10 For Ten (6)

Introduction

Growing up there was a push for Christians not to listen to rock music - from satan

Jesus said,

Matthew 12:33–37 NIV

“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Jesus is very clear we need to be careful of our hearts

Heart - center of our thoughts, emotions and decisions

So again Jesus says where your heart is , there your treasure will be

I think often our faith starts with trying to do the right action and in time we come to realize the areas where our hearts don’t match the actions needed or intended, and we realize they need to change as well.

Which is the essence of the New covenant

Ezekiel 36:24–26 NIV

“ ‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

And so while the 10 commandments speak of behaviours the only way they are truly and fully lived is by a heart that is changed

And so Jesus said loving mother and father is about our attitude toward them, murder is about harboured anger

And adultery is not just the act of marital infidelity but a heart filled with lust

And so Jesus brings the law to bear on our hearts

By the way, in case you haven’t realized, lust is a widely acceptable “sin” in our culture both blatantly and subtely

We have come to see lust/sex as a right and means to human flourishing and pursue it as such.

While adultery is largely still seen as wrong, we continue to have hearts that pursue the cause.

So let’s quickly remind ourselves of God’s definition of marriage and the fallen nature it is tainted by and then look at Jesus’ statement in Matthew 5

I. God’s Definition of Marriage

We can maybe all remember the excitement and apprehension as we looked to get married

So we find ourselves again at the beginning of God’s story in Gen 2

A. Man and Woman

Creation of man and woman

Woman is taken from the side of Adam followed by the first poem in Scripture

vs 23

This is the impetus for marriage

vs 24 - “Therefore”

human man and woman were made with the potential for relational complementarity

or marriage

In God’s concern for man’s aloneness he creates a helper

This is not subordinate but an “ally” and coworker in God’s creation

As one commentator says, “Not inferior but from his side showing mutuality and equality”

B. Leave and Cleave

The marriage relationship is the means for furthering God’s commad to “be fruitful and multipy, subdue and have dominion the rest of creation

And so the new pair would come together

Not abandonment or complete untethering from parents but a “new primary loyalty”

C. One Flesh

And into a complete union in every area

But as we are talking about Adultery we are concerned with the physical union

It is a good thing but not the main thing

Sex was and is not meant for bring pleasure to oneself

It is rather to be about selflessly giving not receiving

This is a mark of a covenant of selfless union

II. The Fallen Nature of Marriage

The fall quickly distorted that - Gen 3

No two people are a perfect, let alone good match

No matter how “compatible” we seem our fallen nature will mar this

Our culture, by the way, seems to believe that ultimately sex is the main indicator of this compatibility as though sex is some how untainted

We see in Jesus’ view that this isn’t so

For the woman her desire would be for her husband

Now this word can mean a sort of romantic/relational desire

But in one of it’s two uses in the Hebrew Bible it means to consume/control

For the husband he would rule over or dominate his wife

So without going into it we can see the difficulty coming out of the fall

selfishness, manipulation, control, self-centeredness now would mar the marriage relationship and really all relationships

In Jesus’ day the view and treatment of women showed this reality

In that culture, woman were treated as unequals, often as objects to be used and disposed of

And so Jesus’ words in Matt 5 on both adultery and divorce look to undo all this

According to an article on Forbes website, looking back on a study from 1997, that showed adultery was the number 1 reason for divorce.

III. Adultery/Lust

So again the problem is not just the action but the hearth

Jeremiah 17:9–10 NIV

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

A. Lust

To lust after something or someone is to look at it as something we need to be ultimately fulfilled

We raise it’s significance far beyond it’s ability to uphold and then must pursue it at all costs

Ie. David and Bathsheba

As one commentator states, “Lust is about possession and greed.”

Lusting and pursuing lead to lust for more

The one who lusts after a woman, has already committed adultery

In other words, we have already looked at her in a way that makes her a possession to be taken if even in our minds.

And we have committed, in our minds, what is only to be given in a covenanted selfgiving union

It’s not just what we see but what we do with what we see

B. Severity

So Jesus says vs 29-30

Eye - gouge it out

Luke 11:34–36 NIV

Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”

Song: Oh be careful little eyes

2. Right hand - what you do, grabbing and taking

And so Jesus calls his followers to protect their hearts and stop ungodly action from becoming reality.

1 John 2:15–17 NIV

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

better than “whole body go into hell”

Transformation in and through Christ is to be inward and outward

The New covenant is written on our hearts by the Spirit to bring life to our body and soul

Romans 8:5–6 NIV

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

Conclusion