Matthew 5:27-28

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

I was having a conversation with an old friend a few years back about this subject. I shared with him the essence of this verse, that if you even LOOK at a woman (or man) with lust in your heart, THAT qualifies as adultery in Jesus’ eyes. “That’s a bit rough” was my friend’s reaction. Talk about lowering the bar on what it takes to be an adulterer! Is the physical act “worse” than the mental act? Of course it is, but that’s not the point. The point is they are both condemned as sin.

Regarding today’s sex-saturated culture, Pastor John MacArthur says:

“Although sexual temptations have been strong since man’s fall, our day of permissiveness and perversion has brought an increase in those destructive influences that no society in history has had before. Ours is a day of unbridled indulgence in sexual passion. It seems to be the almost uninterrupted theme of our society’s entertainment. Even in academic and religious circles we see seminars, books, tapes, and programs of all sorts that promise to improve sexual knowledge, experience, freedom, and enjoyment. Marriage, sexual fidelity, and moral purity are scorned, ridiculed, and laughed at. We are preoccupied with sex to a degree perhaps never before seen in a civilized culture.”

So where do you draw the line with this verse? Most of us have heard the saying, “It’s ok to look at the menu” or perhaps “It’s ok to window shop.” Really? That sounds more like a justification than a statement of fact. Remember – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: Who can know it? (Jer. 17:9)

Once you accept the reality that the bar on this sin is rather low, what do you do about it? The answer, as always, comes from God’s Word:

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. – 1 Corinthians 10:13

Don’t look back! Look away! Turn it off! Change the channel! Leave the room! Go to bed! Sin isn’t complicated, folks – it’s just a choice.