Table of contents for Ye Have Heard It Was Said...

1. Ye Have Heard it Was Said…
2. Thou Shalt Not Kill
3. Reconciliation is More Important than Worship
4. Make Good As Soon as Possible
5. Thinking About Sex is the Same As Doing It
6. Better to Look Like a Mutant?

The Pharisees believed that they had kept every letter of the law—and prided themselves on what was on the outside.  As Christ continues to underscore how important the heart is, He takes aim at sexual sin—and says that it isn’t enough to simply abstain from committing adultery, but that you have to keep it out of your mind as well.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. – Matthew 5:27-28

This would definitely been a shock to those hearing it, for it was one thing for a person to speak about something done in the open, but a whole other thing to talk about what a person thinks about!

As men, part of our wiring (especially before we are married, but even after) is to desire the companionship and physical intimacy of a woman.  Their form is attractive.  Their proximity is intoxicating.  We desire them like nothing else—as has been proved time and again throughout history.

Jesus was pointing out in this comment that though many have not gone through with adultery—or fornication for that matter—many have thought about it.  They have undressed women with their eyes, performed acts on them in their minds, and desired them in their hearts.  And He says that this is equivalent to having done it—there’s no difference.

God measures man by a divine standard—He judges the heart.  It’s not enough to be good on the outside, and that was never the point.  The point was that we have to have a new heart—a heart that wants to please Him and that is clean from sin.

What’s I find interesting is how much we are influenced by what we take in.  Whether it’s the the ideas that we expose ourselves to or the images that we allow in our heads, whatever we choose to feed our brain with, whatever possibilities we consider, we find that we are less open to the opposing ideas.

Hence why the battleground for morality is fought with children, and certain people believe that teaching Christianity to children is akin to child abuse.  It’s because they realize that if a pattern is taught early to look at things from a Biblical perspective, then the proverb rings true—when he is old he will not depart from it.

It’s the power of Deuteronomy 6—bringing up a child to think God’s thoughts—that seems to revolutionary, and so powerful, even for adults.  If we but practice thinking differently, if we but take steps to look away when we should, we’d find that we had power over sin through the Spirit through our desire to please Him.