AND YOU SHALL BE MY DISCIPLES – Lesson #7
- Do Not Lust
“ 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Matthew 5:27–30).
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
This is a very difficult saying and an even more difficult circumstance to find yourself. It should be approached with humility, submission to God through prayer.
First, God considers lust an offense worthy of death. Leviticus 20:10 says “If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
1. Lust is destructive. Proverbs 6:32 says “The one who commits adultery with a woman is
lacking sense; He who would destroy himself does it.”
2. Lust is a sin that spreads like a virus. Matthew 5:32 says “but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of un-chastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
3. Lust is powerfully seductive and fatally addictive.
James 1:14-15 says, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. (v15) Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
4. Lust leads to corruption of the soul, debauchery and a reprobate mind.
James 4:2 says, “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.”
Jesus uses an extreme figure of speech when He says to pluck out your eye or to cut off your hand in order to illustrate the serious consequence of lust, “your whole body will go to hell”.
A true disciple, a true Christian, must avoid lust at all costs. But, when we find ourselves caught in the vortex of strong delusion and web of sin, we must start by admitting it and begin the long and difficult journey back to freedom.
1 John 1:8-9 says , “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Please click these links for a more complete explanation and an escape from this danger:
HOW MUST YOU DO IT?___________________________
HOW MUST YOU TEACH IT?_______________________
Your Brother and Friend,
Mike Young
Whitestone Fellowship 