July 20, 2009

The Heart of Adultery



The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached Part XII

Reflections on the Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5-7

(Commentary by Guy Glass and Scott Hescht)

Matthew 5:27-30
27 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 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. 30 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.

Scott: If you are going to stop a weed from growing it must be uprooted. Jesus has explained how murder grows out of a heart of anger. He reveals here that adultery grows out of a heart of lustful intent.

Whenever someone fails to follow God's commandments and falls into sin, it is because that person has failed to love. All of the commandments are built on love. Sin is failing to love. It isn't just adultery that displeases our Father in Heaven, but the act of looking upon one of his creations, man or woman, as an object of sexual desire rather than in love.

Many have failed to grasp this concept and it has led to their downfall in areas such as sexual perversion, fornication, empty relationships and adultery. There is a reason that God has sanctified marraige. It is a holy matrimony. Sexual pleasure is far from an evil in and of itself, rather it was made to be shared between a man and a woman who are passionately committed to one another in marriage.


Guy: In verses 27 and 28, Jesus makes it clear that He is concerned with more than our actions. He is concerned with our hearts, from which our actions come. Matthew 15:19 reads,
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. In verse eight of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus called the pure in heart blessed because they would see God. God, being aware of every secret and hidden thing in our minds and hearts, is not limited as we are and privy only to outward appearances. We can fool each other into thinking our hearts are clean but we can never fool God. It is the pure in heart that will see God, no one else.

Ecclesiastes 12:14 reads, "For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil." Acts 17:31 says, "because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." Then Romans 2:16 states, "on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus." So, the man that God will judge the world through is His Only Son, Jesus Christ and Jesus is saying that He will be judging our secret deeds and what's in our hearts. There will come a day when each of us will stand before Jesus in Christ and be judged.

Therefore, when we read the text from His sermon, we see Him illustrate how important it is for us to pursue a pure heart. He compares throwing a valuable body part, such as your hand or your eyes, away to your entire body being thrown into hell. It's hard for most of us to imagine living a meaningful and enjoyable life without our hands or our eyes. But, Jesus says a life lived blind and maimed, but with a pure heart is far more valuable for you than one lived with perfect wholeness but having an impure heart. The reason is because we must stand before Jesus and give an account for our lives.

Jesus uses an extreme example to emphasize just how serious our situation is. There are other things in your life that you believe are valuable or desirable, things you don't want to live without. For many of us, these things, whether they be pleasures, lusts, secret sins, thoughts of anger, unforgiveness, pride, ambitions, need to be torn out and thrown away. Hebrews 12:1 says, "let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." For many, and you need to look honestly at your life and see if this is you, you are not running the race with endurance because your encumbered with these things that you refuse to throw away. You are allowing these things to cause you to sin, whether outwardly or inwardly, and Christ is displeased.

Jesus states that our eternities are at stake. Of course, we are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus, not by our works. Our faith is proved to be true and our salvation is proved to be real, by our endurance in the faith, by our perseverance in following Jesus. What it comes down to is this question: Is Jesus continuing to be your treasure or are you treasuring other things? In Matthew 13:44 Jesus explains, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." What are you not willing to sell (figuratively and literally) in order to purchase that field wherein is the greatest treasure one can possess - Jesus Christ? If you are continuing to treasure and lust for things other than Christ, you may have fooled yourself into thinking you are eternally secure. The authenticity of your belief is proved over time by your perseverance. Are you being conformed to the image of Christ, toward holiness and purity, or are you hiding secret sin?

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home