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NASB | Matthew 5:28 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. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 5:28 but I say to you that everyone who [so much as] looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. |
Bible Question: Matthew 28:30 "But I say to you that who ever looks at a woman to lust for her has already commited adultry with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right had causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; Now here is where I need some clarification. If looking at a woman in a lustful way, is a sin? Then why stop there, why not go all the way with her and commite the adultry? Why not go all the way if "a sin is a sin"? Are all sins equal and delt with the same way? |
Bible Answer: Let's look at sin from two perspectives: God's and ours. Jesus equates the sin of the heart (lusting after woman) to adultery itself. Thus, the lusting itself is sin in God's eyes. What about murder? Is not plotting to murder sinful of itself, even though the actual act, for lack of opportunity or courage, may never occur? A person down on his luck may entertain serious thoughts of theft or robbery. Is this not sinful, even though for various reasons the physical act may not be carried out? Yet from man's point of view, no real sin has been committed, and certainly no crime, if all that has happened has happened in the mind: lust after woman, desire to murder or to rob. No criminal charges will be pressed and no punitive measures will be taken against anyone who merely thinks of committing a crime. So why not go all the way, you ask, if a sin is a sin? Indeed, the hardest sin to avoid is the sin of the heart, and that is precisely the place where Christians need the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit in their lives. Jesus knew this. There is always a gap, a time lapse, between the thought and the act. It is at the moment of sinful thoughts, before they have time to germinate in the mind and grow into deeds, that Christians need to go to their knees in prayers of confession and petition to God for forgiveness and strength to deal with their human weaknesses. If we do not, there is an ever-present danger that we will "go all the way" and commit the physical act that was born of the sinfulness of the heart. When we neglect to do business with God and choose to go our way and carry out the evil acts that flow from an evil heart, not only do we forfeit God's forgiveness and help, but we subject ourselves to further punishment when we break man's laws. Remember what Barney Fife used to say on the Andy Griffith Show: "Nip it in the bud!" And since childhood I've known this little piece of wisdom: "Sow a thought, reap an act. Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny." --Hank |