I’ve finally gotten the nerve to tackle this publicly.

Jesus warned: “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” (Matthew 5:27-28).

Lust. It’s a universal struggle. And yet I find a widespread lack of knowledge regarding this critical word.

The reason that I want to take this up today is because I believe that the devil loves to get us looking for sin in all the wrong places. That way, we’re almost certain to miss the real stuff.

In the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus issues the warning about looking at people with lustful intent, He reiterates the Old Testament prohibition against adultery, which we know from the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) as the Seventh Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). Within that specific context, our Lord includes the subject of looking at someone with a certain kind of desire. He is warning against an adultery of the heart.

But don’t miss this: In the serious warning spoken by Jesus, the word translated into English as “lust” is actually the same word that’s used in the ancient Greek translation of the Bible – known as the Septuagint – to translate the word “covet” in the Tenth Commandment: “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17). As He connects the Seventh and Tenth Commandments, Jesus explains that lustful intent is the heart-level root of adultery.

So, from the Scriptures, let me be clear.

Our sexuality is not lust.

Our sexual desire is not lust.

Our sexual energy is not lust.

Lust involves something more.

Lust is an insatiable hunger to possess or consume things that don’t belong to us. Things which God has not given us. At the heart of many of our sins is, in fact, the root of greed. We covet. Adultery is an excellent example: “I’ll steal my neighbor’s wife.”

I want to propose today the idea that Christ’s teaching here is grace on steroids. Jesus isn’t imprisoning us in a fear of our own thoughts, but He is inviting us to shift our focus to the real problem: Am I really trusting God to supply what I need? It’s my contention that this theme underlies the entire Sermon on the Mount.

You and I are to treat other people properly and selflessly, and to love them deeply – as we’ve been loved by God. Lust is the antithesis of such love, as lust reduces human beings to mere objects for our own satisfaction. No woman is an object. No person is an object. Lust tells me that God isn’t enough, and that He’s not big enough to take care of me, and to meet my needs, and He really doesn’t want me to be happy at all – so God can’t be trusted. Lust is a liar.

When we come to understand the text in this way, we realize that what Jesus is not attacking us for thoughts that we might entertain, however fleetingly, and for real longings that are actually a perfectly normal part of how God designed us to operate.

God is not anti-sex. It was His idea, after all. What He wants is for us to love and care for others. The way in which He has called us to live for His glory is the way that leads to our deepest joy. God isn’t anti-happiness either. In fact, He’s anything but.

God hardwired us to desire intimacy with others. And God built into us powerful physical and soul-level attractions. Deeply invested in knowing and serving others is how we grow and thrive as human beings.

Misunderstanding lust empowers lust.

When the Bible warns against “the desires of the flesh” (e.g., Galatians 5:17), we’re misguided when we think of “flesh” as simply a reference to our physical bodies. The root of the word is closer to “selfishness” or “self-centeredness.” When you and I fail to understand this correctly, we set ourselves up for a world of harmful doctrine. Authentic Christianity is not ashamed of the physical body, or of the natural desires of the physical body. They’re part of our humanness, and we should thank God for them. To distinguish the spirit from the body in a black-and-white, good-versus-evil manner is closer to the ancient heresy of Gnosticism than to the life-giving gospel of Jesus.

Solid Bible exegesis reveals that, in this life, the spirit and the body are inseparable. Of course, the worship of self is idolatry, and contrary to God’s will for us. But acknowledging the self, and caring for the self, is not sinful. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).

One more thing. I think it’s important. Martin Luther said, “You cannot keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.” In my research on the word “lust” in the Bible, I recognized that lust – properly understood – is more than a thought. It is an inclination of the will to secure or act upon some object of our desire.

It’s more than, “Wow! That looks good.”

It’s, “I’m going to have that for myself, and I don’t care who I hurt in order to have it.”

In brutal honesty, as long as we’re still breathing, you and will continue to experience the “Wow! That looks good.” We don’t age out of that this side of heaven.

Do not despise your humanness. Shaming out over your humanness is never the way of Christ, who came to us “fully human in every way” (Hebrews 2:17). For you were created in the very image of God.

Pastor Charles