Image Bearer or Beast? Matthew 5:27-30

Introduction

In 1980, director Woody Allen and actress Mia Farrow began a long term relationship. Farrow had six children at the time and as her relationship with Allen became more serious, she encouraged her children to spend more time with him so that they could have a paternal influence. So, it was quite a shock in 1992 when it became public that Farrow and Allen’s relationship had ended after 12 years and that Allen was actually now in a sexual relationship with one of her adopted daughters who was 35 years younger than Allen.

(Show Quote on Screen) Allen, who had once been a paternal influence, was now her lover. When the scandal broke, Woody Allen gave the following quote: “The heart wants what it wants. There’s no logic to those things. You meet someone and you fall in love and that’s that.” And, I think Allen really gets to the thought of our current age in regards to sex: You’re only impulses and feelings. So, it is right and good to pursue what satisfies those impulses and feelings.

God’s Word

So, I want to ask whether that’s right or not. In some way or another at some time or another, every person in this room has had feelings and appetites that contradict what Jesus has said. What are we to do with them? Are we to give the “heart” what it wants? Or, are we to, at times, deny ourselves what we want and what we feel? And, this gets to the question that faces our age: Who or what are we? Are we what our urges and feelings say that we are? Or, are we something beyond those feelings and urges so that we might deny them, not because we refuse to be our authentic selves, but because we WANT to be our authentic selves? I think this is “Jesus’ Point About Lust:” (Headline)

“Lead” with your “head.”

Matthew 5:27–30 ““You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit 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. 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. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

We’re jumping into what has become known as the “Sermon on the Mount.” Jesus is teaching his young disciples about the nature of discipleship in his kingdom, and we’re in the midst of a section in which Jesus is intensifying their expectations of who a disciple in his kingdom will be. And, here he’s doing that by teaching them the sinfulness of sin. That is, we’re all tempted to celebrate our piety when we don’t murder someone or have an affair, but Jesus says that rather than celebrating our piety, we ought to dig deeper. Is there anger in our hearts? Is there lust in our hearts?

(slow down here and get it all out.) Jesus doesn’t want his disciples to approach holiness like they do the tax code. He isn’t concerned with disciples who look for loopholes in the laws so that they follow them by the letter. He’s looking for disciples who are so committed to the values of his kingdom that they keep the spirit of the law out of an inward desire rather than an outward conformity to expectations. That is, they should take up their crosses willingly, not begrudgingly, because they are his disciples and that’s the foundation of his kingdom.

You ought to “think.”

And, what’s interesting to note is that the only way for you to understand and apply what Jesus is teaching is for you to reject who our culture says you are for who Jesus says you are. Our culture says that the only way that you can be your “true, authentic self” is to listen to your feelings and satisfy your urges. But, Jesus is here saying that instead you ought to think. You ought to lead with your head. Jesus’ concept of the heart is different than ours. When we typically talk about heart, we’re talking about the seat of our feelings. (Draw a multi-chambered heart) But, the Jewish concept of the heart is multi-chambered. It’s the seat of cognition, emotion, and will. The heart encapsulates how you think, what you want, and what you do. Jewish people understand the integration of those aspects. Your thinking affects your doing, and your doing affects your thinking. Your feeling affects your thinking, and your thinking affects your feeling. In your heart, there are cognitive beliefs, emotional wants, and volitional decisions all integrated together.

So, think of how we can summarize what Jesus is saying here. The problem he presents in verse 28 goes like this: You “look” at a woman with “lustful intent” so you’ve “committed” adultery. “Looking” is a description of the cognitive aspect of the heart, isn’t it? I look, process, and interpret. And, what’s the problem in this case? I’ve allowed my “lustful intent” (also translated as “desire” — my urges, wants, wishes) to form my interpretation. I’m going to give my belly what it wants. So, I “commit” or volitionally choose adultery. So, Jesus is looking at his disciples, and He’s saying that’s not who my disciples are. Their belief isn’t driven by their impulses; their impulses are driven by their beliefs. He’s calling on us to lead with our heads, to take responsibility for the interpretation of the mind and actions of the hands.

You are what you “believe.”

You must determine what aspect will dominate. Will your life be primarily led by what you believe, what you feel, or what you do? Will you be led by your head, your belly, or your hands. That is, you must determine which of these most define you? And, this gets down to who you understand yourself to be. Today’s evolutionary thought is that you’re just an advanced beast that ought to live by your instincts. Your mind should default toward doing whatever the body wants and feels. Jesus says, “No, you’re an image bearer who thinks and believes, and your belief ought to drive you forward. Animals feel and do, but only image bearers can think and believe. That is, belief is more fundamentally you, not your desires and impulses.

CS Lewis says that the problem with modern philosophy is that it’s produced “men without chests.” That everyone is simply led by whatever the stomach says that it wants. And, all that does it turn you into a dog, and everyone around you into meat. It removes your dignity. It removes their dignity. It’s actually a denial of your true self as an image bearer of God made in his image. So, Lewis says: “The head must rule the belly through the chest.” I think this is Jesus’ point. Your head and beliefs are meant to set your pursuit. Over time, your pursuit will transform your desire so that they are wholesome. And, this will produce the kind of life a disciple should live. So, you’re not an animal. You’re an image bearer. Lead with your head.

And, as image bearers, we are given a responsibility and privilege that animals don’t have: dominion and stewardship. That is, you’ve been given gifts, and you must…

“Manage” your “gifts.”

Matthew 5:28–30 “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 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. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

When we’re talking about something as potentially volatile as lust and sexuality, I think it’s important that we understand it as the Bible does. Many of you grew up, like me, in the purity culture which might provoke you to immediately associate sexual desire with shame. What’s interesting about the phrase “lustful intention” is that it can also be translated as “desire.” At times in the NT, it’s a word that’s used to describe a negative desire like sexually adulterous lust, and in other places it’s used to describe a positive desire like “aspiring” to the office of elder. It’s the same exact word that we saw last week in James 4:2 “You desire and do not have, so you murder.” The translation into either a positive or a negative is determined by the context.

Sexual desire is a “gift.”

And, that helps us understand Jesus here, I think. Sexual attraction and desire isn’t wrong or sinful. It’s a gift. It’s part of how God designed humans as image bearers so that we can multiply and spread his glory over the face of the earth. The Song of Songs teaches us that it’s a source of pleasure, joy, and depth. So, the problem is not sexual desire. The problem is when sexual desire becomes the ruling desire of your life. The problem is when it becomes the determining factor of your identity, values, or ethics. I heard Tim Keller say something interesting once. He said that often when he’s talking with someone who is deconstructing from the faith, after a period of time, he’ll eventually ask, “So, what’s her name?” That lying behind much deconstruction is not intellectual skepticism as much as it is a desire for redefining our sexual ethics and values. It’s the stomach guiding the head rather than the head guiding the stomach.

So, Jesus is here guiding us to rightly steward our sexual desire so that it builds us up and glorifies God rather than tears us down and demeans God. (David’s adultery = sin against God alone — we see a means to an end, not an offense to God and image bearer) All of the gifts that God has given us, including sexual desire, require stewardship.

In fact, there’s a parallel, if you think about it, between what Jesus says here and what he says in the Parable of the Talents (Mt 25). You remember the story. Three servants receive three different gifts from their master to manage while he’s away. When the manager comes back, he demands an accounting for all of the gifts that he gave. Two of the managers managed well, and their joy and gifts both were increased. But, one of the managers was lazy with his gift, burying it in a hole in the ground. And, his gift was taken from him, and he was thrown into hell. There’s a parallel here, isn’t there? In both cases there’s good gifts receives, one receiving money and one receiving sex. In both cases, management of the gift is the issue, and in both cases, those who did not steward the gift well are thrown into hell.

Temptations can be “opportunities.”

So, the question that has to be asked is: How will you manage your sexual desire so that it blesses God rather than shames him? It’s interesting here that Jesus talks about what you see, isn’t it? Sometimes, you can help what you see, and sometimes you can’t, especially today when pornographic images pop up. (vulgar culture evolution — Elon Musk just signed to allow porn on Twitter) And, often, what you’ve seen turns into intrusive thoughts that you have to deal with down the road. But, each image, each intrusive thought, each temptation presents to you an opportunity to be either managed to glorify God or to shame him. How will you respond? Will you allow your mind to keep chasing the lust, or will you redirect your thoughts toward Christ? What about your singleness? When I was single, I often thought of how much easier it would be if I could just flip a switch so that the desire wasn’t there. But, the desire is good. And, that desire in the context of singleness provides an opportunity for you to say, time and again, I lay down my life for Jesus. Not my desires, but his glory make the decisions. What about aberrant desires, same-sex attraction for instance? How will you manage them? Maybe you didn’t ask for them, but find them there. But, maybe they’re there because all of us have had the good gifts of God corrupted by sin’s curse. Well, it’s deciding, “I am not my intrusive thoughts or my aberrant desires. I am who Christ has made me to be, and my belief will rule my desires, not my desires over my belief.”

Jesus is showing us here that we must take responsibility as stewards over our gifts. What kind of steward, manager will you be? Well, good stewardship requires a strategy. As a good manger, you must..

“Plan” for your “success.”

Matthew 5:29–30 “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. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

Jesus is remarkably practical here, isn’t He? He doesn’t just tell us to avoid lust; He tells us what overcoming lust requires and how to go about it. He gives us a strategy so that we can be effective managers of the gift that God has given to us. And, it’s a strategy that can enable us to plan for success in this area of our lives. I want to make three key observations about Jesus’ strategy. He says:

Take “responsibility.”

First of all, Jesus is calling for us to take responsibility for our sexual desires. These are not the unmanaged urges of an animal. They are the gift of God to his thinking image bearers. He’s calling us to a thinking a response. “If your right eye causes you to sin” you need to realize, take responsibility for it, and treat it as seriously as it requires. “If your right hand causes you to sin” you must do the same. You can only interpret whether something is causing you to sin if you have both self-awareness and developed belief. I have to be aware of what is a problem, and I have to be aware that I have that problem. It’s a thinking response.

So, when you’re struggling with lust, you have to discern where the problem lays. You have to discern if it’s a problem with your “eye” or with your “hand” so that you can deal with it. There are a lot of reasons why a person struggles with lust, and if you don’t get to the root of the problem, you’re only dealing with the symptom. Some people are searching for power and control. They log on because they can find exactly what they want, and they get to choose their own taste. They’re prone to be attracted to people who make them feel powerful. Some people are searching for affirmation. They’ve been living all of their lives wondering if they measure up in anyone’s eyes. Maybe their parents undermined that. Maybe their high school experience did. Maybe they struggled with weight issues. Then, someone notices them at work or at the gym, and they become entranced. They feel attractive for the first time, and it’s what they’ve been looking for. Some people are looking for something easier. Romancing their wife is too difficult. They don’t want to have to apologize or serve or put forth any effort. They just want something easy that’s all about them. So, they long on to the site or they pay off the prostitute. Some people are looking for fulfillment and purpose. Some are looking for simple pleasure.

But, whatever the root of your lust is, whether it’s an “eye” or a “hand,” you have to take responsibility for it so that you’ll deal with it. And, you have to be honest with yourself. It’s so easy to fool ourselves into believing we don’t have an issue or that we’re not capable of having an issue.

And, then you must…

Deal “seriously.”

You must deal seriously with it. Jesus is speaking in hyperbole here. We know that because none of his disciples went without their limbs or their eyes. This was actually condemned at Nicea. But, the point is clear enough: You have to be ready to amputate. You can’t trifle with your sin. You have to maim it. You have to gouge the eye out. You have to cut the hand off. You have to deal with sin seriously.

Does your smartphone or home computer make you likely to lust? You need to amputate. You need a flip phone or accountability to software that you can disable. Are you tempted to gawk at pictures on Snapchat or Instagram, or to have secretive conversations on FB messenger? You need to amputate. Does Netflix or your HBO subscription provoke you to lust? You need to amputate. And, maybe you’d say, but then I’ll miss out what my friends are talking about. I won’t know what’s happening in our culture. It’s better to be culturally maimed that to be thrown into hell, Jesus would say.

This is why I’ve insisted that none of our staff have Snapchat. It’s why we don’t ride in vehicles or meet in places alone with members of the opposite sex. It’s why I have someone walk by my window every 10-15 minutes when I’m counseling with a female. It seems like overkill, perhaps, but it’s better to gouge the eye out than for it to cause you to sin.

And, notice Jesus’ landing point that we must…

Choose “wisely.”

He keeps saying that you’d rather “lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” What’s he doing? He’s acknowledging a short term cost in the face of a long term gain. Live for the short term lust, and you’ll pay the long term price. How many of you have images from porn use that you wish you could dispose of? How many of you brought baggage and pressure and expectations into your marriage that you wish you could undo? These are the most temporal of the long term consequences. So, Jesus is saying, “Deny the short term temptation for the long term reward.”

That’s what wise people do. They pay the short term price for the long term gain. Fools eat what they want and eventually feel like death. The wise eat what they should and years later still feel good. That’s the head leading the belly through the chest. That’s what Jesus is calling you to.

One day, you’re going to step out of this world and into the next. And, you’re going to be ushered into the presence of Jesus where you will bow. And, in that moment, you’re not going to care that you were on Snapchat or that you saw a movie or that anyone paid you attention in the gym. In that moment, you’re only concern will be whether or not Jesus says, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” So, choose wisely.