A Call to Sexual Purity

January 28, 2001

TEXT: MATTHEW 5:27-32

There it was on the front page of the morning paper. It was an article written by a minister of another denomination who declared that churches should be more understanding when people commit adultery. After all, he said: "Humans have a God-given, genetic urge to propagate as widely as possible." He went on to say: "God has given us our promiscuous genes so I think it would be wrong for the church to condemn people who have only followed their instincts." And then, in the most amazing of his statements, the church leader said: "Adultery is wrong, but having got that out of the way, we have to ask why people go on committing it."

I doubt if there are many of us who are comfortable with that evaluation of our sexuality. One cannot read the Biblical record and settle for anything less than Jesus' call to sexual purity. But what exactly is that call as given in the Sermon on the Mount?

Translating the Greek language and being as grammatically literal with this passage as possible, the translation could read something like this: "I say to you everyone who is LOOKING at a person for the purpose of desiring them." One commentator even translates it this way: "Anyone who stares with a leering look."

I am not certain exactly where Jesus draws the line between a "look" and a "leering look," but intention seems to be a critical aspect of Jesus' teaching on sexual purity. Intention draws the line between temptation and temptation that leads to sin, and Jesus is not condemning the temptation. What he is prohibiting, is looking at another person: "for the purpose of lusting after them."

It was intriguing to discover that Jesus' words here in Matthew 5 are the exact same Greek words found in the Septuagint (the Greek rendering of the Old Testament) version of the 10th commandment: "You shall not covet."

Jesus is combining lusting after another person with coveting, implying that the combination of the two equals "adultery in the heart." You see, to covet means more than to be envious of someone else. To covet implies intentional planning to obtain something for yourself.

An example of that can be found in Micah 2:1-2: "Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. They covet fields and SEIZE them, and houses and TAKE them."

Coveting is trying to obtain something that is not yours to take. Jesus applies that to lust in the heart, because lusting is more than admiration. Admiration recognizes what it sees - but then walks away, because it knows there are limits on what we desire.

But lust is coveting. It is being obsessed with acquiring something that is not yours to take. And when applied to sexual relationships, Jesus calls that adultery. Why? Because Jesus knows that the heart is the ultimate origin of the physical act.

My friends, a part of being human is that we are SEXUAL human beings. We are not sex pots - we are not sex addicts. But a part of our identity is a God given sexual identity and that is by design. There is an identity as a man. There is an identity as a woman. And God has created that as something good in our lives.

But because that is true, when the looking is for the purpose of desiring another in a lustful way, then that person is no longer experienced as a human being, but simply as an object of gratification. That is where lust is found and that is where temptation leads us to sin.

You see, this "lustful looking" has something to do with righteousness, and the refusal to devalue another human person - refusing to make them an object to be used for selfish, self-gratifying, self-indulging purposes. That is against the heart of righteousness, and more than that against the very heart of the Gospel.

Christians do not use people as a means to an end! As Christ followers we encounter them as fellow human beings, created by God to be valued, and esteemed, and deemed precious. No one, including a spouse, is to be dehumanized or devalued. People are sacred because they have been created for a holy purpose by a holy God.

Having clarified what it means to look at another person for the purpose of lusting after them, Jesus then goes on to say what disciples are to do when we find ourselves moving from temptation into sin. He said: "If your right eye bothers you, tear it out. If your right hand bothers you, cut it off."

Jesus is using what we call hyperbole - exaggerating the facts to make a point (preachers do it all the time). Jesus did something similar when he said: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Was Jesus saying that you cannot be a Christian and have great wealth? No. He's speaking in a metaphorical way to make a point about the kingdom of God. The same is true in the Sermon on the Mount.

Some of your Bibles may say: "If your right eye offends you." That's not a strong enough translation. The phrase is: "If your right eye causes you to stumble tear it out and throw it away from you."

What Jesus is driving at here is pretty simple. If the patterns of my life create within me a horizon that views others are to be used for my own gratification then as a disciple I've got to do something about it.

If the kind of literature we look at - if the kind of media we allow ourselves to be exposed to - if the kind of conversation we get caught up in causes us to look toward another person for "the purpose of" desiring them as an object to be used then we are called to respond in radical ways. Jesus' call to follow him is a call for the radical reorientation of our lives. And "gouging out" and "cutting off" are calls to a radical obedience and alteration of lifestyle if necessary.

I really believe that Jesus might call us to something a little stronger than stop watching junk and taking junk in, and stop putting yourself into the context of where you can be drawn into desiring another human being as an object. I believe Jesus is saying here that you can't play with fire. If you do you get burned. And better to take drastic measures to remove ourselves from a person, place, or thing than to experience total destruction!

Jesus is trying to tell us that we have to take decisive, drastic action against that habit, thing, or person that, though pleasurable and even gratifying, is in fact ruining your life and the lives of those you love.

Did you notice Jesus said "right eye" and "right hand"? Right is symbolic for "precious," or "important." In fact, Jesus mentions being seated at the right hand of the Father as being a place of honor. And so what I hear Jesus saying here is: "I know that other person may be precious to you, they may be important to you, but that relationship will ruin your life, and sometimes you've got to give up even what you deem important and necessary to save your life and to follow me." That's radical obedience! But it is a call to sexual purity and it's a call given to us by Jesus himself.

Human sexuality has a kind of divine sacredness to it, because the union between husband and wife is so closely related to the transcendent union God desires to have with us. Our sexuality is sacred! Therefore, it is to be intruded upon by no ONE and no THING!

When a person commits adultery they sin against God, against their own bodies, against the one with whom they've had the affair, and their spouse if they're married, against their own spouse, not to mention their children. It is always a systemic sin! It cuts across the sacredness of family life as God has given it to us.

If you are involved in a relationship that is inappropriate or an activity that is moving in a direction it should not be moving - do not walk away . . . RUN!

Jesus couldn't be more clear. He doesn't advise band-aids or gradual break-offs. The relationship or activity may have begun completely innocently, and may have become meaningful to you, but if it is moving into the danger zone, I don't care how much it hurts, CUT IT OFF! In the realm of sexual purity, a lack of immediate action can be fatal, and Jesus knows it.

A call to sexual purity is a tough call. But it is a word from Jesus, which means it is a divine Word holding within it the grace to give you the power to obey it.