OTKC 08: Avoid Lust

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.  Matthew 5:29-30 (ESVUK)

Purity vs Lust: The Conflict Explained

In outlining the blessed ones earlier in his teaching, Jesus pointed out that those who will see God are those who are pure in heart. As Jesus addresses the issue of adultery, He makes it a matter of the heart. Others want to leave it as an external action to judge, but Jesus points out that the action is the fruit of what was sown and nurtured in the heart. The radical nature of dealing with it has led some to think that Jesus is being literal. Jesus is being literal in emphasising the extent to which the individual must take to prevent the issue at its root. Removing the eye or the hand stops the physical act, being extremely clinically brutal in rooting out the heart that sees and desires in ungodly ways should be the commitment to do what is necessary to clean out the dross and be pure before God. The issue of lust reveals something about the heart of man that turns its back on God.

A war is at work in the heart of the man who chooses to follow God. That war is to maintain the heart’s focus. Especially detaching what formerly dominated the heart. The war is made more difficult because lust is admired, endorsed and encouraged by the world. On the surface, values like commitment and loyalty may matter, and marriages may have a preference for being based on them. Under the hood, though, the only commitment and loyalty really being promoted is to the self. Self-gratification, self-preservation, and self-exaltation. From the beginning, when lust ruled the heart of man to reject God and disobey His commands, humanity has built systems and procedures to propel that ungodly desire to take what God has blessed and turn it into a curse.

Thus, sexual relations between males and females are devalued and debased to be a mere physical transaction for the momentary pleasure of one or both and without the sense of honouring and valuing the other with the gift that God gave to celebrate commitment, faithfulness and fruitfulness. Thus, the underlying worldly values suggest why wait and highly value one’s body in sexual commitment in the sacred confines of the covenantal expression in marriage, when wild oats can be sown, sexual conquests can be emphasised – after all, sex sells. Eventually, the enterprise of engaging and loving another is no longer about how mutual service can be enjoyed in the purity of God, but rather a commodity that ironically cheapens others at the great expense of the value of human relations.

Purity vs Lust: The Victory Outlined

If the eye causes sin – pluck it out, we read; if the hand causes sin – cut it off, we hear Jesus say. What are we reading, what are we hearing? We’re hearing the heart of crucifying the flesh to live in the Spirit. We’re hearing the rallying command of Christ to be radical in pursuing holiness, without which no man can see God. We’re hearing the assertion that should be at the heart of the righteous in forsaking the desires of the flesh to please God.

In 1 John 2:16, we read, “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” The appetite we develop and cultivate as followers recognises the difference between the world and the Kingdom of God. The focus on the values of the Kingdom and the heart of the King generates the capacity to recognise what opposes them and take the necessary actions to address it.

This is a work of the Spirit of God in us. His Spirit directs us to turn from lust and turn to desire the perfect will of God above all things. His Spirit prompts us to detach ourselves from feeding self-gratification and turn to serving others, respecting and acknowledging them as humans made in the image of God and worthy of honour rather than objectification. His Spirit instructs us of the benefits of fulfilling the sexual appetite in the confines of an honourable covenant-centred commitment that glorifies God. His Spirit gives us the strength to see that sexual urges do not have to control us and debase us, they can be submitted to the direction of the King.

Steps to Cut Off and Cultivate Purity

The commands of Christ point to a new life in Him. That new life includes new appetites and desires. That new life helps us to recognise how repugnant the old life is to God, and as we learn from Him, it becomes repugnant to us as well. In time and in tune with understanding who Jesus is, as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Him, we recognise the trigger points that turn our hearts away from Him and submit to Him to address those points. We cut off the eye that lusts as we cultivate the eye that desires to pursue the good, perfect and acceptable will of God. We cut off the hand that takes as we cultivate the life that gives to serve others, not take advantage of them for our self-exaltation.

We don’t walk this journey alone. We acknowledge those we walk with who can help us. We can find the spiritually mature who can help us up when we stumble. We can identify those with whom we can be vulnerable and trust as they commit to encouraging and rebuking us as necessary. This isn’t a one-way street, from self-preservation and self-gratification, we can serve each other in mutual edification. We can celebrate the steps of growth we take as, episode by episode, we rebuke the devil, slay the flesh, resist the world’s temptations, and plunge into matters of holiness, righteousness, and purity. These matters may very well be counter-cultural, but the Kingdom of God is far greater than the kingdoms of this world, and the community of faith can cultivate this reality to help us live the new norm of the new life in Christ.

Look at the Consequences

The command to cut off and gouge out seems graphic and brutal, but Jesus does not talk about the action; He talks about the consequence. Losing a body piece is far better than losing your whole body as it’s thrown to hell. Jesus is as explicit in the necessary consequence as He is about the preventative measure. Jesus does not want us to get it twisted; eternal consequences are at stake. It’s not a fear tactic – though if that should work in the process of gaining a righteous fear of God, then so be it. It is the King pointing out what happens to those who harbour impurities rather than pursuing purity. It’s also worth considering the delightful and joyful outcomes of working with the Spirit of God to eliminate those impurities – even as it takes a lifetime – in preference to spending eternity with the one we’ll see because He sees that our hearts are pure before Him.

For His Name’s Sake

C. L. J. Dryden

Shalom

Questions for Reflection

• How do you currently approach thoughts of lust in your life?
• What role do prayer and the community of faith play in your struggle against lustful desires?
• How can you use Jesus’ command as a catalyst for deeper intimacy with God and greater purity of heart?