Garden of Eden, it was the lust of Eve’s eyes that got her in trouble.

Genesis 3:6 (ESV)

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate…

The same lust got Lot in trouble when he left Abram.

Genesis 13:10 ESV

10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

The lust of his eyes moved him closer to Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus calls you to something more alluring than lust. He offers your heart someone more attractive than whomever tempts your heart to infidelity.

The word of God calls you to turn your eyes toward the Lord.

Psalm 123:1 ESV

1 To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!

Psalm 123:2 ESV

2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us.

The writer of Hebrews says,

Hebrews 12:2 ESV

2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus is the one enthroned in Heaven at the right hand of God. We look to Jesus. What happens when we turn our eyes to Jesus? We have crazy water walking obedient faith.

When Peter came out of the boat with courage and boldness to walk on water admits a storm, his eyes were on Jesus.

Matthew 14:27–29 ESV

27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.

Of course, we also know that when Peter took his eyes off of Jesu, he sank into the sea. So, the point is turn your eyes on Jesus. Keep your eyes on Jesus. As the Old Hymn refrain sings,

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace” Helen Howarth Lemmel

Turning your eyes upon Jesus is first and foremost. But you have to keep them there, and to do that Jesus requires radical obedience.

The Good Life Requires Radical Obedience (Matthew 5:29-30)

Jesus is using powerful imagery to make his point clear and impactful. Since we know that Jesus is more concerned about the purity of your heart more than your bed (John Piper), then we also know not to take this text literally. Jesus is using hyperbole, exaggeration to teach the significance of the sin of adultery and lust.

Jesus’ point is you must take radical action, or make radical sacrifices to fight for your purity of heart. Loosing your eye or hand is no small matter. Your eyes see the world around you. Your hands work to make a living. With out your eyes and your hands, you cannot live well. On the other hand, if your eye or your hand is sick with a bacterial infection that cannot be treated, you must tear out the eye or cut off the hand to save your life. The point is the infection is sinful desire is so consequential that if you do not do whatever it takes to rid yourself of it, like make great sacrifices to your comfort, you will perish.

John Piper if helpful here. He says,

What Jesus Demands from the World The Radical Point of Tearing Out the Right Eye

Jesus’ point is not that literally tearing out the right eye is going to solve anything. The point is not that inward desires can be controlled by external maiming. The point is how enormous the stakes are. They are so great, we must do what we have to do to defeat the bondage of sinful desire. It is astonishing how many people deal with their sin casually. Jesus demands otherwise. Fight for a pure heart with the same urgency as tearing out an eye and cutting off a hand.

The passage emphasizes the need for urgency, as the consequence of not heeding the warning is eternal damnation. It is better to lose a body part than to lose your entire self to hell. Some Christians tend to dismiss the warning due to their strong belief in justification by grace alone through faith alone and the perseverance of the saints.

However, Christianity is not solely about justification or perseverance. It is a stark contrast between light and darkness. If you are still entangled in sin, masquerading as a child of God, you are deceiving yourself. You will persist in sinning and bear rotten fruit. The warning in this passage is a call to repentance, confession, and placing your trust in Christ.

Genuine believers will hear this warning and examine their hearts. They will confess their sins and ask for forgiveness, striving to be faithful. True Christians understand that God forbids sin for their own good.

Dr. Heath Lambert expresses this well, He says,

“God does not forbid sexual immorality because he wants you to be miserable; God forbids it because sexual immorality leads to brokenness, sadness, emptiness, death, and hell. Righteousness, on the other hand, leads to fullness, joy, peace, and life.” Dr. Heath Lambert

Christians believe that Jesus offers a simple solution to life's challenges. If you indulge in sinful activities, it will lead you to hell. On the other hand, if you hunger and thirst for doing what is right and righteous, it will lead you to a fulfilling life. To truly experience the joy of righteousness, you must have a personal relationship with Jesus.

If you struggle with lust, there are two ways to overcome it. Firstly, be careful about what you look at. You cannot fight lust by watching pornographic material or by viewing social media content that stirs up lustful thoughts. Similarly, watching videos of people who do not follow God's design of covenant marriage or TV shows that promote the LGBTQ lifestyle will not help you fight your lustful desires. Such programs use sexually immoral interactions to convey their message, and sex is their main tool to do so.

If you have to, be radical and sacrifice your media for the sake of your soul's purity. This might mean throwing away your phone, destroying your TV, or selling your computer. Do whatever it takes to protect the purity of your heart.

However, none of this will matter if you do not uproot lust from your heart. The Bible teaches that the key to fighting lust is contentment.

The Freedom of Contentment

Paul’s counsel to the Philippinas is so wise for us today. Paul says,

Philippians 4:11–13 ESV

11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Paul also says to his child in the faith, young man Timothy,

1 Timothy 6:6 ESV

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain,

Paul is not speaking about the worldly gains of health, wealth, and prosperity, but rather about the great spiritual gains for your soul. In every circumstance of your life, Paul encourages you to learn contentment. If you are single and longing for a partner, you can find contentment in Christ, who will fulfill your need for companionship and help you stay away from lustful desires.

If you are already married, learn to be content with your spouse, knowing that Jesus is aware of every season of marriage, including times when sexual intimacy may wane due to sickness, stress, or hormonal changes. He promises to strengthen you with contentment, helping you avoid infidelity and divorce.

Whether you are single or married, you should not make a god out of marriage or your spouse. Marriage cannot satisfy your soul's need for intimacy, and your spouse cannot meet the eternal depth of your soul's needs. Only Jesus can be the source of true contentment.

To resist the allure of lust, turn your eyes upon the attractiveness of Jesus, who will provide you with contentment. When your heart is content in Christ, you will see lust for what it is and do whatever it takes to rid your heart of it. Jesus will give you the strength to fight lust with joy.

Heed the Warning

Dave and Ryan’s stories went tow different directions. Lamber says,

“I can tell you that only one of them really changed. Only one of these men is reconciled to his wife and restored to a happy, porn-free life with his family. The other is now divorced from his wife and totally separated from his kids. One of them is restored and living a happy life with his family and is not looking at pornography.”

Doriani, Daniel M. 2006. The Sermon on the Mount: The Character of a Disciple. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

Craig Keener, Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 187–88. Keener rightly notes that this text “indicates Jesus’ belief in the bodily resurrection of the damned for torment” (n. 83).

Lambert, Heath. 2013. Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.