Prayer
Before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 119:19-20.
Lord, I long to reflect Your image, even if that makes me “strange” to those around me. Please show me your commands, and cause my soul to long for obedience to your laws at all times. Amen.
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word.
Reading
In today’s passage, Jesus deals with the law against adultery. He “raises the bar” by going right back to where every sexual sin finds its origin – the un-love of sexual lust. Jesus commands His disciples to act early and deal with the root of sexual sin, lust, before it matures into the outward expression of sexual sin; and He is particularly radical in expressing this command.
The underlying principle of the command against adultery (and Jesus’ command against lust) is that God is inherently faithful and loving. As His image-bearers, He wants His people to bear the image of His faithfulness and love, not exclusively but very particularly in their sexual relationships.
Sexual unfaithfulness will never be pleasing to the faithful God, simply because it is contrary to His nature. What is more, sexual unfaithfulness, whether in the heart or acted upon, is unloving, both towards one’s spouse and towards the God whose image we bear.
The sexual desire Jesus refers to as “lust”, and which is the seed of all sexual sin, is a self-centred desire for sexual gratification of some kind from another person, and therefore it is inherently unloving towards the person who is the “object” of one’s lust. It will never be pleasing to God.
We should also realise that lust, in this sense of the word, is sinful even within marriage. Sexual desire for our spouse is good and pure and part of God’s beautiful plan for marriage. But, when it turns to self-centred lust, it has been corrupted. In marriage, godly sexual intimacy is not self-centred. It is a means of mutually self-giving love aimed at the delight and well-being of the spouse.
Even more so, lust for someone to whom one is not married is at the very heart of what the Bible means by adultery – sexual intimacy outside of the marriage covenant.
Harbouring and feeding self-centred sexual desire in our hearts is completely out of place for the follower of Jesus.
Jesus’ radical instruction to His disciples in verses 29-30 does not mean that He wants a group of one-eyed, one-handed disciples. It is His way of dramatically emphasizing that His disciples are to be so radical in their love for God and others that they will deal with temptation radically. They will “flee sexual immorality” (1 Cor. 6:8) and they will make sure that they ruthlessly nip any temptation in the bud.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn one or more of these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will love God and others in the area of my sexuality.
- I will flee the lust that gives birth to sexual immorality.
- I will do so as an act of love to the other and to the Lord!
Heavenly Father, may my life today be a thank offering to You. Help me to take authority over my sexual desires and bring them into submission to Your Lordship. Please empower me by Your Spirit to pursue purity in thought, word and deed. I love You, and I long to bring You delight in this way. Amen.
Dave's Diary 
Leave a comment